I am currently a sophomore in high school and I am thinking about going to a precollege this summer. I was wondering if you could put down going to precollege on the college application. Also, if I wanted to go to a certain school, should I go to their pre-college program or does it not matter? Thanks!
If the pre-college program is open enrolment it is just a minor activity.
I’m thinking about one at NYU or Colombia in business. If I go to the colombia one would it look bad if I was applying to NYU?
The biggest selection criteria for the Columbia class is the ability to write an $11k check for a three week class.
Okay, thanks! Do you know anything about the NYU precollege?
I don’t know anything specifically. You just have to be realistic that most of them are summer camps and have little impact on college admissions. My DS did one at Wisconsin last summer. It gave him the ability to explore Philosophy and have some fun. It was more like 3k.
I’m thinking about doing it to gain more information about the field I am interested in! Thanks Eeyore123!
You can list the precollege on your application.
The precollege programs are, as others have said, summer camps for the college and don’t have any bearing on whether you will be accepted by the school–with rare exceptions, such as the special program at Rose Hulman. Cornell’s also seems to be more substantive. The programs often are for revenue for the schools, they are administered by different departments from Admissions for the undergraduate program and in most cases, probably, there is little to no communication between the two entities. If you list the program, though, and Admissions is interested in you, I can imagine that they may check your record at the summer program to make sure that yoou’re a basically decent citizen.
Some summer programs do come with, if not prestige, at least some notion of rigor or an implication that you’re pursuing an interest avidly. For example, there are summer programs that are research based at NIH or with NASA or with Jackson Laboratories in Maine. Those are competitive and imply some deeper interest level.
NYU and Columbia have vastly different types of admissions criteria, IMHO. Columbia’s class is smaller and apps are more competitive. They also offer excellent financial aid. NYU has a larger class, and is less competitive and offers less generous financial aid. The atmospheres of the two campuses are different. One offers a centralized campus and a more cohesive-feeling student body. The other has no central campus nor anything else that creates a cohesive feel, buildings are scattered throughout the rest of the City. The feel is urban hipster and independent. you can get an excellent education at both, but they are very different schools.
If you’re interested in attending school in NYC also consider the many other schools there.
- CUNY is outrageous value for the money. It’s a university SYSTEM with many campuses. Some are pretty like Hogwarts and some are more modern like NYU’s campus
- Wagner
- Marymount Manhattan
- Manhattanville College
- Manhattan College
- Sarah Lawrence
- Pace
- St. Johns U
- Fashion Institute of Technology – amazing value and has some coursese that are not fashion oriented, such as film.
- Fordham
etc.
Pre college is fun and might be helpful as an EC or to show depth of interest in a subject. But some NY colleges’ admin offices promote theirs by saying how much they Love reading the apps of students who went to their pre college programs. Our GC said they will only help with admissions if taught by a professor and you develop a relationship with them. Most are taught by adjuncts or summer hires.
pre college is a great experience especially if you plan on applying to that school. it works well as an EC and also is great for making connections (i went to pre college at my top choice school and my ta wrote me a recommendation, it goes a long way)