Summer Programs: Recommendations from Parents

<p>Have any of you californians every done the COSMOS program for math and science kids? It was mentioned here already, but I can't tell if the poster actually attended, or knew someone who had. I'm especially interested in the social factors, such as what the kids get to do when they're not iin classes.</p>

<p>Has anyone experience with Pepperdine's Summer Program (4 wks), Davidson's (3 weeks), Trinity's or University of Richmond's? Also, we've gotten mail about the summer-long Harvard program. Any recommendations?</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies, BLUMINI, backhandgrip, and TutuTaxi. I was not aware of ballet talk. Backhandgrip, my daughter was at Burklyn last summer (last 2 weeks). Perhaps I saw your daughter perform.</p>

<p>Have you visited the UC COSMOS websites? Each campus has different programs and different activities:</p>

<p>COSMOS at UC Davis
<a href="http://www.cosmos.ucdavis.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cosmos.ucdavis.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>COSMOS at UC Irvine
<a href="http://www.cosmos.uci.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cosmos.uci.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>COSMOS at UC Santa Cruz
<a href="http://epc.ucsc.edu/cosmos/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://epc.ucsc.edu/cosmos/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>COSMOS at UC San Diego [brand new program]
<a href="http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/cosmos/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/cosmos/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Most websites have pictures, schedules and other information of interest from the 2004 summer program. COSMOS is not all classroom instruction. There are lots of off-campus excursions on Saturdays and interesting lab work, speakers, etc. during the week. The curriculum and excursions vary by campus.</p>

<p>All of these recommendations have been excellent so far, but I was wondering if anybody had any experience with the Stanford University Mathematics Camp or the Summer Science Program. I would love to go to a math/science program this summer and am curious about these programs. Also if anybody has other suggestions for math/science camps that would be great too!</p>

<p>to A.S.A.P.: my son (currently a high school sophomore) did the COSMOS program last summer at UC Irvine. He absolutely loved it. Classes (lectures and labs) took up most of the day, and several evenings. He did the astronomy and astrophysics course, and the class spent several evenings working in the observatory. There were structured activities available during the "down"times, but my son spent much of his down time hanging out with friends in the dorm playing cards. One weekend in the middle of the program is set aside for "going home" if students wish, and students may also go home each Sunday. However, activities were available for those who chose not to go home. He seemed busy and engaged and only called home two or three times during the entire four-week program.</p>

<p>Math camps:
<a href="http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>For Science, CTY (various locations) offers a variety of science classes.</p>

<p>Going home on weekends is not the norm for COSMOS students. It is a residential program and students are expected to remain on campus. Each COSMOS campus does have its own set of rules and expectations. </p>

<p>For example, at UC Davis, each student's COSMOS schedule is built around a cluster consisting of one 4-week core course, two 2-week supplemental courses, and a science writing/communications course. On a typical day, COSMOS students attend special lectures, take courses, or participate in labs or course-related field trips. Recreation and study groups are built into the evening and weekend schedules. Special activities and supervised field trips are planned for the weekends. Social and cultural events and friendly competitions, including dorm Olympics, Karaoke Night, a Talent Show, Ice Cream Socials, Scavenger Hunts, Casino Night, and a Closing Dance have been popular in the past. Evening activities such as COSMOS Jeopardy, karaoke, and a student-organized talent show are highlights as well. </p>

<p>There is a 30-page student handbook online [actually a .pdf] states: For the weekends during the COSMOS program, we have planned three large all-COSMOS outings. We will take a trip to Six Flags Marine World, another trip to San Francisco, and a third trip to Lake Tahoe. Student dorm rooms do not have telephones or internet access.</p>

<p>The UC Santa Cruz 45-page student handbook mentions that on weekend field trips all students must wear a COSMOS t-shirt. For the first time, COSMOS students will have phone and internet access in their rooms. Weekend field trips were to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, San Francisco Exploratorium and Elkhorn Slough Safari Boating and Kayaking.</p>

<p>Each COSMOS campus has its own uniqueness!</p>

<p>How competitive is COSMOS for out-of-state students? I (sophomore) have 213 PSAT (76 Math), A in Calculus, 800 in Math IIC, am active member in math and science clubs, and will probably barely qualify for the AIME this year.</p>

<p>It's not your stats but the ridiculously high cost that makes COSMOS prohibitive for out-of-state students. </p>

<p>Tuition for the 2005 COSMOS Program is $1,600 for California residents. The tuition for out-of-state residents is $6,200. This fee covers the costs of housing, meals, field trips, and special events. And out-of-state students aren't eligible for financial aid!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cosmos.ucdavis.edu/Admission.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cosmos.ucdavis.edu/Admission.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>S did OGI-Saturday School. Actually 8 week paid internship and presentation. He got in with Mentor Graphics, was put into a closet with computer servers, working alone. Learn JAVA from scratch and completed the project ahead of time and didn't report in for the last week. Got a great college recommendation from the mentor at Mentor. </p>

<p>Learns by self new computer languages and programs during freetime, summer and again this Xmas break. Got himself a position assistanceship with major prof at CMU and finished a biomech, PITT project this past summer. </p>

<p>Offered, but no thanks, on John Hopkins summer programs, nearest JH school was in 200 miles away in Seattle and was not interested in JH online stuff.</p>

<p>S attended TIP for 3 summers; Summer Institute for Math & Physics at Stanford; D did PTY at Vanderbilt and Summer Scholars at W & L. S also worked as a counselor for Duke one summer and Vanderbilt the next. All good experiences, but the best program experience from a parent's point of view was PTY. Not lots of curriculum choices, but great teachers, activities, wonderful staff. Structure and rules are reasonable and comforting, but I didn't know how much until D's experience the next year with a fairly unsupervised experience that didn't conform to published rules. PTY is not widely publicized, but info is available on Vanderbilt's website.</p>

<p>All I can find is 2004 information. Are they having it this year?</p>

<p>Does anyone know if Muhlenberg does a summer program for high school students? My dd's a dancer, but doesn't want to do ballet - she'd rather do jazz or tap, and I know Muhlenberg's big in those areas.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>cowpernia,
I e-mailed the program director for info on your question. Information on PTY is currently being updated, but session dates are 6/5-25 & 7/3-23. June classes are Math, Lit/Film, Architecture, and Chaos/Game Theory. July courses are Astronomy, History, Computer Science, and Philosophy.</p>

<p>Has anyone had any experience with Cornell's summer program? My dd is looking into it for its psychology class. Thanks.</p>

<p>Anyone know of any good, not too expensive photography programs for the summer? </p>

<p>I've looked into the Maine Photograpy Workshops (<a href="http://www.theworkshops.com/highschool/index.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.theworkshops.com/highschool/index.asp&lt;/a&gt;), which look great and I like the length of time (2 weeks). Anyone have any experience with this?</p>

<p>It doesn't really fit the description of "not too expensive", but you might want to take a look at the School of Cinema & Performing Arts (SOCAPA) in New York (<a href="http://www.socapa.org/hs/photo_intro.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.socapa.org/hs/photo_intro.htm&lt;/a&gt;). I know a few kids who went to the Urban Dance program and loved it.</p>

<p>I'm not a parent, but if any of you are from NC then you should consider Summer</a> Ventures if your kid is in 10-11th grade and interested in science or math. Its a free 4-week program held at various NC colleges on varying topics in math and science, and everybody I know who has gone loved it. It's not quite as hard to get in as Governor's School, but one person I know who went SV in 10th grade and Governor's School in 11th grade for academics said he liked SV more (Governor's School here in NC is heavily oriented towards the humanities/arts/performing arts).</p>

<p>Chedva:</p>

<p>S did Cornell last summer after Soph year; not psychology, but the Western civ class. It was a wonderful experience, both for him and us parents (kid didn't spend much time away from home). Gave him a little taste of freedom and what college might be like, even tho the dorms were old -- girls got the better buildings! In addition to classwork, they planned optional weekend and evening activities.</p>

<p>I was extremely impressed with their organization, and I recommend it highly.<br>
The only negative for us was that the nightly bed check reminded me of Sgt. Schultz in Hogan's Heroes.... he counts all the noses at bed time, but then 'see's nothing'.....</p>