<p>Did anyone who got accepted to the university of chicago, do summer session? Does it help with admissions?</p>
<p>my college counselor at school said it really doesn't make a difference... he used to be on an admissions board</p>
<p>It depends. If attendance is part of a larger picture that shows a passion for something, such as Egyptology, it can help.</p>
<p>thanks, i guess. i was hoping it did. does it show that your enthusiastic about the school?</p>
<p>I am sure that that fact that I took ancient Greek over the past summer and received an 'A' helped - especially because the professor is notoriously difficult and there will always be a dearth of Classics majors. I backed up my interest in Classics by the fact that I have taken Latin for four years now, and I currently am auditing Intermediate Greek through the College. So, it worked for me.</p>
<p>I doubt that your run-of--mill calc course at the U. of C. will help as much as Greek did for me, but, since you will be taking Arabic, I bet you have a leg up. </p>
<p>That said, I don't think the summer course will be the deciding factor, as that is probably one of many things they take into consideration. But it will no doubt help, especially if you receive a good grade, thereby proving that you are at the level to do U. of C. work.</p>
<p>idad,</p>
<p>In your example, it is the passion for a subject that counts, NOT the summer school itself, so the answer to the OP continues to be NO.</p>
<p>I find it sad that so many elite colleges don't go further to dispel the rumor that summer session attendance helps admissions. Indeed, I suspect that some subtly encourage the misconception, in order to full up space in the summer.</p>
<p>This is something that can never be totally proven one way or another. However, I feel that the summer session may have helped in my son's case. He had an "A" and 6 credits on his transcript plus a reference from the prof (who also teaches "regular" bio classes). The particular program he was in--RIBS--was acknowledged to be the "most difficult" of the summer for hs students. (This was alluded to at the orientation.) The kids worked in the lab from 9 am till about 5 pm, sometimes much later. I know several other students from RIBS who were offered admission to Chicago. When I spoke briefly about it to a friend who's involved in minority recruitment, she said they regarded the students who took classes on campus as having a serious interest in the school. (This is someone with whom my husband had ties, and i don't think she would have made this up.)</p>
<p>This doesn't mean that other summer activities or courses at other schools can't also help. The Chicago programs cost a ton, and cost can be a valid consideration. It doesn't offer a sure lock on anything --what does these days? But, if it's financiall feasible, and it's something you'd love to study (otherwise it would be silly to go), I would say to do it.</p>
<p>Cami215-</p>
<p>I was considering taking the RIBS program this past summer, though my final decision was Greek. My Latin teacher (a Classics grad student at the U. of C.) pushed me to take the Greek, as she thought it would be a test of survival of the fittest and a way for me to learn my Greek quickly. It was both, and I am very pleased with the course and how much I learned in a mere nine weeks. Like the RIBS program, summer Greek and O-Chem are probably the most difficult courses to conquer in a short time period.</p>
<p>I wonder is anyone has taken two U. of C. summer courses: one for high schoolers and the other for anyone (high schoolers, college, grad). I did the latter, but I am wondering how the courses compare.</p>
<p>newmassdad: That, in effect, was what I was trying to convey. Perhaps I should have been clearer.</p>
<p>As for cost, I have an interesting anecdote. My S is quite interested in Mandarin & Chinese Culture. I noticed that Chicago had a summer Chinese immersion program. Since he had a close friend attending who was doing something in Egyptology, he & I thought it might be fun for him. That is until we looked at the cost. I remember sitting back and saying, woa, I'll bet for half of that I could send him to a great program in China. I was wrong, it cost a third as much and he spent the summer before his senior year at a university in Beijing truly immersed.</p>
<p>He got to show his passion, and I got to save a lot of money.</p>
<p>cami, you may be correct, but when we faced similar decisions for my D a few years ago, I realized that the MAIN thing these summer programs prove is that you can afford many thousands for a summer program, so you probably have assets beyond what you put on your FAFSA forms (grandparents, perhaps?) and are even LESS likely to need financial aid.</p>
<p>So, yea, it may help at those schools that don't have enough financial aid money to go around?</p>
<p>(the above is just slightly tongue in cheek, not for completely literal consumption!)</p>
<p>Newmassdad - You are certainly right about the cost of the programs! We had already done a guestimate FAFSA and realized that fin aid was a lost cause. </p>
<p>You even guessed our benefactor. ;) In our case, it was a "Nana" of modest means but scrupulous savings habits. It was a generous surprise presented to our children after her death, and has helped them enormously. </p>
<p>Katharos - I'd be curious to get the answer to that question. Our own experience was limited to the credit classes for high school students. This was what I was referring to when I talked about the "most intensive" course. Undoubtedly, there were other regular campus offerings that put the students through a series of equally or even more challenging hoops. </p>
<p>The one thing I will say about RIBS is that the hours in the lab were loooong! Since the schedule is determined by the particular experiment, the students often weren't sure when they'd be able to leave....i.e., you can't just walk out when you're waiting for a particular reaction to occur.</p>
<p>Has anyone taken a Chinese class in the summer program for High School students?</p>
<p>Cami-</p>
<p>I was so tempted by the RIBS program, as I have heard so many good things about it. Perhaps I should have taken it, as it would have given me (a homeschooler with limited lab experience) more lab than I would probably ever want!</p>
<p>OK, now for my pet peeve. I am sure your son received a UC summer session shirt like I did with the words "Learn, Play, Live" on the back. Based on my experiences, I have to complain about it:</p>
<p>"Learn" - Yeah, you are learning. You are learning so much that your brain is expanding so much that it is turning to Jell-O and you can't think straight - especially after staring at pages of paradigms for the past eight hours. . .</p>
<p>"Play" - What the heck?!?! I know I didn't have time to "play" during the summer, much less breathe. I am sure some of the more fluff courses gave students time to enjoy their summer, but this was not the case for me.</p>
<p>"Live" - So, you just got up at 6 a.m. after studying until 1:30 a.m. You are exhausted but know you can't go to sleep because you have to cram for that morning's quiz - and you still haven't figured out all of those beautiful linguistical terms! More like "die," to me.</p>
<p>While this is all true for me, I truly enjoyed the summer course and feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to study at this great university.</p>
<p>I'm done now. :)</p>
<p>Oh My God Katharos.
Now I am terribly scared. I'm taking 3rd year arabic. What should I expect? (i am fluent though, my grammer is just garbage as is my classical arabic) but still i am truly scared now. And i will be commuting (that means 6:30 am in the trainstation every day!!!</p>
<p>Nada-</p>
<p>Well, since you are fluent and just need to get up to snuff on your grammar, I say you need not worry. :) But, you will probably have your work cut out for you.</p>
<p>I took a difficult dead langauge, and I had virtually no background in Greek, whereas you have quite a lot of background in Arabic.</p>
<p>I wish you luck, though, and I might see you around on campus.</p>
<p>just out of curiosity are you male or female? (i'm guessing female)</p>
<p>You guessed correctly. I am female.</p>
<p>And what about you?
(Computer screen names are so confusing at times. . .)</p>
<p>nada02, Katharos, don't you find that one's syntax and tone can be pretty indicative of gender? I mean, you've both studied languages and linguistics...I don't know, I haven't studied nearly as much as you two have, but I'm sort of starting to see a pattern.</p>
<p>i am female as well.. i kind of figured when somewhere you said you used to do ballet</p>
<p>pip-pip-</p>
<p>I can guess by it, but it is not a sure sign, as in the case of JacknJill, whom I thought was a girl, as I based my thoughts on his screen name.</p>
<p>nada-</p>
<p>Correct. But that is no more - though I might start it up again at the U. of C.</p>