<p>My son works as a camp counselor and it's the high point of his year. He'll be starting college next fall, but he's already balking at schools that start before his camp job ends (even schools that were high on his list where he has been accepted!).</p>
<p>I'm not sure how flexible the camp is going to be, or whether this is just something he's going to have to deal with as part of his choice. But frankly I'd hate to see him reject a school on this basis. :/</p>
<p>Most schools seem to start late in August, but Eckerd College for example starts on August 9th!</p>
<p>I’ve worked at a summer camp for several years and many of the counselors are college students. The camp is usually really flexible with letting people leave when they have to go back to school, but I’m sure it varies between different camps. When I was deciding between 2 schools, I did put “getting to stay at camp 2 extra weeks” on the “pro” list for one of them, but it was by no means a deciding factor.</p>
<p>Hi, mavitale! My DD has worked at a summer camp for the past three summers. They are very good about counselors who have to leave early for college. Obviously, high school seniors don’t even know what college they are going to when they apply for and accept the counselor job. Based on our experience, it hasn’t been an issue. My daughter’s camp was even very flexible when she was a HS senior and she had to be at camp before her senior prom and graduation.</p>
<p>Thanks all… i’m hoping they will be flexible! I hate to see him make a college choice based on this. He looooooooooves camp and does not want to skip a summer! (I also think that Eckerd’s start date of August 9th seems VERY early!!)</p>
<p>Both my kids worked at residential camps, and the oldest attended college that began in August before the last session. She just told the camp and they made accommodations( although since she was actually riding staff and not a counselor, I don’t think they had riding the last session anyway)</p>
<p>I know they love camp, but it isn’t something that should determine where you apply to college.
Additionally they may decide as my own kids did, that they needed to earn more money during their summer job, so they had to leave anyway.</p>
<p>For the past two years S has been working as a summer camp counselor and both years left early because he needed to start school. The first year his Freshman orientation started before the end of camp and this year he was invited to be a RA off the waiting list and unexpectedly had to arrive about two weeks earlier than anyone expected - with about 2 days notice. The camp was great – even gave him an impromptu going away party. Especially if your son has been at this camp for a few summers they are probably expecting to get a little shorter amount of summer from him this year.</p>