@Agentninetynine The summer programs are educational and fun, but don’t specifically help with admission to whatever colleges hosts them. they are money-makers for the colleges. For example, the Explo summer programs, some hosted at Yale, but not run by Yale.
Welcome to @vandyeyes. I also recall your icon from 2014. My sophomore has class through Wed, then reading period, and then exams begin the next week. I will be picking him up on the 25th, I think. Profs were still assigning prelims and final projects this past week. I feel for him. He will be home for two or three days before he starts working in NYC.
@MotherOfDragons – I am sitting here with my CC out to sign son up for June subject test. I had held off until now, thinking he would not go to this morning’s test and then transfer the credit balance to June, but he went, so now time to register. He is text chatting with a friend to attempt to guess if he should cancel the score before Wed night’s cutoff. I assume you know that you can just register her for one test and then she can decide to add one day of if she wishes. You can just sign up for Math now and she can even decide to take a completely different test when she arrives at the testing center, as long as the test is offered that date.
Where are you that it is nice out? I think we are on day seven or eight of rain and have not seen the sun in more than a week. Very dreary here in the Northeast.
@Agentninetynine – Re: summer programs. My older son just worked and my younger one conducts research with college profs in CS. I am gently encouraging him to find some sort of very part time employment this summer so that he could convert it to more full-time employment next summer, as he will need to earn his college spending money.
The college summer programs where one pays $6000 to attend classes on an Ivy campus have been around since my day, but I don’t know how much value those hold. I do not hear of local students attending these highly selective application programs addressed in this thread. I had never heard of the Governor’s School or any of the rest of these. I had stumbled across a couple of MIT summer ones, and known of one student per year who goes into NYC to attend that Columbia science program every Saturday, but generally only hear of CTY or expensive Ivy summer programs.
Only the most prestigious summer programs are going to help with college admission, like Telluride or RSI. And who knows if they really help with admission, because the kids who are accepted to them are already extraordinary and on track to be admitted to fantastic schools anyway.
I wanted my son to attend a summer program this year to get a feel for living on a campus and seeing what it is really like to be away from home. When he has been away for a few weeks before it has always been with a group of kids he knows like Scouts, and it isn’t the same as being on your own. Plus the one he is going to will be in a city, and he has always lived in a pretty rural area, so it hopefully will help him figure out what kind of college he wants.
But if he hadn’t gotten a scholarship he would be staying home and working, because we could not have afforded to send him!
S is at the SAT subtlest now for physics. He already took the math subject test, so the physics will be it. He probably won’t even need them for the schools he is targeting, but just in case that odd school gets thrown in, he’s set. He takes the new SAT next month. Then done. 
we all will be glad. After school ends S & H will be downing more college tours. Then (hopefully) S will have some sort of internship in CS. He is TAing a physics camp for a week, and probably playing too much on the computer. If he doesn’t get one of the internships, he is going to have to get a job!
My D has done a couple of summer programs. One in middle school (Stanford EPGY), and a CTY one 2 summers ago. This summer she is attending COSMOS, which I think is somewhat selective to get in. She applied to the WTP program at MIT, but did not get in (apparently 500+ applications for 60 spots). Getting used to rejection is not the end of the world, for sure! We don’t fool ourselves into thinking these will make a huge difference in college apps, but my D loves the programs. She makes friends from all over and really enjoys learning new topics alongside other intellectual kids. It will make for a tight summer. The program is 4 weeks and our break is shorter than normal because they are moving the school year up a bit. She will have summer homework and need to get a start on her essays. We discussed doing COSMOS vs having a more relaxed summer and she opted for the program. As an extra point, my D has mentioned that for EPGY she was a bit homesick but for CTY, didn’t miss us at all! I only required a thumbs up emoji or some other sign of life each evening, but she appreciated that I didn’t need to talk to her a lot. The schedules are very full for these programs. I think going off to college will be that much easier for her (and me hopefully).
My daughter applied for a few very competitive Math summer programs last year, and was not accepted. This year she applied to a very competitive astronomy/physics program and was not accepted. She’s handled it very well; she tells me that “rejection is not fatal”, but I’m sure it still hurts. Good prep for getting those college rejection letters, though. She did get an internship this summer, and she is very happy about that. I’m happy that she’ll be making (a little) money, instead of spending (a lot) of money!
From my perspective, the main value from summer camps is what they learn. From math camps, ds was exposed to in depth conceptual math missing from most math programs. From SSP, he was basically in a CS immersion course. His programming and math skills took off. My dd has attended French camps and they helped her oral language proffiency. (We can’t afford elite colleges, so no bonus pts there. 
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@canypava , I believe you talked about this before…We are also from humble beginning and cheapskates. But will help kids with school. D did CTY in middle school. We haven’t paid anything for summer programs since then, but will pay for DS20 if he qualifies.
Out of all D summer activities, the only one we need to pay is one week of FBLA national competition, discounted after school’s contribution.
S has not done any long summer programs. He did two computer camp that was two weeks long during two separate summers. He has been an assistant at a summer math camp for lower grades. And he has done Boy Scout camps and adventures, like a 80 mile backpack trip. He is not so academic that he wants to spend all summer learning. He likes to relax… And sleep!
D17 applied to a two week summer program for this summer and is wait-listed. It is a free program for those that make it in. She has a 9am-4pm Mon-Fri summer job so that is what she will be doing instead.
D17 is also a dancer (hi, fellow dance moms!) so she will be taking some local evening dance classes over the summer. If we can find the time, we may throw in a day or two of drop-in classes in NYC.
Welcome @vandyeyes!
DS came back home from SAT Subject test and went to music lesson.
Subject test is short (when taken one or two), so he won’t be missing his Saturday lessons anymore for ACT/SAT, etc!
So after AP Lang next week, the testing hell is winding down.
One more Subject test in June, and another June ACT (I don’t know when the State ACT scores will show up, probably before June test, but I think he will take it one more time in June and call it done.)
Now, need to plan some more college visits during summer and we will do a few in Fall as our school has sooooo many, plenty of in-service/no-school days which we can use for travel without missing classes.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Precisely this. In fact, if our daughter hadn’t attended a campus summer camp last year, she probably never would have known that even though they’re the things that colleges love to show off that they have, she loathes—absolutely loathes—suite-style dorms, and much prefers the traditional rooms-off-a-hallway style.
It’s the little things, sometimes, that are the real payoff.
Well, since you asked. D17 has a hodge-podge of a summer. Out on June 4, and starts an unpaid Summer-long ‘internship’ 2 days a week in the genetics dept of large children’s hospital. Not research, more menial stuff, plus staff meetings and grand rounds. She did this last year as well.
She and I head to SE Kentucky/Appalachia for a week at end of June to help fix homes (ASP, some of you are probably familiar). Later in she will spend a full week working at child abuse center and staying at grandmas in MI. We have a couple college programs/visits/open houses in July as well. Otherwise it will be working on essays.
We are considering one program this summer for S17 for the following reasons:
It’s in the area of interest (or one of them)
It is at a school he is interested in.
We think that such a session could help him understand his potential interest area more and flesh out if it really is something he is interested in. It would also let him see what living on that particular campus would be like. It is one week and paid but is fairly reasonable for what it is unlike many I’ve seen.
We have a tour there next Saturday and will decide after that.
Other than that it’s one week of church camp, possibly one week of jazz camp on a scholarship, essays and getting his license and a job! Likely several college tours, will try to add some vacation aspects into them. Have not mapped much out yet beyond checking the academic calendars of all on his list.
I agree 100% in the value of summer programs for allowing students to experience campus living AND also for the exposure to an academic subject. One friend’s son attended an Engineering program at one of the Ivies and that was very informative as Engineering really isn’t taught in HS. Such a wonderful opportunity to experience engineering before committing to college.
D will get plenty of exposure to an academic subject of interest without attending a summer program. I got her Neuroscience For Dummies. 
http://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-Dummies-Frank-Amthor/dp/1118086864
Wow. Your kids are all so academic!!! My D’s summer will be (sleep + read + hang out + work) x number of days in summer. Oh yeah, she wants to try kick boxing classes. Maybe we’ll throw in one local college tour. Definitely we’ll make her work on the common app and essays before school starts.
S15 went to CTY summer camp for three summers. He had a great time and learned a ton. My younger kiddos are too busy with sports in the summer to be away for 3 weeks.
Welcome @vandyeyes and @JenJenJenJen and anyone else!
D took the April ACT and wanted me to sign her up for the June as well. She also took the free school SAT in April and will get her score on May 18th and she wants to take it again in June even though she doesn’t know what her score is (she actually loved the test and thinks she did really well but we don’t know for sure!) and we need to register before she gets her score back. Does anyone know if she is signed up for the SAT in June but doesn’t want to take it, can she take a subject test instead?
@greeny8
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/policies-requirements/changes
Check this link. See if changing test date is free. Changing from SAT to subject test might require a fee.