HELP: Good Summer Programs for a Rising Sophmore that Look Good on College Applications?

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
1

Programs that are free, at prestigious colleges, or good programs would be best, because I’ve heard that programs that cost money usually aren’t that special to colleges?

I received a lot of letters in the mail, but the most ‘prestigious’ ones that I’ve gotten are from NSLC (National Student Leadership Conference), Envision: Intensive Law & Trial from Stanford Law School, and The Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders. They all cost money, but that’s not what I’m worried about (I’m blessed financially that my parents would be more than willing to pay for the program if it helped on College Apps). I’m wondering if they actually are as good of a program as they say they are and if colleges like those programs!!

I’ve been told that I should go to Free Programs because colleges like to see those kinds of programs. Is that true?

PLEASE RECOMMEND GOOD SUMMER PROGRAMS THAT LOOK GOOD ON COLLEGE APPS:
-unless it’s a good program that isn’t at a college, the college that’s hosting it should be ranked at least top 20 or 25 (as requested by my father ;))
-any area/subject would be fine; I’m open to trying different areas
-Please help ASAP as Deadlines are approaching real soon!! :open_mouth:
In case you’re wondering, as a Freshman, I’m currently taking Honors Algebra II (for any math programs)
Weighted GPA is around 4.08 I would say

And do any of these summer programs give me high school credit or grades?

2

Hey sweetmint

It’s great that you want to do something meaningful this summer! But remember that it needs to be meaningful TO YOU. Here are my suggestions:

  1. Don’t think about colleges at this point. They don’t care about freshman summer (unless it significantly changed you, e.g. award-winning scientific research, big charity project).
  2. You don’t need to actually go anywhere to do something meaningful. Sometimes it helps to put your mind in a certain attitude (like a writing camp will make you write 10 hours a day), but oftentimes there are just as good options to explore at home.
  3. Explore what is interesting to you. “Programs that are free, at prestigious colleges, or good programs”-- I find this a little worrying; you need to have better criteria for the program than just “good” or “prestigious”! Maybe you’re interested in archaeology-- look for an archaeological dig. Maybe you love languages-- perhaps check out Middlebury. Maybe you just want to explore something new-- and that’s totally cool–but don’t assume that a “prestigious college” will have a good program. Look into the curricula of any courses, talk to previous students, see whether they have selective admissions, do a little digging-- make sure that the program has courses which interest you and is dedicated to teaching students (many of the Ivy league summer schools are not).
  4. Use this summer as a stepping stone (i.e. to lead to new opportunities (which will impress colleges) rather than to impress colleges in and of itself). For example: you really like biology, and do some research at the local community college for 4-5 weeks this summer-- which leads to some local/regional awards. You also take the CTY Online AP Biology course that way you can enroll in a college bio course during sophomore year. These experiences then lead to you attending Iowa SSTP next summer. And THEN, perhaps you go somewhere like U Mich HSHSP as a rising senior, which will REALLY impress colleges. Perhaps you could have gotten in to HSHSP without all of that, but you will certainly have a more compelling story to tell.
  5. Make it real. Just going somewhere does not mean it was worthwhile. Make sure that what you are doing will have a real impact on you and/or your community (which is a GREAT thing to do!). In the vast majority of cases, this means that that activity lasts for 2 weeks at the very least.

So, I hope that that is helpful. In response to your question about specific programs, I must say that most “prestigious” programs are for kids older than you-- probably because of some of the reasons above.
Here are some that might interest you, though:

Math: Mathcamp, Promys, Awesomemath and HCSSiM all accept kids aged 15 and older (but you’ve gotta be good at math!)
Writing: Iowa Young Writers’ Studio accepts very talented 9th graders
Languages: Concordia, Middlebury, NSLIY
Other: CTY, Duke TIP, Northwestern CTD

Have a fun summer :smile: