<p>I have a choice to make very very soon:
1. Harvard SSP:
I got $6000 Financial Aid out of $8500 grand total.
2. Carnegie Mellon Summer Program for Diversity
I got into the AP/EA program. It's totally free.
I'll take two courses at either one of them.</p>
<p>Now obviously Harvard has a much higher reputation and I would love to go there for real college. But will the summer experience help me? Do Harvard admission people give more consideration towards SSPers?</p>
<p>Any advice will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Regarding Harvard SSP and many other university programs where you have to pay thousands to attend: they're not selective at all, and it doesn't help you as much as you think for undergrad admissions. They have a bunch of empty classrooms with hundreds of high school willing to pay thousands to attend.</p>
<p>My cousin with a 3.3 gpa, sophomore, no psat got into Harvard SSP. He's not attending. My best friend got into NYU Precollege, got a 4.0, and was rejected for undergrad. I mean of course it'd be better to have it than not to have it on your application, but just keep in mind it won't give you the big boost your looking for. </p>
<p>If Carnegie is offering the same course Harvard is for free, def go to Carnegie.</p>
<p>Thanks Jay1020. I decided to ditch Harvard in favor of CMU. :D And I feel pretty happy about that.</p>