<p>Hey, I'm a junior who's going to be applying to tippy-top colleges next year, and I'm wondering how important summer programs at prestigious colleges are. I've heard that if you make connections there, it can be VERY helpful for if you're applying to that school-- but these programs can cost up to $10,000, all fees included, which is far more than I can afford, and scholarships only cover a few thousand at most. Is it worth it? If I connect with professors there, can it really help my application a lot? I don't know if I could do it even if it were, but if it were I'd feel obligated to try and figure out a way. And if not, what are other options I can pursue.</p>
<p>If you have the extra money sitting around, it may be worth it for the experience, but I wouldn’t expect it to help you one bit in admissions. In the first place, many of the courses in these summer programs are taught by grad students or part-time instructors, not the full-time faculty. And even if you take one or more courses from tenured full-time faculty, they’re not the ones making the admissions decisions; the colleges have professional admissions staff for that. Colleges run these programs for several reasons. First, it gives their grad students some teaching experience, which they’ll need to be competitive in the entry-level academic job market. Second, it’s a money-maker for the school and for the instructors; a few full-time faculty may find the supplemental pay attractive but most use their summers for their own research, and the money is much more attractive to grad students and part-time adjuncts. And third, it’s a nice way to introduce a group of HS students to the school, the campus, and the community, so to that limited extent it’s part of the school’s recruitment effort, designed to boost the number of applicants. But they don’t use these programs to identify particularly promising students or to separate people out based on academic performance or level of interest in the school. Basically if you pay for one of these programs it signals to the school that you’ve got a lot of discretionary money to spend; that’s about all. That said, some of the courses are really good and substantive, and you could learn a lot if you choose your spots carefully and make good use of your time while you’re there. If money’s an issue, I’d say don’t bother; it won’t hurt you in the least.</p>
<p>What is important is that you find challenging experiences and that you can be articulate about. There isn’t ONE challenging experience that is the road to college admission. It is quite possible you could write a better essay about your summer working at McDonald’s than someone else might write their summer at Stanford. If you want academic challenge locally for low cost look at community college or mentor possibilities.</p>
<p>Sinflower:</p>
<p>Expensive summer programs are not necessarily a boost to college applicants; even if they are profs at the college, instructors probably have no say in the admission process. You should do what you enjoy the most and give you some experience, be it academic or not. It could be, as another poster mentioned, working at McDonald’s, painting houses (or helping build them), just as well as attending a music camp or an academic program,</p>
<p>Professors are not going to help get you into a college, even if they were professors who are tenure track faculty at the college (the summer programs vary a lot, but when I look at the faculty supposedly teaching there in the summer, the vast majority aren’t even tenure track faculty anyway). Its all a ruse: pay big bucks and some families think it will help later on. It doesn’t. </p>
<p>Spend your summer doing things that interest you, make you interesting, and grow you as a person. It need not be one thing, but maybe a bunch of things. And it need not be ‘prestigious’.</p>
<p>One thing an expensive summer program may signal is that your family can afford an expensive summer program. If the college is looking for full-pay students, this can be a good signal to send. For the very top colleges, though, the signal could have the opposite effect.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters that it is much more important to have an interesting and perhaps challenging summer experience that you can talk articulately about. A summer job can provide that experience – it doesn’t have to be a summer term at Ivy league university X.</p>
<p>Even if it doesn’t help in college admissions, it can be a worthwhile experience, especially if you have had little experience living independently from your family.</p>
<p>Only do so if your parents can afford it and if you really want to do the program. The very top colleges are not impressed by expensive summer programs. This includes they’re not being impressed by students having taken expensive summer programs on top colleges’ campuses.</p>
<p>The summer programs that are impressive are the free ones like TASP that are based on things like scores, and are extremely difficult to gain entrance to.</p>
<p>Top colleges in general would be more impressed by a student who spent the summer working fulltime in fast food to help their family or to earn money for college than by students who got As in a pricey summer program paid for by well heeled parents.</p>
<p>I agree with the above. The connections you make may well help you-- the grad students in your field at the best Universities will be good contacts to have later on and will also help you see what is really essential to success in that field. But they would be very unlikely to have any effect on college admission. On the other hand, if there’s a certain training you’ll get from the program (Tanglewood, for music, etc.), then the program might well be worth the money-- it will immerse you in that world, help you prepare for college auditions, even help you decide if that’s the route you want to commit to. You can get lots of great things from these programs-- but nothing that’s essential to your college applications.</p>
<p>My son took a course at Columbia one summer (after sophomore year) because it was something he wanted to study and that he’d been unable to find anything similar during the school year. He worked the second half of the summer and the following summer which I believe was far more valuable.</p>
<p>Not at all.</p>
<p>If you can afford one of these programs and want to do it, fine. If you need or want to spend your summer in some other way, also fine. Just be sure to do something constructive during your high school summers; it doesn’t matter much what it is. If nothing better comes up, do your driver ed and get your wisdom teeth pulled; it’s inconvenient to do those things during the school year.</p>
<p>A high school associate (not classmate) of my son thought she was a shoo-in at Stanford because she had a relative who’d gone there, had an 80 on one section of her PSAT, and (most importantly, in her eyes) had spent several summers at Stanford programs. Applied ED. Rejected outright. If you’re not qualified, it’s not going to help. If you’re qualified, other things will help more.</p>
<p>geek_son attended a summer course for a couple of weeks because it was a chance-of-a-lifetime kind of thing studying a specific topic of great interest to him. Had to apply for admission (essay, test scores, transcript, recs), had to do homework (including writing a paper before the course began), and received a grade and credit.</p>
<p>Those two weeks changed him, really, and were worth every penny from a personal perspective. But the camp counselor job he worked in over that summer and the summer before was probably a bigger EC factor in his ED admission to the college he chose (T1, not Ivy) – and contributed just as much, if not more, to the aspects of his character that made him an attractive candidate.</p>
<p>
Actually, I think much of the respect for TASP stems from its deemphasis of scores and according emphasis on intellectual thought. This year Telluride is not even requesting academic transcripts except for the 100-some finalists they choose to interview.</p>
<p>OP: If you can’t afford expensive summer programs, don’t go to them. Do find something else productive to do with your summer; a steady full-time summer job shows great maturity and will be financially beneficial rather than ruinous.</p>
<p>What my daughter did over the summers that may have helped her application were a few activities related to her school ECs that she enjoyed: a couple of journalism camps at a university where she had a chance to enter writing competitions,(she was on the newspaper) a week each summer at a running camp (she was a HS runner,) and a week at the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. All together for the three summers, they probably cost around $2,500 including transportation. She also continued with her volunteer work when she was at home, went on vacations with the family and also had time to hang out with her friends.</p>
<p>I think what was helpful about her summer choices is that she was able to demonstrate a continuing long term interest in the activities she pursued. This wasn’t because she wanted to look good for colleges, but because she truly wanted to do these things, which was obvious by the tie in to her normal school activities.</p>
<pre><code>That’s just one way to go about it. My son, on the other hand, worked full-time each summer throughout high school. He did take a week or so off each summer to participate at Scout camp where he was a key leader. He’s an avid outdoors person, so most of his free time was spent hiking, rock-climbing, camping, etc. with his friends, and his dad, who shares his interests.
</code></pre>
<p>There are so many ways to use your summers to further your interests while taking a break from the usual school routine. I don’t think colleges really care what you do as long as you are engaged in an experience that provides a chance to grow and challenge yourself. But it doesn’t have to be an academic challenge to be worthwhile.
I agree with the others that the expensive college academic programs are really not worth the cost- especially if you’re hoping it will help with admissions.</p>
<p>My D got into some top schools with no summer programs.</p>
<p>Not important beyond whatever intrinsic value the program may have for the growth of the individual.</p>
<p>I think summer programs can be a big money saver if they help your child find an academic interest that they want to pursue in college. An aimless college student is an expensive prospect with the meter running at $50K/yr. On the other hand, if a child already has well developed interests and has less expensive ways to pursue them summers can be spent following those leads.</p>
<p>^ Absolutely agreed! But the opposite can be true as well. A badly run, poorly taught program/course/module can turn off an otherwise excited student who would otherwise LOVE to major in the topic in question and excel at it. I’ve seen wayyyy too many very badly run expensive summer programs. I’m actually more worried about it having a bad effect than a good one.</p>
<p>I did a program at an ivy league the summer before senior year, and it was very helpful in an odd way. I enrolled first and foremost because I wanted to study the subject, something I couldnt do back at home - I don’t expect the program to wow anybody. </p>
<p>While I loved the class itself and got a ton out of it (though it was easier than my normal high school classes), I didnt like the school itself at all. It was one of those things where the school sounded great for me on paper and it felt fine while on a campus tour, but I disliked the campus so much that I found the overall experience unenjoyable to the extent that I wouldn’t want to live there for four years :(</p>
<p>So basically, what I got out of the experience was what I did NOT want in a school…in turn, that made me realize what I did want. And its a good thing, too, because I was all set to apply ED to that school, and in the end I think that would have been a pretty huge mistake for me.</p>
<p>I suppose the other benefit I got was four weeks of independence. I’ve never been away from home for more than a few days, so I think the separation was good for me - and for my parents lol. Sort of a warmup for next year when I actually leave. I think I matured at bit while I was gone</p>
<p>I can’t say it was necessarily worth the money…if my HS had offered the class, I think it would have been much more challenging and cheaper of course, but I maybe now I’m more mentally prepared for being away from home for months at a time…it was a learning experience for a pretty sheltered girl like me.</p>
<p>It’s not important unless you want to do the program for yourself and you think it would be interesting and enriching for you. Otherwise you might just as well spend your summer working or volunteering. Colleges don’t care how much money you spend or how impressive your program is, though they do like to see kids who spend their summers productively, even if that’s just going to summer camp or mowing lawns. A student who’s willing to work or study or volunteer when they don’t have to is a student who might be more likely to do summer research or be involved in student government at their college, or go after internship opportunities that help the college build connections to businesses and organizations, basically people who contribute and enrich the college environment. You don’t need an expensive or academic program to learn something and apply yourself and show you are interested in both.</p>
<p>I think that it will expand your horizon but not help with college admission.
From what I have read ;)</p>