<p>I am looking for residential summer programs (either in math/writing/string music) for middle school students (6-8 grades). Any suggestions? I am looking for enrichment opportunities that can bring a student a deeper engagement with a subject (also give him an experience to be away from parents--I am sure that will be appreciated). The purpose is to help the student build social and academic skills, not necessarily with the distant college application in mind (otherwise it would be crazy, even here at cc, right? :)).</p>
<p>There are many great choices: Stanford EPGY Summer, Duke TIP, Vanderbilt Summer Academy, JHU-CTY, Interlochen.
You might find the Hoagies website a helpful resource.</p>
<p>If they can quality, THINK at the Davidson Institute is great. Your didn’t mention foreign language, but Concordia Language Villages have some nice programs for that age group.</p>
<p>As you probabably know, middle school activities don’t go on college applications. But they can position your student for more selective programs in high school if they have a specific area of interest.</p>
<p>I did the Duke TIP program for 2 years and loved it. Actually, I know maybe 2 people out of the hundreds who did it that didn’t love it. And it offers classes in all different subject areas - I took one in fantasy literature and one about American politics, but I have friends who took economics, game theory, screenwriting, writing with power, music history courses, philosophy and basically everything else under the sun. Everyone had a much deeper understanding of the subject material at the end of the 3 weeks, and everyone had made really close friends as well.</p>