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Well, it’s not really important–you’re obviously not participating in a program to impress college adcoms, you’re doing it to benefit yourself educationally and developmentally.</p>
<p>But anyway, free > paid, usually. That’s because many paid programs will accept anyone with the money, while free programs/scholarships are much more competitive. This is not always true, of course.</p>
<p>There are plenty of free programs–if you start looking early, that is. Like, December/January.</p>
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<p>I always say that the summer before junior year is pretty important, and the one before senior year is the most important. But I don’t understand the “God-forbid” part–many people do summer programs in middle school and after freshman year. It’s not uncommon. At the very least, that shows motivation to colleges, paid program or not.</p>