<p>Is Reach Cambridge summer program affiliated with the University of Cambridge? Or is it just renting the space? How is their Business Management course?</p>
<p>My D, high school junior, loves British culture and European architectures wants to apply for colleges in England next year. I heard it's extremely difficult for US students to get accepted into England's top universities. I would rather she focuses her time on the college applications in the US. I am hoping that sending her to a summer program in Cambridge next summer will satisfy her desire to study abroad, and at the same time provide her a good introduction to her intended major.</p>
<p>Just wanted to chime in on the Reach Cambridge program. I first found out about it on this site a couple of years ago when I was looking for a summer program in Cambridge to take a group of students to (I’m a school counselor and involved with my school’s global studies programs). I visited the program in the summer of 2012 and was impressed enough by it that I recruited a group of students to go to the July program this past summer (2013). This is an outstanding program, with a range of interesting courses, excellent supervision, and excursions to London and other sites on the weekend. Reach is run by a British staff, utilizes graduate students and other academics from Cambridge and elsewhere as instructors and Cambridge undergraduates as “supervisors”: sort of like camp counselors who keep the kids engaged and monitored in the afternoon and evenings. Unlike similar programs: Reach recruits students from many countries and this makes for a very international/intercultural experience. My students made fast friends with kids from Brazil, Turkey, Lebanon, Belgium, Italy, etc. (over 30 countries represented). They have maintained these connections since returning, thanks to social media, and are planning future reunions and trips. It was an enlightening experience for American students to be “under represented” in a program! Reach Cambridge is less expensive than similar programs such as Oxbridge (which I believe consists mostly of both American students and instructors) and is competitively priced when compared to US-based university summer programs.</p>
<p>Top UK unis are difficult to get into for everybody, but if 1) she really knows what she wants to study, and has a well grounded long term interest in it (ie, goes beyond school work in it just because she loves it ); 2) tests well and is taking a fair few APs in related subjects; and 3) can handle one on one serious conversations on the subject then Oxbridge isperfectly realistic to consider, and if #3 is a challenge, then Durham, Edinburgh and the London unis are all viable. There are some good forums over at the student room (a UK site) on Americans applying to uni in the UK, Americans applying to Oxford, etc. also, on this cc there is a regular poster - uscamstudent, I think- who is a US student currently at Cambridge. She hasn’t posted much recently, possibly b/c she is in term, and Oxbridge terms are very short (8 weeks) & very intense! They will be done in a couple of weeks though</p>