Don’t colleges want reports of all high school courses taken? So, are the “preview” classes offered by the private high schools different from the credit classes they also offer in that it’s understood that this is meant to be hush hush and no official documents of the student taking the course will be created? If that’s the case, it should be clear to everyone that this is all ethically rather questionable.
The common app does ask students how they spent their summers. I would say that omitting to mention taking a summer course of any substance (say more than a few days workshop) would constitute falsification.
These days it seems one can ace a class by simply becoming proficient with the materials (rather than being in top 5~10% who truly masters and beyond). If a student was still likely to get a B or C without the preview, then even going through the entire course for the second might be still challenging enough for that student, and may give him better understanding of the material.
One might think that such student shouldn’t have registered for the course to begin with. But who has right to judge someone who is trying as hard as he can for his future?
I should be on my knees thanking God for miracles. My kid never took any summer academics, held a summer job, or completed (started?) his school-suggested summer reading. My impression was he lounged and slept a lot, yet he was accepted to more than one school people here drone on about. How could that possibly be? He should have been left in the dust. Just lucky, I guess.
Are they really in short supply or do kids just not want to do them? The place where my daughter works is understaffed. At her High School in the IB program she was the only kid out of 75 in her class with a job last summer.
@ChoatieMom Because your son instead worked very hard during the school period?
" My impression was he lounged and slept a lot"
Mine only lounged and slept for the first two months of Summer vacation. Then I suddenly found that she is now few inches taller than my wife. So it must be good thing.
Then she imagined how well her classmates from China may be prepared for math. And she got scared.
On the Jersey shore, boardwalk stores are importing J9 (?) visa students from Ireland and Bulgaria to fill all of the summer jobs (bc they pay them less) … so summer part time jobs are truly in short supply for local HS kids…
When my son was 16 (summer soph to jr year) he did a 3 week program at UMD Young Scholars where he took 1 class - he took something he couldn’t get exposed to at his HS and it WAS THE BEST THING HE EVER DID! He had the time of his life! He met and bonded with the greatest group of kids that he has maintained close contact with - they have had multiple get togethers even though they all went on to different colleges. This gave him a great sneak peek at college life etc and motivated him to no end. The professor was top notch and inspiring. The program cost about 2500$ BUT there were scholarships offered for financial need kids- and son meet many who took that up. I can’t recommend that experience highly enough!
The next summer he wanted to take statistics in HS but couldn’t fit it in his schedule so he took that at our local community college (as well as participating in non profit volunteer work) again there is aid for FA need kids. It was great exposure to help figure out his college major choices… whether he might like actuarial science work or not…
He met and befriended a very diverse group of immigrants that he would never have had the chance to be exposed to/meet in HS… he learned so much about what life was like for them that it was an incredible eye opening experience … they got together and had international dinners and took the city buses together to each others neighborhoods
This summer before college he has a job now that he is 18 at my husbands employment and is saving spending money for college.
Taking those courses /programs where super fun and SUPER helpful to him!! I think this is NOT A BAD THING! Again there is financial aid for need students… Don’t just dis it they can be valuable growth experiences for kids.
No.
“Sponsors must inform program participants of Federal Minimum Wage requirements and ensure that, at a minimum, participants are compensated at the prevailing local wage, which must meet the higher of either the applicable state or the Federal minimum wage requirement, including payment for overtime in accordance with state-specific employment”
I heartily agree, it’s a lot of work/hassle and possibly costly. And for what? Only 4 months max of employment. They wouldn’t do it unless if they are really short handed.
pre-IB students at our high school pretty much have to take health online to make their 9th grade schedule work. But what else do you do the summer before 9th grade?
My kids never took any summer academic courses. I usually signed them up for more music and dance lessons in the summer and we went on summer vacations.
RE the J1 program… though they are not supposed to THEY DO take jobs away from local kids while the pay rate is the same (hourly)… employers don’t have to pay a lot of the regular taxes: Social security Medicare or unemployment taxes therefore they end up savings 7 or 8 % PER WORKER… It is a known fact at the Jersey Shore the jobs all go to foreign visa students…
"However, one solution, which could potentially amount to an additional one million summer jobs for youth over the next ten years, has been largely neglected. Every year, anywhere from 80,000 to 150,000 summer jobs are delegated to foreign university students who are visiting on the Summer Work Travel (SWT) category of the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program.
Over the past few decades, the J-1 visa, which is primarily supposed to function as a cultural exchange program, has been repeatedly criticized for its lax regulations and poor structure. Two reports, one by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the other by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), have documented the many problems with the SWT program, revealing participants that have been exposed to harsh working and living conditions, below minimum wages, and, at the extreme, human trafficking and illicit money transfer schemes.2 The program, which has become mainly a cheap labor program, also lacks protection for domestic workers who may be displaced or negatively affected by J-1 visa participants, due in part to the fact that it falls under the Department of State, rather than the more appropriate Department of Labor…"
My D did it all wrong, then - she took summer school every year - except the summer between junior and senior year - to take easy grad requirement courses like Consumer’s Ed, Driver’s Ed, Health, etc.
And those were courses she would have done well in, anyway, I believe, if she’d taken them during the school year, but she took them in summer, so she could still take Band and Spanish all four years.
eta: I remember now, she did re-take a class she’d taken earlier in spring semester, Pre-Calc, so she could improve her grade. She had received a C, and got a B during summer.
