"Johns Hopkins insists its summer studies courses ‘will enhance your college application and add distinction to your educational preparation.’
The cost to families? Anywhere from $2,000 for a week to $20,000 for a summer-long course, according to Christopher Rim, founder of Command Education, a college consultancy in New York City. A school can earn around $4 million to $5 million in tuition revenue in a single summer, Rim estimates.
But the advantages conferred to students might not be worth the hefty price tag, unless they are genuinely interested in a particular course of study, experts say.
‘They are a type of summer camp for kids. Your kid is somewhat supervised and is not running wild all summer — they are doing something academic,’ said Brendan Mernin, founding tutor and senior director of test prep company Noodle Pros." …
There are various regions with programs for gifted and talented students summers. Duke and Northwestern run two I know of. Going to an academic summer camp is great for these kids to (finally) be with intellectual peers and have fun learning. That can be wonderful, even a lifesaver for some GT kids.
However, you are addressing the academics to get ahead programs. I can see where they will not help. A bright kid does not become gifted in ability by spending extra time in academics- those with the top percentile abilities are still likely going to get better test scores and have better school year resumes.
A summer pre-nursing program made all the difference for my kid. The “ why I want nursing “ essays would never have been what they were without it. I don’t think she would have had the kind of admissions success that she did ( accepted to programs at top schools inclu UPenn and Umich ) without that experience.
One of my kids did a number of the JHU programs. Not because we or he thought it would enhance admission chances but because he was genuinely interested in the programs.
I had a child that attended a summer program - no we didn’t think it would change his college admissions, but it was a great experience - living in dorms, going to classes, projects, free time and space. met a lot of kids. It was worth the couple thousand dollars for the experience.
My S21 will be attending one for a week to experience living in the city and dorms at the school and seeing if he could picture himself attending school there. The topic of the academic experience is of interest to him but the far greater experience will be him living in the city for the week.
We were going to have him attend another school for the same reasons later in the summer (to experience the locale, etc) but unfortunately, the timing conflicted with his main EC in high school.
Ditto. Our D took a summer class that sounded interesting and it became her major in college. The other plus is that kid learned to live away from home and was not homesick Frosh year (like many who post on cc).
fwiw: I do believe the summer program kids attended did help with Grad/Professional school admissions at that Uni. (It was really easy to ace the ‘Why this program?’ short answer essay after spending time there over the summer.)
I think you have to think outside of the box on this one. Will a summer program directly aid in admissions? Probably not. But, are there other benefits that can be just as valuable?
My D20 has always done some sort of summer program, since about 12 y/o. Her first was a week at a local college for basketball camp…super fun. But, she soon realized organized, high intensity sport was not for her. When she thought she wanted to be a MD, she did a two week summer program for future docs…she came home knowing it wasn’t for her. Neither of these programs where very expensive and I considered the lessons well worth the price.
Later, in high school, she got invited to a Debate Camp at Harvard…the summer between sophomore and junior year… That one was a bit pricey, but she was able to raise a decent portion of the price by bottle colleting and odd jobs around the neighborhood. She had a blast, learned a lot, and made friends she still communicates with today. She also won the State debate championship this year…did that have an impact on her college admissions? Absolutely!
Last summer she participated in the Pre-Bac program at Brown. She was a college student for 8 weeks and got college credit. Brown was her #1 for a really long time and I knew how unlikely it was she would get in for undergrad, so let her go. She liked it, earned college credit, and realized Providence wasn’t “all that.” Eights weeks was long enough for the luster to wear off a bit and see the wrinkles. How a school could cost so much and have such crappy dorms I will never know. Brown is still on her list, but she is now willing to seriously consider her other options a bit closer to home…and at more reasonable cost. She will always have had the Brown experience. Win-win.
So, I think precollege programs can great indirect value.
I think it depends. It can really make a student confident and get them to be more focused. There is nothing wrong with it being more academic also. My daughter did the Emerson summer theater design program. 5 weeks I think it was. Pricey also but it opened up a complete whole world to her and confirmed her abilities. She met professors etc that taught during the year and they were evaluating her as much as she was evaluating them. She got accepted to a very limited acceptance BFA. Did here summer there help? Absolutely, plus her personal portfolio etc.
My son did several. One was a Northwestern program as referenced above. It was the whole year of AP stats in 3 weeks. They lived on campus. Only 12 kids from around the world but mostly in the US. He loved it and couldn’t imagine taking it for the full year. He couldn’t fit AP stats in his schedule in high school. This is what he called Fun… Lol…
But over the summers we needed to do something with him… Lol…
So besides intense Chess camps with higher ranked kids only… He did a few university engineering programs. Robotics etc Michigan State, one with computer science at Mikwakeee school of engineering and a known program for engineering at Berkeley. (not in the same summers… Lol). Each one was a different engineering field. He loved living on campus. Especially the Berkeley one, he flew by himself summer between sophomore year and junior year. Lived on campus and came back very confident that he could excel at this. He was sorta a transformed kid. I think they were nice adjunct programs for his applications. Pay to play… I guess… We did look into local program at University of Chicago etc and they were extremely expensive.
I wouldn’t do any of these programs with the hopes to getting a kid in college. If the child has a true interest then I think it just builds on that interest. For either kid it could of helped them rule out a proposed interest also. Hate for a kid to go into engineering if they hated these experiences of working together etc etc.
All programs the kids did had financial aid with very good scholarships. We didn’t meet the need for them but many did.
My STEM daughter participated in 3 summer programs during grades 8-10: WPI’s Launch Program (1 week biochem experience), Brown’s Pre-College STEM program (2 week residential program where, like MickeyEarWax’s post states above, she found both the dorm accommodations and food lacking), and a 3 week program sponsored by a prestigious local prep school, which featured extensive lab work, visits to biotech companies and hospitals, and a 2 day research experience at Woods Hole Biological Lab on Cape Cod. All three programs nurtured her interest in biotech, and as such we felt it was worth the investment. Did any one of the programs play a role in admissions or aid packages? The jury is out on that one. We do know those experiences led to 2 consecutive summers in a college biochem lab while she was still in high school, and this will hopefully pay dividends this upcoming summer in the form of a REU or internship.
My kid did two summer programs. We knew they weren’t a particular boost, though one did give her college credit. They were worth every penny in what she gained in confidence and independence. I highly recommend them, as long as the kid has interest and you can afford it.
I signed my kids up with CTY when they were in elementary school. We had plan to send them to the summer camp but I could never justify the cost. Finding summer programs to keep them busy is quite a challenge but they are out there. Check the local colleges/universities. My son ended up doing 2 years of this program https://www.rowan.edu/gsbs/research/scholars_hs.php (after his sophomore and junior high school year).
This may/may not help with his college admission but the hands on small program gives him more insight on the career he is interested in pursuing. It is not a program just to fill up the day.
My D did summer programs as well - everything from Y camp, to robotics, to music, to sports camps. The best camp was at her now college. It was a competitive admission application, run by the honors engineering admins and profs. They basically condensed the first semester eng design class into one week. She slept not at all (was up 7 am - 2 am) and loved every single minute. They lived in dorms, ate in the dining halls, went to lectures, learned about the school traditions, and then did 4 design events in that one weeks time. Gave her lots of fodder for the “why us” essay. As a side note, D said that about 1/2 the students in her engineering honors cohort attended that program.
Columbia Summer programs are quite misleading. In fact, if you’re a high school student willing to shell out the $8000+ for tuition/boarding, you can take a Columbia class over the summer, and even get a transcript.
But the big catch is that Columbia College and SEAS does NOT accept credit for college courses completed before high school graduation. They don’t mention this on the Columbia summer website.
The sentence quoted is related specifically to the Summer Term program at JH. Conflating an on-campus course in Discrete Mathematics, earning academic credit, with a three week “The Detective as Scientist in Literature and Film” course (from Duke TIP) and generalizing them as useless is misleading.
My D had experiences similar to noted above at CTY. It provided tremendous social and emotional experiences and skills being among “kids like her” which don’t exist at school.
“Went to CTY” in itself might make no difference. But does completing Fast Paced HS Physics in 3 weeks, placing directly into AP Physics C in HS, resulting in multiple science APs for a STEM applicant really mean nothing?
Sure, there are the “you’ve been specially selected” mail offerings for “Global Leadership” programs that may be of questionable value.
But painting all summer programs as “ a type of summer camp for kids.” is a lazy, simplistic generalization. Coming from a “test prep” company, it’s also a bit hypocritical to me.
They’re fine if you can afford it and you know up front that most are money grabs and won’t be any kind of advantage in admissions. A lot of people do them, so staying home during the summer and doing something with the community may actually be seen more favorably by adcoms.