Pricey summer programs raise fairness questions

Parent Cafe
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<p>Thats a shame if admission officers are dismissing out of hand volunteer trips abroad.
From my experience I don’t think they are however.
Both my kids were admitted to all their schools, including their first choice schools that had much higher average scores and GPA, than their own numbers.</p>

<p>Although both girls, I imagine, had very strong recommendations, and while my oldest daughter probably wrote strong essays, I don’t think my younger daughter has mastered that skill yet. However, they both have strong ECs, lots of volunteer time , but no academic summer programs at Brown or Princeton. ( or anywhere else- they work during the summer and no we don’t take family vacations)</p>

<p>I also don’t think they wrote essays about their trips, although my oldest may have mentioned that the first time she was on an airplane was as a junior on a school trip to Costa Rica during spring break. She had worked to earn the money to do so, it was the first non required trip that she had gone on with her class. As she had taken 4 years of Spanish, she was one of the few kids that did a short homestay, although she said most of the extended family wanted to practice their English. ;)</p>

<p>My younger daughter has traveled much more with her public school class, last week in fact, she returned from a 19 day trip to Africa, that was the culmination of a year long class & is returning in the fall after she graduates high school, to monitor and expand on the project.</p>

<p>This has been a huge thing for her. She raised much of the money to go ( total cost was less than airfare to Africa- because of outside sponsors- it also was less than what child care for a younger child would be during summer break)
For her to arrange to go back and stay at least two months ( for how long the trip is- that makes sense) , is a major, major step for her.</p>

<p>I think she did mention that she was going to do it in her essays, as she finished the last one two nights before she left for Ghana, but she was accepted as soon as she returned. :slight_smile: So it must still be impressing someone- .</p>

<p>I don’t think you have to go on a trip abroad to get admitted, but the schools do like to see kids stretching themselves.</p>

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<p>“This has been a huge thing for her. She raised much of the money to go ( total cost was less than airfare to Africa- because of outside sponsors- it also was less than what child care for a younger child would be during summer break)
For her to arrange to go back and stay at least two months ( for how long the trip is- that makes sense) , is a major, major step for her.”</p>

<p>What your D did was very different than students who go abroad to volunteer only because their parents open their wallets.</p>

<p>Colleges are able to recognize the difference. Also, my experience with knowing lots of teens and also interviewing lots of teens for my Ivy alma mater is that very few high school students who go abroad do so on their own initiative. The teens who do go abroad to volunteer or study on their own initiative stand out.</p>

<p>For instance, I knew a h.s. student who had spent the summer before senior year working at a French resort. He loved French and had searched the Internet to find some way to spend the summer in France. He did this search without the help or even knowledge of his parents. He got into Annapolis. I was sorry that he wasn’t interested in applying to Harvard because his kind of initiative is what Harvard appreciates, too.</p>

<p>This kind of behavior is very different than those of students whose parents research and fund summer abroad opportunities for them. This includes students who do so called community service in their parents’ countries of origin. My experience with knowing some such “volunteers” well is that such community service opportunities typically are shams arranged with relatives and friends. Students whose only community service at home is whatever NHS or other organizations require and arrange aren’t likely to be eager and capable volunteers in another country that quite often they are visiting only because their parents are forcing them to go.</p>

<p>BTW, I have volunteered abroad with my husband and sons when older S was a h.s. freshman. My husband and I paid for the experience. Despite the way the program was advertised and despite our family’s sincere interest in volunteering, we got to do very little. I don’t think that older S bothered to mention it on his college apps because he had ECs that really did reflect his initiative, interests and talents. Even if younger S had done it while in h.s., he wouldn’t have mentioned it because he, too, had activities that were more reflective of his character and initiatve.</p>

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<p>I don’t really know anybody personally who has done things that way- but I know what you are talking about.</p>

<p>The way I see it, is when parents do so much for their almost adult kids, it is like saying " you can’t do it yourself, so I am going to do it for you". I really think it could be harmful in the long run, but it seems to be part of a pattern.
I know it is difficult to see our kids have troubles and to try to make everything smooth for them. But life isn’t smooth and unfortunately the only way to build a callus is by friction.</p>

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<p>Admissions officers know the game. These expensive summer programs do little unless the student has had a passionate interest in what the program is about for years. In some schools it may even be a detriment if the student comes across looking like a spoiled brat. You’re better off working or helping people where you live.</p>

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<p>D did not do any pricy programs and so far this year is well ahead of those who did in top acceptances. So I think the adcoms descriminate carefuly when looking at such programs.</p>

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<p>This is an issue I think a lot about. We’ve chosen to send our kids on some “fancy” summer programs – all in the US (so far!). We homeschool, and I fear that they get too much “Mom time.” I see these programs as a relatively inexpensive (compared to private schools in our area) way to get some experience being on their own, meet people they normally would not cross paths with, and do something I cannot arrange locally either at home or through outside programs. It is a major expense for us, but it’s been great for the kids. The first year, I was the one researching programs. My kids were not sure they wanted to go. Now, after having had the experience once, they are more involved. My son is hoping to be able to intern for a small catering company, but I told him he’d have to contact them about it, not me. We’ll see what happens. If he does this (no idea if they want/are able to take an intern), it would be very different from the structured academic program we sent him to last year, but I think the independence and maturity he gained is what makes even considering this possible for him.</p>

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<p>More confirmation for paying3tution’s thoughtful post #6: DD went on one of those programs, came back changed by the experience, and started an All-Africa Club at school. They’ve done fund-raising projects, service, and awareness-type prentations around African development issues. She did write her short extra-curric CommonApp essay about this and it seemed to get her into the running for one merit scholarhip that has a heavy service component, but I think that if it made any difference, it was the follow thorough and the effect of the service trip on her rather than the trip itself.</p>

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<p>Both of my kids got into the colleges of their dreams by doing the old fashioned thing–working–all the summers of high school. They spent a great deal of time on AP summer assignments and practiced piano. I believe that parents who are used to sending Junior to a pricey sleep-away camp do not want him hanging around all summer once he ages out, getting on their nerves, so that is why the college programs flourish. In our family, we joke about “building huts with Mother Teresa” summers. Everybody is looking for an angle. Don’t you think that the admissions committees see through this? Don’t you think the colleges use these summer “experiences” as a source of revenue?</p>

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They’d be wrong to make that assumption. Many families of modest means send their kids to public schools but pay a little extra for enrichment experiences. Travel is a lot cheaper than tuition. If one family pays $3500 for a summer travel program and another pays $15K for private school tuition for the year… which one is the least likely to need financial aid?</p>

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<p>An adcom told my friend he thought those expensive trips were a waste of money because there are plenty of needy kids and causes in your own community or the city next door.</p>

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<p>I used to have very little money. I went on cheap trips. Now I have plenty of money. I go on more expensive trips.Trips are interesting, sometimes life-changing. Does everything have to be evaluated in terms of who it will impress? (My kids sometimes go on trips, too)</p>