Is the NYLF (National Youth Leadership Forum) a legit program?

<p>I recently got a letter from them.
Usually I consider things like this to be scams, but I think I may have heard about it before.
If it is in fact a legitimate program, can any alumni of the program tell me a little about it? Was it a worthwhile experience, are there any better similar programs, etc.</p>

<p>I got a letter for this too, but for the forum on medicine</p>

<p>i went to the NYLF on technology in San Jose with a friend 2 years ago, and it was really interesting and fun. Its pretty expensive, but it looks good on ur college app</p>

<p>i got it 3 years in a row. i don't think it is legit...practically everyone in my school got it.</p>

<p>It is a real program that is a lot of fun. However, it is not selective at all and basically anyone who can pay can go. </p>

<p>"but it looks good on ur college app"</p>

<p>-NO, it does not look good on your college app.</p>

<p>How fun is it? Fun enough to compensate for the $2000+ price tag? And I'm guessing it's like Harvard/Yale etc. SSP, its just a pay to play deal? And it has no merit at all for apps?</p>

<p>Three other threads on the same subject
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=347434&page=2%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=347434&page=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=389884%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=389884&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=389320&highlight=NYLF%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=389320&highlight=NYLF&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"How fun is it? Fun enough to compensate for the $2000+ price tag?"</p>

<p>-NO.</p>

<p>apologies, I'm new to CC and didn't know there was a search bar</p>

<p>No need to apologize. I was suggesting several people must have gotten their "nominations" recently.</p>

<p>oops its actually called</p>

<p>National Young Leaders Conference...is that different?</p>

<p>^^^^ Yeah, they're two different programs. Both seem overpriced and not worth the cash/time.</p>

<p>it's waaay to unselective to be helpful on your college app at all. I mean, it says the students need "at least a 3.7 GPA on a 4.0 scale" ... Who doesn't have a 3.7 nowadays, with the grade inflation madness and all? Practically everybody in my school got it, and the people who actually bothered attending were the people who thought that it would boost their application.... It's a for-profit thing, anyway-- on the envelope i got it says "business reply mail".......</p>

<p>What's wrong with business reply mail?</p>

<p>Since when does not being non-profit mean a program's no good?</p>

<p>(Not saying that NYLF's good, but how can looking at the type of postage tell you whether a program's good or not?)</p>

<p>haha...naaah, I'm just saying that the most competitive programs (read: the ones that will actually help your application) are usually nonprofit, like RSI, SSP... etc.....</p>

<p>It's cool. I get a tad defensive when people make fun of business-reply mail. I like business-reply!</p>

<p>Yes it's legit. I thought it was worth it. I went last summer.</p>

<p>I went to NYLC.</p>

<p>If you're considering a program like this, I would recommend LeadAmerica over NYLC any day.</p>

<p>I went to both, and I had a much better time at LeadAmerica, and I actually still talk to the people I met there (I never talk to the people I met at NYLC).</p>

<p>Just make sure if you go to either that you go because you want to, not because it'll look good on college applications.</p>

<p>Mm, a good way I think to judge whether these programs "look good" is to see how many other people in your school gets the same invitation.</p>

<p>For my school, well over 80% of students got these invitations - so... =p</p>

<p>anything you have to pay for = bad idea
colleges look for things you get selected for based on merit, not how much money you dish out.</p>

<p>plus, if one of their activities is going to the local mall, how legit can it be?</p>