I was trying to remember what S did between jr and sr year…I think he had aged out of CTY, so he did a 2 or 3 wk string quartet camp and he, I, and a friend of his went to Guatemala for 3 wks for a combination volunteer and language immersion experience. Both were significant experiences for him. (And the latter for me! 
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I think that if your kid has not experienced having a roommate in a dorm that is helpful. Work is always good, as is pursuing something of genuine interest.
Since the academic program is only 3 weeks, that does not necessarily preclude the possibility of your daughter also getting a job (for the time before and/or after the program) and/or pursuing a volunteer opportunity. So maybe the best of both worlds!
The thing about the summer program – don’t think of it in terms of any potential value in college admissions, at least in a direct sense. Rather, think of it in terms of your daughter’s personal and intellectual growth – will participation in the program help her to choose a future major, develop better study habits, improve her writing skills, or become a more independent young adult (etc…)? Any one of those (or all of them) have value in and of themselves, independent of getting in to college. It is the development in those areas that could be capitalized on to build a better case for admission to a chosen college, not the fact of having participated in the program.
I never understand kids doing academics in the summer
I think these programs can be helpful in helping your kids figure out what they want in a college, as well as teaching them some independence, especially if they haven’t spent a lot of time away from home. My daughter has gone to the same tiny school since kindergarten, has never gone to sleep away camp, and doesn’t have any friends that don’t go to her school. I was really worried that college would be a total shock to her, so I encouraged her to do some programs away from home. After 10th grade she did a 2 week program at a college 3 hours away, and she was very teary eyed when we dropped her off. When I came to pick her up 2 weeks later, she said, “back so soon? I was just getting used to this place!”. The next year she did a 6 week program at another college (also at my urging), and she really got used to living on her own, dealing with a roommate, meal plans, bus schedules, laundry, etc. It also forced her to make new friends. She was so much more independent when she came back. Now I’m not worried about her at all. I feel like doing college level work also made her more serious about her high school classes. Her grades this year are the best of all four years. However, as suburb mom noted, there’s a lot of value in low level jobs for teenagers - I worked in retail during my senior year of high school and it definitely was a wake-up call.
Thanks again for all of the advice everyone. D told me this morning that she has decided against the summer program. I think it would have been great for her for a lot of the reasons you mentioned, @patatty, but the application required 3 essays and 2 letters of recommendation that would have had to be completed by next week - and she has 2 AP exams next week.
So, I’m repeating the mantra - “It’s her life, it’s her life” - and she’s filling out applications to serve ice cream or burgers. That will have value too, I know, as several of you have pointed out. As an adult, I thought 3 weeks studying interesting subjects in a gorgeous location sounded great, but she might very well need the break from academics. It’s still hard to see her making choices different from what I think would be best, but I think I’m going to have to get used to that!
@Emmycat When you originally said it was a noncompetitive program I thought you meant that all you had to do was to enroll and pay. I fully understand your daughter’s decision because since we were just looking for a program offering a college experience, we also did not want to go through a rigorous application process while they were preparing for their SATs and ACTs and finals. The program my kids went to is offered at several locations throughout the East and South. If you are interested please PM me.
@newjerseydad888 - Yeah, I didn’t realize when I initially posted that it required that much effort either. I still don’t think it is very competitive since they were emailing D to apply just a couple of weeks before the deadline, but I might have been wrong about that. All the more reason that it might be good she didn’t apply after all - another rejection after the competitive program rejection might have sapped all confidence!
I had one kid who was happy to do academics in the summer (and first summer was 3 weeks, the second was 4) so he had plenty of down time. One was a CTY program he took to get more flexibility in his high school schedule, the second was a computer graphics program that was fun for him, but also let him know that wasn’t what he wanted to do in CS. The second program got him used to going into NYC, taking public transportation on his own and some other intangibles. After the program was over he went up and did some job shadowing at my brother’s firm. They were so impressed with him they ended up hiring him for freelance work.
Younger son wouldn’t do 10 minutes of academic work in the summer. The first summer he went to music camp. The other summers he volunteered or had paid work or worked on his origami earring production.
I think it’s important to do something productive - which can include working at the local ice cream shop or life guarding. Most academic programs allow plenty of time for vacation as well.
My S was at loose ends as well, so I had him volunteer to be an aide at a summer science & robotics program that hired him as a staff member for the following two years. It was a great experience for him and he loved the kids and coworkers. I did ask the kids if they wanted to take any college summer programs but our kids said it was too expensive and declined.