Hi! I recently got into to Georgetown’s International resources summer program. It is NOT a summer courses and i do not a college credit. It is a week program that you had to be accepted into where you learn about international affairs. I have a genuine interest in this, but i am deciding between this and a summer camp. I am in ninth grade and so far have fantastic grades in hard classes, but my school is super competitive, and i want something that will look fantastic on my college applications. Should i do it?
A one week summer program won’t “look fantastic” on your apps. Quite a few students pay a lot of money for these programs and they’re simply not worth it. I certainly wouldn’t pay almost $3,000 plus travel expenses for a one week program from Georgetown’s “International Relations Institute”. Quite frankly I’m surprised accredited institutions are allowed to rip people off like this.
@danfer91 Jeez nearly $3k for only a week?!?! I agree with you this is insane. I thought $3k month programs were a rip off, this is a whole new level
Long story short, you can go if you want to, but you’ll only get what you make out of it. Summer programs, unless prestigious, tend not to have a large effect on college apps (or so I’ve heard—I’m not quite sure about this, though). Regardless, a VERY expensive, week long summer program will not have much, if any, positive effect on your college application. The price is one of the highest I’ve seen (in price per week terms).
If you’re interested in International Relations, I’d recommend that you wait and apply to NSLI-Y next fall (if that interests you). Quite a few applicants are interested in IR, and NSLI-Y is a quite selective, and affordable program—the only costs are transportation to the airport, personal spending money, and fees associated with excess baggage and obtaining a passport. If NSLI-Y doesn’t suit your fancy, I’d look into other ways to spend your summer other than attending expensive programs.
If it’s something you want to do and it’s something that you will benefit greatly from and will be able to have a great takeaway from then you should do it. Keep in mind, though, that there are other options, and that you can also do multiple programs in one summer. If money is not a constraint I would recommend doing multiple programs. (Also what is the summer camp? is it something you are passionate about?) 3,000 is a lot of money, but if you think it is worth it, then do it. Do not do something just because colleges will think it’s great, do it because you will enjoy it and gain a lot from it.
For other summer programs I would recommend:
-National Security Language Initiative for Youth (if you want more information on this, please feel free to contact me, I participated last summer)
-Univeristy of Texas Austin Summer Project on Conflict Resolution (pretty affordable, one week and two-week programs)
-Model United Nations summer programs (at many different universities)
-Federal Service Language Academy at the University of North Georgia (also very affordable, you can get high school credit as well)(if you want more information on this you can message me, I participated in it)
-Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy
-Concordia Language Villages
-Volunteering/interning with a refugee resettlement agency
-Duke TIP
-Programs like the one you might be going to that are also at other colleges
There’s a lot more but those are the ones I know of or have participated in. Best of luck to you!
If you have any questions concerning IR and college options, feel free to message me. I am planning to study something similar in university.