<p>has anyone heard about this summer intensive language study (3-9 weeks) offered by UChicago over the summer for highschool students? I'm very interested in taking the Chinese intensive course over the summer and wanted to know if anyone has done this program and if so, what's it like?
-Thanks-</p>
<p>PM user bigtwix.</p>
<p>hello....anyone there? some info could really help right about now</p>
<p>From what I've heard, the summer intensive language study program is exactly like UChicago classes, except that your periods of completion are shorter and you're only supposed to be taking a single class at a time. Therefore, it is three times the pace that a normal UChicago class would be, and that's saying something. Most foreign languages here require about 1-2 hours a night, which means that if you participate in the program, you'll probably have to work 3-6 hours a night, and attend classes every day that are 2-3 hours in length.</p>
<p>For a comparison that may or may not be accurate, at my "elite" public high school (admission was required, and entrance was only available to 11th-12th graders), we covered only the Asian language curriculum at 1/3rd the place that they teach it here during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters, and since a whole year's curriculum is covered in 3 months during the Summer quarter, you'll be covering 3 years of normal high school work in about 3 months. If you're well familiar with how high school language programs work, this might be a better comparison than the former.</p>
<p>Midd is supposed to have the best intensive summer language program. I would much rather do it there then at UChicago, unless if I was doing an ancient language.</p>
<p>That's because at Midd, they'll kick you out of the program if you speak English anywhere (even out of class!). At Chicago, we're not that harsh.</p>
<p>Voluntarily spending a summer in Hyde Park studying a language is really a bad idea. </p>
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<li><p>The area is dead in the summer. I took summer classes twice, once full time and once part time while interning, and found the quality of life to be really ****ty compared to the regular year. Everything closes early (libraries, stores, restaurants), Chicago is hot as hell, and crime does spike as you have lots of poor, male HS students with too much time on their hands walking around. </p></li>
<li><p>Many other elite universities have well known summer programs in languages. Since they are basically open enrollment, Harvard summer school accepts like 60% of its HS applicants, you can go more or less wherever you want. I suggest Stanford, Columbia or somewhere else rather nice, unless you happen to already live in Chicago and get free housing. Try to do some more scouting on the boards as I can tell you Yale also has a very bad rap for summer studies due to the same problems in New Haven. </p></li>
<li><p>If you are looking to maximize you college apps, there is no doubt that spending a summer at a selective university and getting good grades can boost your application chances a lot (or so any 10K a year private admissions consultant will tell you, even if adcom members say otherwise). However, adcoms are also more interested in seeing you take something like English or biology rather than an elementary language which does not really demonstrate either your writing or analytical skills. Also, bear in mind that a slew of Bs will hurt you when you apply, and languages at Chicago are hard. </p></li>
<li><p>If you are dead set on starting Chinese, and it is definitely a great language to be in if you are committed to following it will three or four year of non-intensive study thereafter, you really should consider doing some type of program abroad. Not only will they be cheaper, but you will also definitely increase the international aspect of your application. If your parents think mainland China is too hardcore for you, then Singapore or Taiwan are nice options that are very modern. Of course Beijing would be an awesome place to be this summer given the Olympics. However, I think it might have scared me just a tad in as a high schooler without languages skills.</p></li>
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<p>As in Middlebury? They do not accept high school students in their summer language programs. They have just started a summer language camp for high school and younger. Next summer will be the first year of the program.</p>