@Sue22, meant to be a Reductio ad absurdum. 
If you are looking for a list of well known and mostly competitive (but not all are) Summer programs conveniently (but incompletely) marked with minimum age and/or grade requirement, I have this for you; I can’t figure out how to export bookmark with links. But you can easily find the address with google.
You can also look into CC’s Summer programs forum.
Davidson THINK 13yo, 1130 SAT
Williams College Math Camp – 10 days algebra II
COSMOS 8th, Jan 20, 2016
LEAD Program from 8th, October 25, 2015, Python
Stanford Earth Internship 9th SFBay HS Only
JCamp 9th
Texas Math Program: 9th but exception
Mathcamp: age13
Stanford SUMaC 10th
UCD Young Scholars Research 10th
Caltech Young Engineering and Science Scholars 10th
Ross Mathematics Program age 15 but exception
Girls Who Code
Stanford Cardiothoracic Surgical 16yo
Stanford SIMR Medicine Research 11th 16yo
Program for Students | PROMYS: Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists
Research Science Institute | Center for Excellence in Education
Telluride Association: Our Programs: For High School Students: Summer Program for Juniors (TASP): TASP Timeline
MOSP | Mathematical Association of America
SSP - Summer Science Program
National Institute of Health - age 16
MIT Women’s Technology Program 11th
MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs 11th
NASA - NASA Summer High School - Discontinued
Michigan HS Honors Science HSHSP 11th
HCSSiM College Level Math
Garcia SUNY Stony Brook 16yo
Thomas Aquinas Great Books 11th
The University of Mississippi 10th
Harvard SSP 10th
MathPath: summer math camp for highly gifted middle school students
NSLI for Youth | Scholarship to Study Language Abroad
SAILORS - Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory’s Outreach Summer
MIT Women’s Technology Program
Pratt Institute | School of Continuing and Professional Studies | PreCollege | Summer Program
High School Program (Ages 14-17) | Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes
Focus | EXPLO
How to Apply - USSYP
Google for Education:
CSSSA
Summer Language Programs | Middlebury | Middlebury
Thank you SculptorDad, that’s an awesome list. You must have spent some time compiling it.
Good memories for me… The last entry is the Summer Language Programs at Middlebury, Vermont. My father used to teach there every summer and he would take me there. That was my summer camp at that time. We would go to the farms to pick corn, to a lake fishing and there’s where I learn to swim when I was 4.
Beautiful Vermont!
… I’ll save the list for reference. thx.
Here’s a link to the Summer Program section on this website if you haven’t spent time reading through it:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/
Another program he might enjoy, although it’s non-competitive and not meant as a resume builder:
http://www.explo.org/360/wellesley
This link is just for the Wellesley 8-9 program but there are Explo programs held at Wheaton and Yale for the younger and older kids.
Course Samples for the 8-9 program:
Molecular Gastronomy
Fashion Design
Aeronautical Engineering
Hip-Hop Dance
The Business of Sports
Neuropsychology
Commercial Architecture
Off Road Vehicle Design
Marketing + Advertising
Abstract Painting Studio
Criminal Investigations
Conceptual Video Game Design
Explo has been around for 40 years, since before fun summer enrichment programs for kids became common. I know because I was a participant in its initial summer at Brandeis! The Boston Globe did a story calling it “summer camp for eggheads.” This was back when “egghead” and “nerd” were considered pejorative but we wore the name as a badge of pride.
He might also enjoy NuVu studios depending on the projected 2017 programs. It’s a program held near MIT and is run on a studio design; a dozen or so students are matched with 2 coaches (usually post-docs or professionals with doctorates) and often a number of visiting experts to work together on innovation projects revolving around a theme. The trimester my son spent at NuVu in HS the theme was flight, and some of the things the kids produced were amazing.
Not everyone has the money to spend on expensive summer programs. That actually was our limitation.
For this reason we both had to be creative in figuring out how to get exposure to different opportunities without having to spend a lot of money.
I am sure some of these summer programs are very good but were not feasible for us.
Daughter had a blackbelt so she helped the master in teaching younger students. She couldn’t go to expensive camps so she became a camp leader. Whenever there was free time, Sundays were spent taking a picnic on a train downtown to see museums. There seems to be a lot of coursework available for free online these days that were not available when my child was a young teenager. A lot of these classes online are offered by colleges for free. I am sure a community center in your area offers classes. Look at the centers that offer adult education classes. They are very low cost and have classes geared towards teenagers. There are a lot of opportunities for academic enrichment.
In high school she did volunteer at a hospital and got accepted into a college summer research program (free) She did have to provide a transcript and get teacher recommendation letters for her application.The purpose of that program was to encourage girls to pursue STEM. Her guidance counselor recommended her for a Women in Technology internship program that met over 8 weeks (one evening a week) where she got a chance to meet with leaders from tech companies that provided mentoring to high school students. She attended seminars offered by local tech and consulting companies geared towards students. From that experience she was selected for exclusive research internships (free) where she worked with college professors and the work got published in scientific journals. Her project team applied for patents. She got a chance to speak at conferences. The college was so impressed with her work over two summers they offered her full undergraduate tuition if she continued at their college as a student and continues to pursue research. She has a resume now on linked in but she has removed most of what she did in middle and high school. She is able to continue working at the hospital on weekends as a college student and because I saved on her undergraduate education I can now pay for her graduate school. No debt for undergrad. So somehow things managed to work out for her at the end. All of this was done at almost no cost for me. I never discussed healthcare careers and when she mentioned it I would actually discourage it. I still try to convince her to just pursue her engineering degree but this is what she wants for now. If she changes her mind later I am totally ok with that. She is the one who has to work hard and enjoy her work. I don’t want to hear “mom you forced me to pick up this major and I’m only doing this because of you and I hate it.”
My point being you don’t have to spend a lot of money for academic enrichment. There are lots of opportunities you can create for yourself and if you look in your community you will find something he is interested in.
The best ones (for resume building) are often free, almost free, or very well funded for need-based FA. But they are also very illusory in terms of admission chance.
When my kid was 14 they took online classes from Northwestern and EPGY which I think is now called Stanford OHS. They were advanced in math and took linear algebra and ODE from EPGY. I think they took AP Chem from Northwestern.
None of the ones dd was involved in were need-based FA. If they were we wouldn’t have qualified. In fact a lot of magnet school kids were in those programs. For example our state had the governors summer program. I will say though these college research programs that are free are very competitive to get into. For example one of the programs had 2000 applications but only 50 slots. Most of them were based on academic transcripts and recommendation letters from teachers and counselors. That was followed up by an interview.
Stanford EPGY is now serviced by giftedandtalented.
The program was great for D (6~7 years ago) and is affordable if you choose self-study option up to 7th grade (90% discount)
Alas, from 8th grade only tutor option is available at $495 per subject per quarter.
https://giftedandtalented.com/math/math-and-english-combined
@raclut wrote:
You daughter sounds wonderful. Congratulations.
I think many adcoms love kids who make their own opportunities or find creative ways to develop within their interests. They also tend to respond positively to kids who are so passionate about something that they do it regardless of how it looks on their college application. All of these things show initiative, resourcefulness and persistence. That’s not to downplay the value of pre-existing programs, but there is often more value to going off of the beaten path.
“All of these things show initiative, resourcefulness and persistence.”
Yes, as well as the elusive authenticity and originality!
I just looked . Stanford OHS for one class is $4100. When my kid took EPGY it was about 650 per class and they gave you 6 months to finish the classes. What a difference. Northwestern is called CTD center for talent development and the classes are around 675. CTD was very good
Stanford OHS and EPGY are very different. Stanford EPGY is now $495 per class for 3 quarters with tutor support. OHS is national ranking #3 private high school.
Be careful with this:
Science fairs usually have a start date when research can begin. I remember a girl at my daughter’s high school was very sad when she learned that the plants that she had nurtured over the summer for a science fair project could not be used because the research start date was still coming up.
My interest in this topic is because I have a niece and nephew 13 going on 14 (8th grade) who are just starting to explore their interests. I am trying to help them and guide their parents so that they are not overwhelmed by the amount of opportunities available out there. One thing I will say is that the parents are involved in school meaning they volunteer to be coaches for clubs and competitions. One is in public the other in private. Both in different financial situations. Parents have careers so managing kids after school and summer activities becomes a challenge. I can foresee one family not being able to pay thousands of dollars for some of these opportunities that are available. They would rather save that money for college tuition. The academic arena keeps changing so I try to keep up with new programs and what resources are available out there. My daughter mentors middle school and high school students interested in STEM. As a hobby I have helped friends and family with their kids academics and ec’s and also helped them with the college application process.
“Northwestern is called CTD center for talent development and the classes are around 675. CTD was very good”
To clarify, I believe you are referring to the online program. CTD is primarily a residential program and the cost is in the $4k-$5k range depending on the age group. It appears to be very similar to the CTY program that’s often talked about on CC - just the Midwestern version.
What would you suggest to someone who has already taken 3 core science classes, and an advanced one (maybe more), and wants to do more science?
Granted, my experience was now nearly ~10 years ago but I loved my time at CTD. I went thanks to financial aid and am still in contact with friends that I made while there.