I recently applied and was accepted to the Summer Academy at School of The New York Times (sorry, I know it is not a college). The ~6,000 dollar enrollment fee is obviously hefty for a two-week summer program, so I I want to make sure that attending is the right decision. For those who have done the program in the past—Is it worth it? What can I expect, and what was your experience? Finally, how will this program impact the rest of my life, if at all?
As it is I am planning to attend, but I’d like more information and there’s little to be found online (not including the official site). For those who are interested, I’d be doing the Creative Writing course.
Same here. I was accepted into the Creative Writing course for Term 1. It’s going to be really expensive but I think it will be worth it. We’ll get to meet and learn from big shots in the creative writing industry, and it’ll look good on college applications as well (it’s the New York Times after all). But I still have my doubts.
That is pretty expensive. My kid went to a number of summer programs with Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, including a Creative Writing Workshop, and it’s about $3,800 for a three week residential program on the Northwestern University campus.
I’m not sure that it will look good to colleges. Most programs that you are paying for (those service programs abroad to help unfortunate people, for example) are not viewed very highly. My gut instinct about this program is that it’s a money-maker for the NYT (so much so that I want to almost use the word “scam”) and I think that’s generally how it will look to College adcoms.
I’d say: Sure! Sign up! If you have all the money in the world to spend and if you want to learn what they have to teach and meet the people you want to hobnob with, but I wouldn’t say that it makes you a stand-out candidate for colleges any more than, say, paying for a scuba trip to the Philippines over winter break–you know, sure, exotically eye-catching, costly, and pretty cool thing to do, but does that make you a better candidate?
I know I’m replying to this a little late, but I did the NYC Summer Academy for NYT last summer and LOVED it. It is quite costly, but I knew numerous students who received financial aid. And while some people may not think it will help on your college application, I still think it is worth it to go if you love journalism. Those two weeks were the most fun and interesting weeks of my life. My professor worked for the NYT and the teacher assistant was a student at Columbia School of Journalism. I learned SO much from them and used that knowledge to better my own writing which will show up in your college application later on whether it’s in the form of writing awards or leadership positions on your school’s newspaper. The program is worth every penny in my mind, but feel free to ask any questions, especially if you already said yes to the program!
Hi Olivia! I’m also recently accepted to the program (the Writing in the Big City course). I have heard everyone saying it is a wonderful/interesting experience but what can I do to maximize the experience? I don’t want to go there and then leave with regret/disappointment that I didn’t really do anything.