<p>My daughter just got back from the 2 week Marist Summer Pre-College Program (Criminal Justice) so I wanted to provide feedback/observations so that others can make objective decisions when considering the program. </p>
<p>CAUTION: this is information provided by a teenager. </p>
<p>GENERAL INFO:
• The program is residential, meaning they live in the dorms and eat in the cafeteria.
• Marist is closed during the summer so the approximately 200 kids had the campus to themselves. They had access to only a few buildings: library (certain floors were open), dorm, bookstore, and the building they had their class. They weren’t allowed to wander around campus or go down to the river.
• Her CJ Program had 23 total kids – surprisingly, 18 girls and 5 boys.
• The program lasted 14 total days (though she got there 1 day early since she was one of the out-of-state kids, so that would be 15 days for her), was very focused on classroom time (nearly 6-7 hours per day) and she came back from the trip exhausted.
• They took many field trips – Albany, NYC and local – that helped break-up the classroom time. They got 1 day off (Sunday) from classroom time.
• Most of their free time was either studying for the 2 tests or working on their 5-7 page paper and final presentation (given to kids and parents at the end of the program).
• Dorm – 6 kids lived in a suite and each suite had 3 rooms, a bathroom (which shower) and a common area. Kids were paired up with people in their program.</p>
<p>GOOD:
• Classroom information and study was excellent; this was her favorite part.
• They took field trips to State Police (Albany), 9/11 Museum (Albany, since FBI was cancelled), local county jail and court, US Secret Service (NYC).
• They attended the Governors signing of the “No Text While Driving” law.
• Local PD treated the kids well and they had a great simulator the kids enjoyed.
• The campus was beautiful.
• She made some new friends.
• This was no picnic summer camp, the kids spent 7 hours a day in class and evenings were focused on their final paper and studying for their 2 tests.
• Got good idea what it was like living in a dorm with a roommate/suitemates and living away from family.
• They seemed to be well supervised because I heard of no incidents or issues (of course, I didn’t ask and maybe I should).</p>
<p>BAD – most of the bad was focused on the living conditions:
• The food was horrible, according to my daughter (of course, she complains at home too).
• The bed springs hurt her back.
• Bed check was 11pm, but she couldn’t go to bed prior to that time.
• Wake-up on their only day off was 7am.
• On the final day and because she was from out of state, the shuttle back to JFK Airport left at noon, which meant that she couldn’t stay to hear the other presentations OR receive her certificate; this was terrible planning on Marist’s part.
• FBI cancelled – this was a big disappointment.
• NYPD was a waste of time – they only spent 25 minutes there and got virtually no information. Apparently, the professor stated they had done other stuff in the past but not this trip. I consider this bad planning and setting proper expectations by Marist. </p>
<p>The most important question I asked her was “Would you go again?” She said absolutely, but probably not at Marist if they didn’t improve the living conditions. They worked so hard that what little down time they would have been nicer if living conditions were better. </p>
<p>Personally, I'm not sure what she was expecting but I think she would go again because the information and field trips were very good and confirmed what she wanted to do in her future. From a parent's point of view, that is pure gold and exactly why I sent her in the first place. I would recommend the program and I feel it was money well spent.</p>