Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if PAID Pre-Collegiate Programs for Business look good on the application vs. community college classes?
I would be cautious about the concept of “looking good” on applications. Pre-college programs can be a good way of exploring interests, and you might get experiences that can be referenced in essays. So in that sense they are reasonable uses of summer time. But from what I have seen AOs say about these programs, they won’t necessarily “look better” than a wide variety of other reasonable uses of summer time, including taking classes of interest at community colleges, summer jobs, non-academic camps, and so on.
Edit: Here is what the Yale Admissions Podcast said on this subject (Episode 11), which is representative of what else I have seen. Again it is not that these programs are bad, just not better than many other things:
https://admissions.yale.edu/podcast-transcripts
Hannah Alright, Myth number four. Students who can afford to do fancy summer programs at colleges have a better chance of getting accepted. Again, this is just not true.
DING
Mark Busted.
Jill Busted.
LAUGHTER
Mark Thank you, Jill.
Jill You’re welcome.
Mark Thank you, Jill. Good. Don’t leave me hanging out there.
Hannah Yeah. You know what? We want you to spend your summers doing what you care about– not building up a resume or anything like that. There is no system of bonus points for doing a particular summer program, even if it’s a really selective summer program.
Mark Yeah. I’m sure there are a lot of folks out there who run these summer programs who don’t want us to say this, because it’s a–
Hannah Oh, yeah. Sorry, guys.
LAUGHTER
Mark It’s a great marketing tactic when you get this stuff in the mail, that oh, you’re going to do this program. It’s going to be on a college campus. And you’re imagining, oh, that’s going to help me stand out. Sorry. That is not– spending a summer signing up for one of these programs is not going to suddenly make you a super strong college applicant for us.
Jill Yeah. I think, also, attending a Yale-specific summer program is not going to make it easier to get into Yale. And I think I can probably say that about a lot of our peer institutions too. If you’re doing a specific program with them, that does not necessarily mean that you have a better chance of getting into that institution.
Mark Right. And something that’s not always clear in the promotional materials– a lot of these summer programs that are located on college campuses, they’re just renting space there. They actually have no connection to the university themselves. You’re not learning from university professors. You’re literally just renting their dorms in the summer so the university has someone in those beds during those months.
Hannah Yeah. And look, if you want to do a summer program at a college, that’s great. Good for you. But do it because you want to do it. And those can often be formative experiences where you meet a lot of cool people you weren’t exposed to before. You have this experience living on a college campus. And that experience in itself might be helpful for you as you think about where you might want to go to college and how you fill out your application. But just the fact that you did the program is not going to be a leg up for us. We will note that there are a number of hyper-selective summer programs, sort of a small handful of them, that can sometimes be a good indication of a student’s strength in their college application. And I think that is maybe a little bit of where this myth comes from.
But it’s never the only indication of strength in a student’s application. And while we might admit some students who have done those summer programs every year, we also reject students who have done those summer programs. And the majority of students that we do admit have not done these hyper-selective programs.
Jill Yeah, I think I also– when I’ve read an application, I get just excited about the student who has been doing something that’s maybe super selective during the summer as I do for the student who was scooping ice cream during the summer as a summer job. And those are two things that have no value on, I think, that they’re both great things to do during the summer. And I think it just comes down to what you guys said. Do the things that you want to do during the summer.
Mark Exactly. Yeah. It’s a very common question we get is, what should I spend my summer doing? And the answer is really, something that’s going to be engaging and interesting. Hopefully, that means doing something more than just getting a high score on Halo in your basement.
LAUGHTER
Mark I’ll go ahead and say, we can differentiate some things from others. But caring for a family member, taking a student job, having an interesting trip doing one of these summer programs– those are all ways that students can grow, and be engaged, and potentially create some interesting experiences that they wind up reflecting on in their college application for us to learn about. We’ve seen it all.
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For a business major, you’ll need to show
- some basic ability in HS Economics and Math (precalculus, calculus or business calculus, statistics, micro and macro econ - honors, DE, AP). Some social science - psychology, sociology- can be a good idea.
- most importantly you need to show leadership skills, ability to work with others, etc. Through a job and/or clubs where you can actually list what you did.
My advice would be, rather than paying to spend time on a college campus (unless you find the idea fun and you’d do it even if it doesn’t go on college apps, because it typically pay for play programs -unlike programs that indicate selection&scholarship-mostly indicate that your parents have money and support your wishes so they don’t add much if anything to your app…) take DE Psych or Soc as well as a basic intro to business class over the summer (shows interest for the field but if you don’t do well it doesn’t hurt much) and in parallel, take a job in retail, hospitality,… scooping ice cream, at a cinema…
Save precalculus/calculus for the school year and if your HS offers AP macro/micro take it senior year (assuming you have APUSH or Us history honors jr year). In addition during the year work on your leqdership skills through clubs and volunteer in your community to broaden your scope&people skills.
Any program that is pay to play likely doesn’t matter. Exception would be things for musicians like BUTI at Tanglewood (an auditioned program that costs to attend).
I would check reviews to ensure it’s a good program but to do for interest, not impressiveness.
I would sooner get a job though and maybe take one class somewhere.
Jobs give a person so many positive attributes - and exposure for life.
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Do things that interest you. Do not do things to try and impress a college.
Neither of the two choices you
mentioned are likely to be a material boost for admissions (assuming you already have a rigorous HS program). It would be equally fine to pursue options such as a part time job, music, sports, community service, or anything else that excites you.
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