<p>Given the WSJ article on packaged (and expensive) summer resume-building programs, let's see what some of cc's current college students or accepted seniors have done for summers which was NOT packaged. Include, please, whether they are satisfied with their college acceptances even tho they didn't particpate in the resume-padding madness. I'll start:</p>
<p>S's last four summer activities:
1. Summer job: Landscaping
2. Summer job: bellhop
3. Summer school: one college-level math course at local public U
4. Summer job: ice cream scooper</p>
<p>College acceptance outcome: Tulane (merit $), Lehigh, Santa Clara (merit $), Hofstra</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure: not accepted - Stanford</p>
<p>This is such a dilemma for parents of a music(BMus) school applicant since the applications clearly ask for "summer program activities".Can it be called resume padding in that case? DD did (in HS)
9th-summer performing arts camp
10th-college based summer music "institute"
11th-1 week flute workshop at Oberlin, 4 week (or longer,cant remember)Music Horizons at Eastman
12th-done with all that, just a regular old summer office job!</p>
<p>In reality, I was at a two week Girl Scout camp for 9th and 10th, and I also had a short, four day Drum Major Camp. </p>
<p>College Results:</p>
<p>Accepted to:
Central Washington University (Full tution scholarship plus a 2k extra scholarship)
Western Washington University (1.5k scholarship)
Linfield College (13.6k scholarship)
Lewis & Clark College (10 k scholarship)
Reed College (Doesn't offer merit aid, where I'll be attending)</p>
<p>And, my waitlist:
Whitman College</p>
<p>I was incredibly pleased, especially because I didn't think I had a chance in heck of getting into Reed. ^_^</p>
<p>Sigh.
There are activities that do not cost anything and that are enriching (in more than monetary terms); a summer job can teach extremely valuable experiences and skills, iincluding people skills. </p>
<p>BUT just because a summer program is expensive does not mean it is packaged to pad the resume. Just because it is an academic enrichment activity does not mean that it is resume-padding. RSI is free--it is also very prestigious. But there are some equally rigorous programs that are not free. The kids who cried at the end of PROMYS--six weeks of relentless math problems--were not crying out of joy over having padded their resumes or finally said good-bye to math. </p>
<p>So Cathymee: no, music camp for the devoted IS NOT resume padding. Let's not lay on guilt trips on kids who are passionate about what they do, or their parents for being able to afford (or scrimping to afford) to underwrite their kids' passion. </p>
<p>marite, whose S is far more enthusiastic about another 6 weeks of math than about the prom or the so far inexistent graduation party or where to go for vacation and who does not need to pad his resume.</p>
<p>cathymee and others - I agree wholeheartedly that there is nothing wrong - and everything right - with enrichment programs. They can be pursuing an interest of yours, or they can be exposing you to a whole new arena. And they can be programs one needs to pay for.</p>
<p>I started this thread to address what the WSJ article was talking about, which were programs, largely initiated by expensive college counselors, with the express purpose of enhancing college app chances. And, further, expressly (many times) and implying (other times) that a kid must have these in order to achieve college application success.</p>
<p>So many parents on this board are struggling with just how to pay for college, I would not want them to see that type of article, along with the summer program threads, and think they MUST do such things for their child.</p>
<p>Either way is fine, is all I'm trying to say: program, no program, free program, paid program, summer jobs, reading books.... Just don't feel pressured to go one way or the other.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you. It's when the pendulum swings the other way and families begin to worry that certain summer activities will be stigmatized as "resume-padding" that I am concerned. The most expensive summer experience my S had turned out to be a summer camp of the traditional type, after 4th grade: organized sports, some crafts, organized play, some pseudo-academic stuff. He hated it with a passion and refused to go back. We enrolled him in an academic camp the following year and he loved it. His brother, on the other hand, liked the traditional camps he attended, but loved his music camp even more .</p>
<p>Congrats on the great acceptances and scholarships.</p>
<p>I think the highly selective programs for kids who are passionate about some subject are definitely a help in college admission. But I also think that the kids who do them would do them anyway. (I'm inlcuding both the free ones like RSI and Olympiad camps, and the ones you pay for like PROMYS and Mathcamp). My son lives for the summer just for these sorts of programs.</p>
<p>Then there are the programs that take anyone with the money to pay. I think those need to be evaluated solely on the basis of the experience your child is likely to have, and whether they want to do them. I doubt if they provide any help with admissions at all.</p>