<p>I agree with Little Mother on the value of summer programs in specialized areas, such as art and design. My daughter attended two summer precollege programs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. But I don't view this experience as valuable mainly for the commitment it might show, nor even for what admission might imply about the student's artistic ability (since admission is hardly selective). </p>
<p>Rather, in my opinion, the main value of such a program is the learning that takes place. My daughter certainly had raw talent going in but her regular school's art programs were not that good. At SAIC she learned drawing (figure drawing) and sculpture, she learned about portfolios, she learned the value of keeping a sketchbook, and she did some work that ended up in her application portfolio. </p>
<p>I think kids should go to summer programs to learn above all else. Whatever other side benefits there might be for college admissions (and they aren't all that great, in my opinion, unless you include personal growth and a sense of independence) pale in comparison to the learning that goes on.</p>
<p>I know someone who took a course in the summer just to satisfy curiosity about a field. One of the research papers for that course, by wonderful coincidence, became the subject of a lot of admissions and scholarship essays. The critical essay prompts in these admissions and scholarship applications somehow all related to the summer course. It's helpful to have varieties of summer experiences; they may help you in unexpected ways.</p>
I think kids should go to summer programs to learn above all else. Whatever other side benefits there might be for college admissions (and they aren't all that great, in my opinion, unless you include personal growth and a sense of independence) pale in comparison to the learning that goes on.
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<p>This is the best advice I've seen on CC regarding summer programs. While there may be some programs (mentioned above) that enhance the resume just by being named there, the best results from most programs will be apparent in other ways.</p>
<p>I'm not even sure that my son even mentioned one of his summer activities (character animation at DigiPen) on his application, but the short computer-animated film he did as a result of that learning was an integral part of his portfolio, and his portfolio was one of the biggest factors in his acceptance into a very competitive program</p>
<p>So think about summer programs in a different way: Imagine you will NOT list the program on the application. Now evaluate whether your kid will benefit from it by learning something that advances their passion.</p>
<p>NC Governor's School is awesome (and free). Although you do have to sacrifice 6 weeks during your summer vacation, it is a life-changing experience that I would do all over again every summer for the rest of my life. Beyond "looking good on an applicatio" it gave me infinite topics for college essays. I honestly don't know what I would've written about without Governor's School.</p>
<p>I did the NASA SHARP program last summer, not so much as to impress colleges as to get research and working experience. I had a great time, and it was a pleasant bonus that I could write two killer college essays about my SHARP experience.</p>
<p>My daughter attended Brown for two summers in the full 7 week program. She took very academic courses with regular Brown students. This year her study group was 3 Brown junior girls. Both summers. she did very well academically. Further, she learned she could compete on any level. She made fast friends that she is in almost daily contact with today. She didn't want to come home. The only negative, it made returning to high school a real let down. For one course this summer, she read 9 books in 7 weeks and wrote a 15 page paper. Somehow, doing high school busy work seems meaningless now. For her, it was a great experience and fed her desire to learn beyond what a high school class could provide. Did it help her college applications? Who knows? Who cares?</p>
<p>I agree with bandit_TX. If you're really interested in some summer program, go for it... who cares whether admissions favor it.</p>
<p>I spent the first half of my summer at Columbia Summer Program for the Narrative and Religion course. It was one of the best months in my life, and it was a total letdown going back to high school. We didn't have to write a 15 page paper (we had weekly evaluations, presentations, journals) to do, but the dialogue really motivated me. We didn't have Columbia students in our class (like at the Brown summer courses), but the teacher's assistants were from all over the world ... we had a guy from Russia as a teacher's assistant. I got to know people from France, Russia, and all over the country. I've learned the most about myself by going to the Summer Program and I waited two years to take that particular course (the first year they it was canceled b/c of legal issues). </p>
<p>Summer programs shouldn't just be for those that can pay for them though, I worked and worked to pay for my Columbia tuition (which was pretty hefty for a lower-middle class family if you ask me, but worth it in the end).</p>
<p>Do summer programs matter in the admission process? I don't know, but going to the Columbia summer program helped me to grow and mature. It all sounds so cliche, but I learned a lot about myself ... my limits, my strengths, my weaknesses ... in short, I had an awesome time ... and I think that shows in my application. And if it doesn't, all well, I still had the best summer of my life.</p>
<p>Summer is a great time to do something to dig deeper in an area of interest. If a program satisfies this then great, but it doesn't have to be a program. </p>
<p>My dd spent a month in a language immersion program in Argentina that was a ton of fun and really boosted her motivation in Spanish the next year, so went from struggling B in sophmore Spanish to A in Span III, and acceptance into AP Span. So was well worth the sacrifice scraping up the money (part scholarship too.) The cultural experience was equally valuable.</p>
<p>Another summer activity she does each year is going on a 3 week field expeditions in a science area where she has coursework and internships and research. This is a very impressive EC, I think. It's a lot of hard work, but she loves it for the comraderie. She does raise her own spending money for these. These two activities were the fodder for a great essay for college.</p>
<p>Other than this, it's downtime and relaxing and visiting relatives and reading. She wanted to go to the William & Mary science program, but it's expensive and conflicted with the 3 week trips she was deeply committed to. Those are taught by regular W&M profs and have a research component with the profs for a select group after the coursework.</p>
<p>I don't think you need CC classes to 'get in' if you carry a demanding course load during the school year. I think it does help if your school is not rigourous or you don't have access to AP classes; it can show you are capable of doing the work. And it's always worth doing if you really want to study that class.</p>
<p>This was a very big question in our house. </p>
<p>Of course, we hoped to increase our daughter's opportunity to get into the school of her choice. More importantly, there were also courses she would have liked to take in a summer program which would not have been available at her HS. Still, are feeling was that she has spent most of her young life in classrooms and would spend the next 8 years or so in classroom as well.</p>
<p>Most of our D's friends were doing summer programs at prestigeous colleges and she felt some pressure to do the same. Needless to say, summer-programs are, for the most part, obscenely expensive and this was something else we considered.</p>
<p>Our problem was solved when she decided to apply to be an intern at the Umich dept of Students with Disabilities. She applied and got in over the summers of her sophomore and junior years. She tied her experiences there in with an independent study of the ethical theories of Peter Singer and his theory of "interests" which seemed to her to demean the value of the life of those with disabilities. She wrote a paper on this and included both her personal experiences at UMich and her critique/evaluation of Singer's theories and included it in her college application (my wife and I learned a great deal from it).</p>
<p>This was, in truth, the most enlightening and challenging experience of her high school years: she grew and we felt it.</p>
<p>Her dream was to go to Dartmouth, like Burlmom's daughter, and she was accepted ed this year. The whole process was validated for her when the adcoms at Dartmouth seemed to endorse her work.</p>
<p>In sum, I'm sure atteneding a summer program has the potential of making a number of things happen, but I would not under-estimate taking a more singular approach to using those last prescious high school summers in encouraging your child to express themselves self-specifically, whether it be something akin to my daughter's approach or something else that is less scholastic, but personal.</p>
<p>Woodwork - It sounds like your daughter had a very worthwhile experience. I am curious - can you tell us exactly what the U.Mich. dept. of Students with Disabilities is, and what your D's internship involved. Thanks.</p>
<p>The Dept of Students with Disabilities (DSD) serves students with disabilities that were admitted into the school in spite of their disabilities, such as blindness, deafness etc.</p>
<p>These students will be assigned people from DSD to accompany them to class to help in note taking etc., or to special events for the same. They will help to do some of the administrative things that will need to be done. They help in array of things that bring them in very close contact with the special abilities of those they assist.</p>
<p>Most schools have such a dept and my daughter hopes to continue this work either at her own college (dartmouth) or back at Umich. I can't tell you how much it has affected her!</p>
<p>There are some fabulous summer programs out there. They can be truly life changing for kids, and much better for learning, personal growth, peer friendships, etc. than your child's school. In my family, we piled on the summer programs because they were so great. (We were fortunate that many of them were also free, based on merit or competitions.) A disproportionate amount of my son's learning has occured in summer programs. But the reason to do it is because of the quality of the program and the appropriateness to your child's interests, not because of some perceived value in college admissions. </p>
<p>Colleges who ask what you did in the summer just want to see what kinds of things you choose to do with your time when you have the freedom to make choices. Working at an unskilled job because your family needs the money, volunteer work, or doing something simple on your own (working thru a list of great literature, practicing a sport or musical instrument 6 hours a day) are all perfectly worthwhile ways to spend a summer. Sitting around watching TV or hanging out at the mall with your friends is not going to impress.</p>
<p>I am not one who is sold on academic summer programs for most students. I believe that a full time job is a valuable way to spend one's summer. I believe that most adcoms look at it the same way.</p>
<p>An exception would be a program which was competatively awarded like a Govenor's School or the Intelochen music program. Those are definitely a plus on the application.</p>
<p>CTY???? Admission is limited to students scoring in the top 3% on standardized tests and that is probably already known from the academic transcript. It certainly doesn't hurt, but I doubt it helps too much either.</p>
<p>CTY helps the students broaden their horizons by studying at a much higher level than they would in high school and by meeting other students with interests and abilities like theirs. The purpose of CTY is not to bring to the attention of the adcom that the student is in the top 3% of standardized test takers. Although the major, or even minor, purpose of CTY is not to improve chances of admission to college, an adcom might like the idea that a student was interested enough to want to spend 3 weeks studying a subject not available at his or her school at a very high level. That is a little different from a transcript which shows that a person's testing ability is in the top 3%, but who is not motivated to study beyond their school's offerings.</p>
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<p>I am not one who is sold on academic summer programs for most students. I believe that a full time job is a valuable way to spend one's summer. I believe that most adcoms look at it the same way.>></p>
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<p>My S has done and enjoyed academic summer programs, but I agree with Orinaloog that working full time is a very valuable experience in and of itself (aside from the financial angle). I have read a few CC essays by students who worked at quite humdrum jobs. The students were able to turn their experiences into great essays by their power of observation and the personal qualities they revealed. They obviously learned something, though not of an academic nature. I don't know how they fared in the admission process, but if I were an adcom, I would be quite keen on such students.</p>
<p>My son is the captain of his debating team and spent two weeks last summer at the Ivy Scholars Program @ Yale. He decided to apply Early Action to Yale after the Professor who runs the program "promised and guaranteed" a "strong letter of recommendation"on his behalf. My son would never have applied there without this letter but the Professor assured him that his chances were quite good statistically after writing this letter. Not only did my son get rejected outright, the letter never got written. The term that the Dean of Admissions used was disappointed...I am outraged over this. Think twice when someone says they are going to do something, and always check on them to make sure it's been done.</p>
<p>Ouch. That really hurts. I hope the irresponsible prof was taken to task. My S has attended some academic camps whose directors promised to write recs for participants. We have not asked any of them to do so, fearing that they might be boilerplate type of letters and not sufficiently specific about our S.</p>