Anyone have any experience with your high school student attending a pre college summer program for college credit? My son is a junior and looking at Stanford, Emory pre college summer programs? Anyone with experience -good or bad? Is this just a way for colleges to make more money?
Thx!
This is mostly a way for the colleges to make money. And maybe to get a few more applications from students who think that attending a summer program there will make a difference when they apply to that place. Attending this kind of program does not mean that your kid will improve their admission chances at that institution. However, if the kid does earn college credits through that program it means your kid will have to order up official copies of that transcript every single time they apply to a degree program (or for a job that requires all of their college transcripts) for the rest of their life. Yup, you read that correctly. Forever.
If there is something particularly interesting to your kid, that you can readily afford, and that your kid would like to do no matter where they might eventually end up studying, and your kid is likely to pull at least a solid C+, then fine. Otherwise, look around for something interesting that isn’t credit-bearing.
I’m also interested in hearing about this. My son is applying to UC programs for this summer. For our local UC, the program is selective and the high school counselor predicts that it actually would help at least at that particular UC with admissions. Also, we are testing son’s interest in computer science since that is impacted everywhere he will apply. Finally, we hope to get a letter of recommendation and possibly major related essay fodder out of it. All that being said, it is a great moneymaker for the schools.
I attended the Engineering Innovation program at Johns Hopkins and it was really fun! It was around $7500 for 4 weeks, and they offer 3 JHU credits if you get an A or B (which I got). The application compared to other summer programs I applied to is much easier as there’s only one 250 word essay and a teacher rec (and transcripts and the usual), whereas for Stanford there are like 5+ mini essays?
But it was definitely worth it. It’s like a typical college course and you get to experience college life, with various activities planned by the Residential Counsellors (RCs). I occasionally had to stay up late with my friends to work on assignments and projects but it was honestly such a cool experience, and made me realise I’m interested in pursuing engineering in college. So I 100% recommend this summer program!
However, take note that expensive programs like these typically aren’t very selective (the EI program requires students to have A and B grades in maths and science classes) so they won’t directly increase your chances of admission at top universities. You can of course have your son apply to really selective summer programs like RSI, MITES, TASP, SHI, PROMYS, etc. which tend to be cheap or even free, and alumni tend to be accepted to Ivies and the such. I’m going to be attending YYGS this summer, which has around a 20% acceptance rate, and while it costs $6300 for 2 weeks it’s quite prestigious and well-known, so I’m really looking forward to it!
Feel free to ask me any more questions! I’ve done way too much research into summer programs haha 
Edit: Forgot to mention that my friend went to the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Institute (the one where you don’t get credit) for cosmology and she said that while it was interesting she regretted not taking a course that was related to her intended major (business/music).
Mine did a 7-week, 8-credit program the summer before senior year, and loved it.
- Rising seniors had no curfew or supervision beyond a weekly check-in. I joke that she spent the summer as a feral child, roaming the streets of Boston at all hours of the night, because she kind of did.
- She took two classes in subjects not commonly taught in high school. One she anticipated she'd want to continue in college, but actually taking a class convinced her otherwise. (This was good, because "not enough depth of courses in X" had been a negative when picking colleges; removing that consideration added back multiple safeties.) One she had no previous experience with, and she loved it so much she's considering a related career.
- My kid did fine in her (non-STEM) classes and didn't stress about grades. She had friends taking lab science classes who were crying over whether they'd manage to pull off a C.
- Returning to high school after a summer as a college student was a very rough transition. Everything from the dress code to attendance to daily homework to six classes a day to not living with her friends chafed.
- Neither she nor I think it made a bit of difference in terms of college applications. She submitted her transcript and it got a one-line mention as an activity, but she didn't see any reason to highlight it beyond that. There was plenty of "is good at school" in her application already. She had no interest in the host university before, and even less interest after.
Hi,
I am a sophomore in high school that is attending the John Hopkins medical intensive summer program. I was wondering if you would consider this program to be a selective program, and if you would have any advice for me going into this? Thank You
@Joeshockey I went to an engineering program at Hopkins so I knew a few people who went to a medical program, which I’m assuming is the same as yours. Summer programs rarely make known how selective they are, but I would assume it’s quite selective. I don’t know much about the academics, so here’s what I can tell you about residential life:
- Brody Learning Commons was my FAVOURITE PLACE EVER. Make sure you spend some time there as well as Eisenhower library! Especially the collaboration rooms in Brody Commons. During the weekends I would reserve rooms on the website, and sometimes I'd just take my dinner out and eat while studying in one of those rooms, they're really nice!
- The recs centre (gym) is really cool too, you should check it out! Especially since it's free—for some other summer programs you have to pay for a membership :(
- CVS is basically right around the corner, I stashed up on so much junk food there.
- Check out the JHU merch (and the books, of course) at the Barnes and Noble bookstore.
- For places to eat, Chipotle is really popular, there's also a Starbucks, but otherwise not much else. My suitemates and I secretly went out of the boundary to this bubble tea place that was in a hotel lobby, just make sure you don't get caught! While the cafeteria food was good as I got tired of eating pizza and burgers everyday (lunch is quite similar to dinner) so I'd occasionally go out to eat.
- They have this really weird rule where even people of the same gender can't go to other's rooms, and anyone caught in another person's rooms would be kicked out. A bunch of people still did this anyway and one girl got a warning when she was caught. Just keep that in mind I guess.
- Sign up for as many activities as you can! A really popular one was a shopping trip to Towson mall and there were 2 trips during the 4 weeks I was there, and a waitlist both times, so for that make sure to sign up ASAP. There are also card games and movie nights, they're really good opportunities to make new friends outside your suitemates and classmates.
That turned out much more long-winded than I thought. Have fun, hope these tips help!
Both my children attend pre summer programs at the end of junior year of high school.
One attended a business program at an IVY.
It helped her acclimate to the business environment and being away for the first time. She also learned expectations and work load of college level courses. She did not apply to the school.
My second also did 2 4 week summer programs at the state flagship and another top 20 school. This again was to preview possible college majors and different experiences. Also to score I’d being away from home is going to work the following year.
So in a nutshell they are excellent for career and major exploration , jump on college credits , adjustments to being away from home and college level work.