Summer School Help - What do I do?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Ok, I will get right to the point. </p>

<p>I have been accepted to three summer school programs: an eight week program at Stanford, a three week program at Bryn Mawr College (Urban Studies), and a three week program at the College of William and Mary (early American history). </p>

<p>I also took the SATs in April, and I did not do as well as I would have liked (1980 CR: 670, M: 630, W: 680). I am very disappointed in my math score, so I retook the test this May hoping that I would do better. However, I need to make a decision now upon which summer school program I want to go to.</p>

<p>The Stanford program will obviously last throughout the whole summer, meaning that I may not get as intensive SAT as I would if I only went to one of the three-week programs. (I will be retaking the SAT in October.) The Bryn Mawr program and the College of William and Mary program occur at the same time, so that's a little problem in of itself. If I do choose to go to one of the three-week programs, I will still be spending time away from home as well as having the rest of the summer to study for my SATs in October.</p>

<p>I do not how well I will do on the May SAT, but I am hoping that my math SAT score will be around the 650-700 level. So...should I leave my SAT scores as it is and attend Stanford and have fun, yet risk the possibility of not being able to apply to other prestigious schools (including Stanford) with steller SAT scores? Or should I attend a shorter summer program, have the summer to study for the SATs, and apply to other prestigious schools (including Stanford) with higher SAT scores (hopefully 2100+). </p>

<p>Other information that may be helpful: I have a raising GPA, with a 4.0 unweighted for third quarter. I also took the ACT, and I got a 30. I currently have 1 AP (US History), and my senior year schedule is very strong: AP Euro, AP English Lit, independent study second quarter in AP English Lang, AP Calc AB, AP Stat, AP Econ (Micro), and AP Econ (Macro). </p>

<p>Bottom Line:
Attend Stanford summer school (my dream school) for the whole summer, not as enough SAT prep, risk applying to prestigious schools with SAT scores around the 1980-2100 range?</p>

<p>or</p>

<p>Attend a shorter summer program (either W+M or Bryn Mawr), lots of intensive SAT prep, apply to prestigious schools with stronger SAT scores around the 2100+ range.</p>

<p>Sorry for such a long post...please help this confused teenager!</p>

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<p>Um, no offense intended, but if you can't handle both the Stanford Summer Program AND SAT prep at the same time I'm not optimistic about your ability to handle the workload at an elite. JMHO.</p>

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<p>"Attend a shorter summer program (either W+M or Bryn Mawr), lots of intensive SAT prep, apply to prestigious schools with stronger SAT scores around the 2100+ range."</p>

<p>I hate the idea of your spending your summer spending huge amounts of time on SAT prep. I don't think that the Stanford program will look better or worse than one of the others - I think that you should pick the program that interests you most. With a less lengthy program you might be able to do some volunteer or real work that would be of more value to you. I agree with the previous poster - you ought to be able to go to a summer program and spend some time every day on SAT prep as well - you just have to be disciplined.</p>

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<p>I am definately disciplined and determined enough to do both SAT prep and summer school at the same time. However, at Stanford summer school there are so many different opportunites to take advantage of that there may not be as many hours in the day to devote entirely to SAT prep. I am just worried that my scores will not improve as dramatically as they would if I had an entire day to devote to studying as opposed to a couple of hours.</p>