I’m currently a junior and looking around for potential internships or programs to do this summer. My main goal is to get an internship, but I figured if I can’t find one I might as well do a summer program. There’s a lot of colleges and universities with summer programs that focus on fields I’m interested in (like political science and law), but the major deterrent is the cost. I don’t want my parents to spend $3000+ the year before they have to pay for my college tuition. And to be honest, though I’m definitely attracted to these programs because of the topics they cover, I’m also interested on how they will look on my college applications- is it worth spending all that money if it means I’ll get an advantage (if any) during the application process?
For example, Georgetown has its own summer institutes and JSA (a summer program) also hosts classes there. I guess probably every student who enrolls in these has the same goal/intention in mind but still, I’d like to know if Georgetown gives any special attention/advantage to them when they eventually apply.
It honestly depends on the school. Some summer programs are more selective than others, some are viewed as academic recruiting for the college, some are just moneymakers. I’ve seen schools expressly state that summer program attendance won’t do much for admission, but I’m sure the opposite exists too. My advice is: if you can’t afford to drop 3k (I know the struggle), then don’t do it. Look for free programs or smaller, more local ones. If you want to know about specific schools, I’d say to just go on the program website and look for the info. If you can’t find it, contact them.