<p>Hello. Today when I was looking at the overly depressing Stanford ED results, I know this isn't the stanford forum i'm not dumb, I was thinking about the questions about how you spent your summer. I remember hearing about programs or camps that you can attend to gain an advantage, that schools, like Harvard, like knowing that you attended. If anyone can name any of them, please let me know. Thank you! Oh and if you do name something, can you tell me what they are generally looking for for the entrance to the camp, like GPA, essay, recommendation, etc. Thank you!</p>
<p>honestly, I think camps like NYLF, and NYLC are just space-fillers.</p>
<p>If you want a an actual college experience, take a summer class or two.</p>
<p>Most schools (Brown, Columbia, Yale, etc.) offer summer classes where you can take actual college classes for credit, and you'll be surrounded by college students not high school students. This credit will most likely transfer as well unlike some promised credits which you would get in a camp.</p>
<p>You'll have real college professors, real college students, real dorming, real classes. You get the point, it's real :D</p>
<p>Just my two cents.</p>
<p>if i went to one of the schools you mentioned, would they put me up? as in give me a dorm room and everything so i had a place to stay?</p>
<p>They will if you could pay. :/ They're usually pretty expensive, though. They sound like a great experience-- hard work, but get to meet great people, have some fun, etc. But these programs aren't really <em>that</em> hard to get into, and although they show you can handle college work (if you get solid grades!) they're not that uncommon among HYPS applicants. The summer programs that will probably look the best in terms of getting in to an Ivy/ similar are RSI (Research Science Institute) and TASP (Telluride Association Summer Program)-- both of which are free. They're both EXTREMELY hard to get into, but seem like an <em>incredible</em> experience. There's a lot of info about them in the Summer Programs forum if you're interested.</p>
<p>That being said, there's definitely nothing wrong with the programs at Yale, Columbia, etc.! They sound like a great opportunity to see what college life is like and are definitely a chance to do something fun and interesting with your summer. They probably will not help an app to a top college, but if you think you'd like it, go ahead and try for it: don't do everything because it "looks good" on an app!</p>
<p>what do you have to have to get into TASP</p>
<p>^ reach academic nirvana :)</p>
<p>I went to harvard summer school, and it was an absolute blast! We stayed in the freshmen dorms, ate in Annenberg, studied in Widener, and took classes for credit. It wasn't relaxing by any standard, but it was so much fun; I have so many memories of reading in the yard, having ice cream at the local shops, walking around with my textbooks and harvard ID pretending to be an actual harvard student (and the tourists totally believed it... they kept asking me for directions and taking my picture...haha)...</p>
<p>I stayed up late and worked my butt off to get a good grade and I doubt it will add much to an app, but it was one of the best summers of my life.</p>