We visited BU and Northeastern in November. We used Uber to get to the tours in the morning and then took the T back in the afternoon. Uber seemed faster and we didn’t have to figure out exactly where we were going. Just needed the address of the info session.
@octagon My son applied to RISE too. His teachers’ recs are still pending and I am sure they will require multiple follow ups and won’t be in until the last day :(. We don’t really know much about it. Reading from the description, it looks interesting.
Yup, we used Lyft today to get to BU.
@whataboutcollege It is so hard to know whether these kinds of experiences like RISE really help with college admissions. If they don’t very much, I would rather my son just get a bit of a break after such a hectic junior year. My son says, “Don’t expect the crazy days to end anytime soon Mom - maybe in a year!”
@octagon I don’t think RISE helps with admission since it is a paid program, and a not too cheap one. Son is interested in the topics especially CS/AI. Summer is long and boring, I’d rather there is something to keep him engaged. I don’t see him motivated to start essay early. Hope your DS gets a break soon!
My understanding is that any paid summer program absolutely does not help admissions.
I disagree about all paid summer programs. I absolutely do agree that the high $$ university pre-college programs do not help. But I do think the highly competitive programs like MITES, RSI, SSP, MathCamp, etc do. My ds attended SSP, and I know where the other attendees attend UG. I know kids from MathCamp and where they attended. MIT even states, for example, that “many MIT students are among the program’s alumni” on their website about SSP. https://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/summer/
I suspect that any of the camps that they have listed on that link are beneficial in terms of “pre-screening” applicants since the camps themselves pre-screen.
Agree that highly competitive summer programs (whether they are free or high $$) do help in admissions - but maybe indirectly. Programs like RSI, MITES, TASP - all free- are well known and some of them have lower admit rates than highly competitive colleges - these may help directly (ie admission officers maybe impressed just by the fact that student was there and they went thru the highly competitive process etc). Some fee based programs like SSP, Mathcamp, RISE can still help students by giving some compelling material to fill their apps. The research experience that they gain has potential to impress AO’s. Especially if the student is motivated to do research in a particular area and it is inline with rest of the app.
But agree that going there to these fee based programs just to strike off an item on the desired list may not be useful. Also the ‘generic pre-college’ programs may not be useful as well.
The link from MIT that Mom2aphysicsgeek provided lists RISE as one potential summer program which is where we learned about it. RISE has a 13.5 percent admittance rate so even though paid, they got 740 applications last year. We ruled out any paid programs at IVY league campuses since most of them will accept everyone and don’t offer an opportunity to do research. Just to show how arbitrary this all this though: I paid for a one hour consultation with a college admissions counselor who had worked in Ivy League admissions and she had never heard about RSI.
Very much agree that paid pre-college programs at Ivies and other top schools don’t do anything to boost a child’s profile, and arguably don’t do much besides maybe giving your kid a taste of dorm life, if they haven’t had that through other means.
Any other kind of more competitive program runs the range of being a noteworthy accomplishment (RISE, MITES, and the others @Mom2aphysicsgeek listed), down to - much as @hs2020dad says - supporting some key element of an applicant’s story. For example, CTY and TIP and so on are a little bit competitive to get into, but not real bell-ringers, BUT if the courses are ones a student chose out of an interest that is an important thread throughout their application, then they can help.
Then again, so can a summer job that ties into an interest.
I think SSP has an admission rate of around 10%. I’m pretty sure that every student in ds’s cohort other than him went to an elite school. (One turned down Stanford for a Thiel Fellowship.)
I think a kid having a job does just about as much as any of those paid summer programs. 
My D20 applied to Governor’s School. It’s very low cost, and has competitive admit rates (30%). She’ll find out soon if she made it in.
^^heard nice things about Governors schools (from NJ and Kentucky) - nice to have affordable programs like these. Unfortunately we are in a state where there is no such program.
My D20, who has a serious interest in international relations and, especially, foreign languages, was selected to interview for the High School Diplomats program (a free, scholarship program focused on Japan) at Princeton. Fingers crossed.
ACT scores are in. S got a 33. Great score, and he’s thrilled, but he knows he needs to take it again with the schools and scholarships he’s aiming for. Gonna sign him up for June. He’s fired up. \m/
@ShrimpBurrito Congratulations to your DS! Nothing works better than a motivated kid!!!
@Dancingmom518 Best wishes to your DD! That sounds like a wonderful opportunity. My Dd has similar interests and got to travel for an international Olympiad and the experience will definitely be a lifelong memory. I hope your Dd gets selected for the program.
Hooray, @Dancingmom518 and @ShrimpBurrito! Wonderful to see good news rolling in.
Hello everyone! I’m lurking a lot…been busy with S19 but gearing up for D20.
Wondered if anyone has had any experience with Lehigh University? Good? I read it is dominated by greek culture which would not fit for social anxiety D20. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!