Has anyone here participated, heard of, or had a child participate in the LEAD CSI computer science summer program? (It is being held at Stanford this year, but has also been at CalTech in the past.) If so, how was the experience? If not, have you ever heard about if from others? The app is kind of lengthy and makes it appear as if it is selective, but I’ve not heard much about it. The cost is relatively cheap (which in my mind typically indicates more selective), but I’m just not sure… Help! (TIA)
http://www.leadprogram.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=218899&type=d
I’ve heard of this program before, but do not know how selective it is. The standardized test requirements are pretty low, like 500 for each section so I don’t think it is very selective.
The program is very selective. The reason for the low test requirements is because the purpose of the program is to encourage students in CS and some students may have great grades but not do as well on standardized tests.
My D did the Caltech program a few years ago and it was life changing for her. The course offered is basically the first semester of computer programming at CalTech. If you do feel like working hard then do not apply to the program. Her year they were taught in Python. Students toured the local Google office, took field trips and had some industry visits. They took classes in the morning and afternoon with time carved out for working in the lab and doing projects. Students have to create a group project. At the end of the semester the faculty gives out awards such as top student and top projects. There was also time for fun activities and time in the gym.
The person who is the executive director of the program is incredible and really works hard at finding more opportunities for the students. In additional LEAD has a wonderful alumni network that leads to other opportunities.
Here are some example for my D:
D had the skills to apply to apply to a special research program her junior year at our local university. She was selected and used her skills in python to program an aurdino for the project. The post-docs she worked with liked her and wrote recommendations for her for other opportunities. Having this experience has lead to other experiences for her for the past few years.
Her Caltech professor wrote a great recommendation for her to be one of only 15 students selected in our county for a paid internship in engineering. She worked for an engineering firm and learned CAD and designed a part to be put into production (this helped build her engineering portfolio).
During that summer Google contacted LEAD and asked for nominations for a special program they were creating where students would be world-wide ambassadors and work with Google in creating outreach projects for underserved communities, attend a Google Global Summit and weekend up in Mountain View, a leadership academy etc. LEAD nominated a select group and after going through the selection process, my D was selected as well as two other students from her LEAD group. As you can imagine it was an incredible experience for her and she still works to this day to encourage Latinos to engage in STEM.
For the LEAD colleges my D applied to the executive director contacted those colleges on my D’s behalf to give them a good work about her. She was accepted to her first choice college.
She went on to win national awards. Being a LEAD alumni she gets invited to special events, and other support.
Her fellow LEAD classmates from her year are at Harvard, Princeton, Penn, Northwestern, Michigan, Virginia etc to name a few colleges. They have been named Presidential Scholars at their colleges.
LEAD is very well regarded and if you are selected to attend you have been given an incredible gift. Make the most of it. Good luck in applying. Take the application seriously and take the time to write very good essays.