<p>I know many people go into summer programs convinced that it is their one safe path towards college, that they will stand out and will be guaranteed admission. Many pay thousands of dollars for those reasons.
But it seems that many summer programs (safe a selective few don't even matter). </p>
<p>I'm posting this here, since it is more of an admission question rather than a summer program. How much impact do you think that summer programs (the ones that matter, like RSI, TASP, SSP and others) have on admission? Is it significant, or are the participants qualified to atten top schools as they are?</p>
<p>I went to Harvard SSP last year, for the sake of learning more and meeting new people and this year, I'm hopefully going to SSP (summer science program) if I get enough scholarship money. My parents are very converned of this aspect, since they don't want to spend thousands of dollars for nothing as they call it (since they don't really see it as an educational opportunity but a pathway to college). </p>
<p>So, what does it come down to? There are a bunch of facebook groups for SSP alumni and it seems that over 65 percent go to Ivies or MIT/Caltech. (the groups for 2005/2006 alumni) </p>
<p>honestly i think that elite colleges want to see you doing something worthwhile in summer, be it a job or a summer "camp" like the ones you mentioned. There are many kids that cant afford to go to those types of camps, and I doubt that adcoms will take a kid that went to CalTech's Quantum Physics camp over a kid that worked cutting grass and working at a grocery store over the summer solely on that difference.</p>
<p>Depends on what the program is. If you are choosing to, lets say, go to Barcelona for a month with ASA and get drunk, it is not going to look impressive, even if it is masked as helping with your Spanish.</p>
<p>Summers before and after junior year should be filled with at least some sort of community service or internship. Work experience is always better than a summer program. </p>
<p>However, if you do choose to go to the program route I would suggest maybe doing the summers that schools such as Brown and Northwestern offer as an alternative to travel programs. I don't think in anyway will these programs guarantee you a place at an Ivy or even help really, however, they can't hurt.</p>
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Summers before and after junior year should be filled with at least some sort of community service or internship.
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<p>Or any other worthwhile activity relevant to the student's interests. Frankly, CS and internships don't "wow" adcoms, and I daresay they'd rather see passion in something than "I'm only doing this because I know I should for college."</p>
<p>There's no formula for this kind of thing. My friend never had a job or internship and only volunteered during the school year. The only thing he did every summer was visit family. He got into Princeton purely based on what he did during the school year.</p>
<p>In contrast, I did something different every summer after freshman year - first two courses, then a job and a course, then a program and two courses.</p>
<p>We had very different applications and appealed to adcoms in different ways. One strategy wasn't necessarily better than the other. So don't worry about what anyone tells you because one person's advice won't apply to everyone's application.</p>
<p>With that said, IMO competitive programs always look good because going to them means you've already gone through a respected admissions process that deemed you worthy. Moreover, going through the programs themselves makes you more impressive. For example, RSI participants have already worked closely with top-notch faculty on individual research projects. Same thing with TASP, SSP, LBW, Governor's Schools, research programs, etc.</p>
<p>I will say, though, that the programs that cost money usually aren't as valuable or impressive as the ones that are free. There are a few exceptions, of course, but I can only think of LBW, and I only include it because it seems to be represented very well in Wharton.</p>
<p>It seems like participants at Harvard SSP (nobody really goes anywhere else) have a high success rate at Ivies for one important reason: they went to Harvard because they have money floating around and education-and-prestige-obsessed parents, thus they are more likely to also go to private schools and the best public schools in the nation. Harvard SSP participants are not a randomly selected pool: they represent students who care about education and are able to spend money on it. This, coincidentally, is the same group that is consistently over-represented at top schools.</p>
<p>My D did a three week humanities program after her soph year at a HYPS.<br>
Why bother?:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It was selective (by invitation, followed by application) so the other students were talented and motivated. She had to work hard, live on her own and juggle fun with tough academic requirements. She met some amazing kids from around the country and world, and subsequently decided she loved the experience, and applied to colleges where she could reproduce it.</p></li>
<li><p>The course content helped her critical reading and writing skills. The material she covered broadened her base in literature and she was able to use that knowledge in her junior and senior english and history classes. Subsequently, her Junior year English teacher wrote one of her college rec letters, which I assume was very favorable. My D brought a lot of depth to the class and was able to participate with confidence, partly because of her summer course.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The common app really doesn't have a place to expand on content of these summer classes. There is barely room to put the name of the school you went to, and there is no place to put the name or length of the course. It did not appear on her transcript, because it was not for credit. She did receive a detailed written evaluation, but not something that could be used in an app. She could have used an essay to talk about the experience, but didn't.</p>
<p>The benefit of the course did NOT come from name dropping the university or the course, but the intellectual growth and motivation that came from attending. Had she applied to this particular HYPS, I doubt mentioning her attendance at their summer course would have made any difference to admissions. The benefit to her was more about her own intellectual and personal development, which shouldn't be underestimated! </p>
<p>And yes, it was expensive, but in retrospect, it was the right thing for her to do that particular summer.</p>
<p>Great replies! Interviewing kids with obvious parent-paid "service junkets" is a big turn off for me. Sometimes I've felt that they served the poor brown kids and sat on a beach the other half of the time. </p>
<p>Having one of these service junkets isn't bad alone -- but combined with other lack of interest in real voluntarism -- just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.</p>
<p>Obviously this is the worst case scenario -- but I'm more excited about the kid who had to work 25 hrs/week in dad's corner grocery store yet had to maintain athletic conditioning over the summer.</p>
<p>It's important not to ignore the advantages of college programs, however. Earning college credit, particularly over the summer, when courses are much easier, means the student is earning a strong college GPA even before matriculating. Good performance can also indicate that they can handle a college class.</p>
<p>Personally, I would strongly prefer working over spending thousands of dollars on courses. Being financially independent is rewarding and teaches responsibility. and you also learn many practical skills through a job that you can't learn in a classroom.</p>
<p>Also, I forgot to mention this earlier, but of the five summer courses I mentioned I took above, four were online courses - three through Johns Hopkins University's CTY and one through Harvard SSP. The former allowed me to skip math/computer science classes in high school, while the latter let me explore a specific field I had an interest in pursuing as a major/career. Online courses are much cheaper than living on a college campus, and I could do something else at the same time, whether it was a science course that required an in-person laboratory, maintain a job, or attend a summer program. So yeah, look into online classes, particularly through CTY, which now has a bunch of AP classes too.</p>
<p>After high school there aren't any real summers left. Work takes over. So in high school I encouraged my daughter to find summer programs that she really would enjoy. Though she spent many a summer on various college campuses in dance camp, I believe her favorite was a summer at UCLA taking a fun class, a University class, and doing the millions of activities the program provided. (Film premieres, TV show tapings, beach trips, shopping trips, college tours, theme park trips etc.) Did it help her get in? I'd say no. But she had the time of her life. And it helped her decide where she wanted to go to college.</p>