I don’t know how to put this in a proper way, but basically I am looking for a pre-college summer program where there is a mixture of hard work and, well… enjoyability. I’m from Europe where things are a bit more lenient, but I was looking for a high school program in the States in which I can also have a bit of fun in. Has anyone been to or know of some high school summer programs where parties and fun nights are more common? Of course, I care about the academics of it all, but I don’t want to spend several weeks going to sleep by nine and the wildest part of it all being staying up doing homework… you feel me? I was looking at the Columbia Summer Program and that seemed promising, does anyone have any suggestions? 
Summer pre-college programs are well supervised. Partying will be a no as will leaving the campus unsupervised. (You will be sent home.) There will be evening social activities, but American high school kids tend to be reserved and most summer programs aren’t long enough for them to make a lot of friends.
The students at the Columbia program will be students who want to be admitted at Columbia. Since it is very competitive, expect serious minded students. This will be true at the summer programs at any of the Ivies, Stanford, etc.
Check out Explo 360 at Yale. Explo is a very well-known and well-run non profit that does summer enrichment programming. (The program is run by Explo, not Yale - they just pay to use the Yale campus). My son went to 2 of their summer sessions when he was a rising 7th and 8th grader. There were lots of international kids, which he really enjoyed. They have great evening and weekend activities.
https://www.explo.org/explo-360/yale/
And do yourself and your parents a favor and don’t even begin to think about drinking or doing anything else that’s against the program rules or US law … you will be sent home immediately.
This past summer I went to a camp called LEAD Program (LEAD stands for Leadership, Education, and Development), and I had so much fun! I’d been to other camps in the past like Junior Statesman Foundation at Stanford where I took a class in speech & political science from an actual professor, and it was nice but extremely hard. We had debates, and exams, midterms, and finals, so every night I basically stayed up studying- I didn’t really get to explore the campus or make that many new (close) friends. However I went to LEAD this summer and I have never had more fun at a camp in my life.
The program is about business, but it’s okay if you aren’t interested in business because I plan on going to law school but I still loved it. Anyway, you choose one of their campuses (they have the top business schools in the country to choose from: Duke, UPenn, UMich, Northwestern, Lehigh, etc.) and you spend 3 weeks there in the dorms with about 29 other people and every weekday you have classes in the School of Business - I went to Mich so I was at Ross- and you learn about specific business fields from top companies and professors at the school, and sometimes the director of admissions. But you also have a lot of free time. It was a good mix of work and play, at least for me. Plus, you make a lot of great connections with not only the teachers but the other students as well! We spent so much time together- going to breakfast, early morning gym sessions, exploring the campus, finding cool spots to eat at, going to amusement parks, hanging out on our floor’s lounge, and especially eating dinner with each other every single night. My LEAD peers are literally my family, and I think everyone deserves an experience like that! Plus it’s a good resume builder!
The only difficult part about it however is the application process; last year they accepted about 13% of the kids who applied, so it’s very selective, but if you have good stats & extra curricular activities then you should be fine!
Sorry this what a lot of info lol but I just really loved this program and I think more people should know about it & apply!
@BelleofAmherst No offense, but I’ve never gotten the impression that there was much connection between the Columbia HS program and admissions to the college. There might be, but I always took it as sort of a money maker for the school.
Cornell’s program OTOH looks more serious.
Also maybe someone can comment on just how supervised the Columbia program is and whether they can go out in the city . . . .
OP there are many summer programs that rent space on college campuses.
Just because the program is on a campus, doesn’t mean that the campus runs the program. FYI
The students probably think there is, though.
I’ll be attending the Columbia Summer Program and it seems like the most lax of the Ivy summer programs tbh mate.
You get quite at bit of freedom, especially on weekends. Lights-out is 11pm during the week and 12am on weekends. So you have a lot of time to hit the city and turn up I guess.
These are all things that I’ve heard from people who’ve already attended.