<p>If you really want to ‘impress’ yourself, do something else that others don’t really have an opportunity. For example, if you play a musical instrument, go to a music camp somewhere. </p>
<p>Ask a professor if you can intern with them. Of course, this late in the year and your age. Although you don’t have much a chance, try anyways. You might get something …</p>
<p>Other things you can do:
-Entrepreneur (really, no one thinks of this): try designing something. If you know some programming in some language, do that. Make a game, or something. (My friend and I [mostly my friend, but i help a small important part] have been making a MUD, using Java. It would certainly do some good, if not a lot.
-Volunteer in something special: That can mean going international somewhere to help teach english to some development country. Look around.</p>
<p>Basically, your choices for a “summer program” do not exist any more (not that there are many to begin with ). The rest that are still ‘available’ are either crappy/useless, as you mention.</p>
<p>If you still decide to stay with a summer program, [url=<a href=“http://atdp.berkeley.edu/]Academic”>http://atdp.berkeley.edu/]Academic</a> Talent Development Program<a href=“since%20you%20live%20in%20the%20bay%20area”>/url</a> provides a few courses still available. Since you have a good GPA, you should be able to get in. (This is my backup in case I don’t get into SAMS, which i won’t, but we’ll see).</p>
<p>Adcoms pick who they want their university to have. So if Princeton thinks they want [X type of person] for whatever reason, they will probably pick over me even if I have participated in more “prestigious” summer programs than .</p>
<p>Summer programs will help, but not tremendously–I’d say essays, recommendations, etc. count for a lot more.</p>
<p>A7 – seriously, go check that book out the library today. You will have a much more fulfilling high school experience and make yourself more desirable to colleges if you can follow this guy’s advice. (I was going to capitalize MUCH and AND, but didn’t want to annoy anyone :p).</p>
<p>Oh… if you have the required test scores (and the cash :(), the Davidson Institute THINK summer program in Reno is still taking applications. My daughter has done this for a couple of summers, and loves it.</p>
<p>I have realized that every hospital in my community requires volunteers to be at least 16, even if they previously stated 15 as the minimum age on their site.</p>
<p>Davidson Institute requests that all applicants report their SAT or ACT exam scores, neither of which I have completed yet because they are reserved for higher grade levels.
However, I am still continuing to research for other programs that I am eligible to apply, so thank you.</p>
<p>Oh hey, I go to MSJ too. (I’m a junior, though.)</p>
<p>^SAT and ACT aren’t reserved for higher grade levels. Where did you hear that from? I took the SAT in 8th grade, so I don’t see why you can’t take it. (In fact, at least three people in our grade, including me, were done with SAT I in sophomore year, so it’s not just juniors and seniors that take it.)</p>
<p>You can still try to get into ATDP, so I guess you could try that. I don’t have any other suggestions for summer programs this year (because I went to CTY after 9th grade, which needs PSAT/SAT/ACT scores). One tip if you want to increase your chances of getting into summer programs with competitive admission: try to distinguish yourself in class and get friendly with your teachers. Some of the “smartest” people in our grade are not outgoing at all and don’t really do much in class; hence, admissions for both summer programs and colleges are not looking good. (I think we’ll have a lot of “smart” people go to Berkeley or UCLA instead of top private colleges because of this.)</p>
<p>This can be difficult because we don’t have a lot of good teachers; your best bet for recs next year are in honors English (which has decent teachers) and honors chemistry (where you’ll have a slightly better than 0.5 chance of getting the good teacher). Avoid AP Chem until senior year; AP Physics and AP Bio will likely have better teachers. Go on Missionpedia for more info, because you’ll want to use it for junior year course selection. I’m pretty sure you could get this advice from upperclassmen when you’re a sophomore, but I’m just letting you know now as a heads up.</p>
<p>^Agreed. Better to take SATs as early as possible than to put it off until later. And unless you are very good at english (which most mathy/science types of people are not), you will have trouble breaking 2300+ or even 2200.</p>
<p>Yup, as Energize said, SAT and ACT are not reserved for higher grade levels. Quite a few kids take them in middle school as part of the various talent search programs around the country (CTY, Duke TIPS, NUMATs, etc.). But if you haven’t taken it, then you are right, you can’t apply for Davidson THINK. Just thought I would suggest it in case you have, since I knew that they have some openings.</p>
<p>@energize
Thanks. All my upperclassmen siblings advise me against taking AP chem in junior year, even if the subject will still be fresh in my memory after taking honors chem in sophomore year.</p>
<p>Next year when I apply to summer programs(and not make the lethal mistake of applying to only one) I will try to be more outgoing to secure better teacher recommendations.</p>
<p>I’m deciding to dedicate my entire summer to volunteering at a small hospital in an under-served area and another health clinic.</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree that some of the sophomore teachers are very good and probably write good recs too. However, make sure to ask them for recs early on in the year; even if it’s not time for them to fill it out yet, ask first and make sure they’ll write one for you later on! Otherwise soon enough the better teachers will refuse to write any more letters and you’ll be stuck asking teachers who aren’t as good/you don’t know as well.</p>
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<p>I’m starting to regret choosing AP Chem. Sigh.</p>
<p>Also, Academics7, I’m not sure if you can still apply to Berkeley’s ATDP, but if you can, that could be a stepping stone to other programs. Depending on what cluster you choose, you can actually learn quite a lot.</p>
<p>Since I have already asked all three of my honors teachers for recommendations this year, they will probably refuse to write me another one, and ATDP closed its applications in March.
I’ll apply to ATDP AP Biology next year in addition to other research opportunities that only allow sophomores-seniors.</p>
<p>Best to apply to ATDP anyways, for the remaining AP class available: environmental science.</p>
<p>I applied to Biology and I didn’t get in, even though I had excellent stats. They stated that they “usually” give the spots to existing students first, then to new students if there is any space. Needless to say, they didn’t have any space left (my friend made it in, and he had virtually the same stats as I did, but he was a returning student).</p>
<p>Second the recommendation of the Cal Newport book, because it will change how you are approaching this issue.
You may also find it interesting to read “What High Schools Don’t Tell You” by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross. She has an extensive discussion of summer choices.</p>
<p>I think you should give all of your honors teachers all the letters of recommendations at once or at least make a copy of what they wrote so they don’t have to rewrite all the letters again.</p>
I don’t know if this applies to most programs or just to our school, but we’re not allowed to read or copy our letters of rec. I agree though, giving them all the rec forms at once is a good idea.
Or, when you first ask them for letters of rec, notify them that you’re also planning on applying to so-and-so and would appreciate it if they’d also recommend you for that. Of course, you’d have to plan a little ahead of time on what programs you might want to apply for. Ask them to save a copy of the letter that they wrote for you.</p>
<p>Depends on the teacher/counselor/etc. Some teachers at my school (and all the counselors) require students to sign a waiver of their rec-viewing rights, first. Other teachers had me proofread the whole thing for them XD.</p>
<p>I know ATDP is open on a space availability basis for AP Environmental Science, except that I do not qualify for the “completion of High School chemistry” requirement. </p>
<p>Quote:
“Or, when you first ask them for letters of rec, notify them that you’re also planning on applying to so-and-so and would appreciate it if they’d also recommend you for that. Of course, you’d have to plan a little ahead of time on what programs you might want to apply for. Ask them to save a copy of the letter that they wrote for you.”</p>
<p>@archaic, thanks.
I agree it would be best to notify teachers of all the summer programs near the beginning of the year, rather than request a new recommendation each time.</p>
). The rest that are still ‘available’ are either crappy/useless, as you mention.</p>