Was wondering if anyone has been to Phillips Academy Summer Session in recent years; posts online are fairly old. Was it worthwhile? How rigorous was the coursework? Were the teachers of high quality? How were the extracurriculars, and the people? Was it a fun experience? Would you say it’s worth the high price tag? Thanks for any feedback you can give!
I’m interested in hearing more about this as well. Choate also has a good program.
DC attended one of these programs and liked it very much.
That said, it is generally a revenue opportunity for the school and has pretty much nothing to do with admissions AFAIK.
Pros - get a feel for campus, decent content, fun experience
Cons - very low bar for admittance, DC said a lot of kids were not their voluntarily, faculty not from Choate, admissions people sniff at it.
As always ymmv.
When my kid was in middle school, she attended a 3 week summer science program at Hotchkiss. Was a great program, she loved it, and there were kids from all over the US and around the world. She came home knowing that she wanted to attend boarding school. Some of the friends she made there went on to attend Hotchkiss or other prep schools; they keep in touch and sometimes cross paths at school events.
Mine attended 3 weeks summer program at Interlochen last year. Friends insisted that it’s nothing like the school’s regular high school program and daughter won’t learn much. She enjoyed it very much, and fully decided that she wants boarding school for this year. The art instruction was not very high level, but it introduced various techniques and medium, and was ok.
Also it showed what it is like to be in a art school, and had her to decide for regular boarding schools instead. She didn’t focus too much on art.
Also we could use that experience to demonstrate that daughter is ready for boarding school life.
SculptorDad - my son attend two summers at Interlochen. He was 8 years old the first summer and attended the following summer. Other parents said I was crazy to send such a young child “away” for the summer. He couldn’t travel alone so I flew him up and flew him back both summers (lot of added expense) but it was worth it. He did a 4 week program. I can’t say enough good things about that summer program - what a magical place! He made friends from all over the world - the Opening Ceremony where students from the various states and countries stand-up is amazing to see! We still continue to support Interlochen’s scholarship fund every year even though my son hasn’t been back for a few years now because we want others to experience too.
I can’t speak to that program - the price tag and time commitment are quite serious. Two shorter summer programs DD attended at different BSs during middle school were slightly useful to her and to us, but not necessarily representative of a school experience. Within her areas of interest I steered her to pick among programs run by the schools themselves with their own faculty. The first summer experience at Hotchkiss was fine, though the school did not have a handle on a bullying problem that affected DD - the program director was also part of admissions; DD did not BTW apply to Hotchkiss. There was a large group of Chinese kids which affected the social dynamic after hours. DD heard (but did not experience) that the science program was quite easy and was happy not to be in that program. On the plus side DD came away with ideas about the size of school and degree of geographic isolation with which she felt comfortable and, like @cameo43’s experience, was exposed, in her case for the first time to kids thinking about or preparing for BS or competitive local school admissions. This was very eye-opening for her and ultimately helpful since nobody she knows otherwise has applied to BS. At another school sometimes mentioned here the experience was OK, but very brief and not too telling. That school wisely used the summer program as a recruitment tool aimed at URMs though I think it was open to anyone.
@CLNMOM, good to hear that! There were many students came year after year since young age. And thank you for you donations. Now I know where my daughter’s $1,000 merit scholarship came from. 
It was still difficult to eat up the remaining cost, which took what little cash reserve we had. They don’t seem to offer FA (or we didn’t get it somehow even if they offer.) Davidson Young Scholar didn’t offer any scholarship because it wasn’t an “academic” program. I booked cheapest overnight and early morning air tickets and sent her alone without the airline’s unaccompanied child service to save cost. But I do whatever I can when I recognize an amazing learning opportunity at right time.
My son did the Duke TiP program last summer and he loved it. He made lifelong friends. It was also a way for us to give him a chance to live on campus with other high achieving kids. He was accepted this year but he will not participate. If he gets into BS, we will need that money to go towards his tuition. If he is accepted then he will spend the summer just relaxing before hopefully a rigorous BS experience in the fall.
I’m looking for a kid who frankly has very little interest in going away to boarding school, and has spent many summers away at camp. So, he’s not necessarily looking at summer programs to get the “away from home” experience ;-). He wants to shore up his writing and math skills before HS, and thought that one of these programs would have a good mix of academics and fun. I’m hoping for more of the former frankly, so the point about teaching standards is definitely relevant. We are looking at Andover, Choate, Loomis, Lawrenceville & Episcopal. I’d welcome other suggestions…
I went to Andover Summer session for one year before attending Andover for school. The Summer Session is a moderately rigorous program(you only take 2 classes), with a variety of fun extracurricular and sports options, The teachers are generally a mix of regular Andover teachers and some other teachers from all over the country. I would say the teaching is of very good quality, although not quite at the level of teaching during the academic year.
I will however add that it is a great program for anyone that is considering applying to Andover, as you can get a really in depth look at some of the things the school has to offer. Perhaps the most glaring thing you will notice about summer session is the quality of the average student. Sure, there are some very academically talented students who mirror regular Andover students, but on the whole, you wont have nearly as many academically talented people around you as you would during the school year. The summer session student body is not at all representative of the Andover student body.
In a nutshell: Definitely a worthwhile experience.
Thanks @MABlue - that’s very helpful.
We have experience with the Lawrenceville program and was very impressed with the caliber of the faculty and course offerings. DC did the writing program (3-week) in middle school and DC writing was exponentially better. The classes were small, but the workload was challenging. I have heard the same reviews from friends who kids did the high school equivalent. We are considering DC doing another class there this summer…
I wouldn’t go out of your way for the writing program at Episcopal. Wolfeboro Camp School seems to concentrate on academic skills, but I don’t know anything about it other than that. I did see a nice looking program brochure from Taft, but again, no personal knowledge. Someone I know liked the summer academics at Culver, but that program may be full.