<p>i want to do something in the field of biological sciences, so i am thinking of applying to johns hopkins, brown, harvard, and oxford for pre-college summer programs. i really want to get into one of them, should i apply to all and see which one accepts me? is there a competetive acceptance procedure for summer schooling at ivy leagues and prestigious colleges?
thankyou!</p>
<p>The acceptance rate is pretty high if you are a solid student. Be aware of a few things: 1) highly selective colleges are happy to rent out space for these programs during the summers, and a few of them host their own, but none of them are especially impressed by them on your transcript. Dean of Admissions at Princeton said to <strong>only</strong> do one if you are really interested in the course, not to impress the admissions team. They see it (and volunteering in Costa Rica) as something better off parents buy for their kids to improve the application. 2) the calibre of the programs is really variable; the best ones - on average- are the ones run directly by the college. Do some homework and choose carefully. 3) the Oxford programs are only housed in Oxford, they are not taught by Oxford. </p>
<p>I totally agree with the above post. Summer programs are a cash cow for these universities, so they are much less selective in who they admit. It will give you absolutely no advantage in undergraduate admission, and most,if not all of the summer program websites say that somewhere.</p>
<p>If you are interested, go for it. I did the Harvard program last year, and it was great for me. I will tell you, some, but not all, of the courses were taught by instructors that are not affiliated with Harvard. I suspect that those courses may have been less rigorous than those taught by Harvard faculty. My class was taught by a Harvard instructor and it was very demanding.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>There is a summer programs forum on CC with a lot more info than there is in this one. That said, admissions deadlines and dates vary from program to program. If you applied to Brown today, you’d hear within a week or two and be expected to accept or decline within a week or two of that, certainly if you get a Dean’s scholarship, not sure how long if you are paying full price. </p>
<p>The others may have different deadlines and notification dates, and expectations as to your date to accept admission, so look at those carefully before you apply to places that you won’t find out about until too late, or have to commit to too early.</p>