[Asking on behalf of my daughter since she doesn’t have or want a CC account. :)]
My daughter has done a few summer programs, most of which are pay to play - i.e., even if they do technically make you apply, for the most part anyone who is willing to pay for the program can go. One possible exception to that is the ACLU Summer Institute, which she participated in between 10th and 11th grade. I did have to pay for her to go, but I’ve heard it’s actually kind of hard to get in. (She also did a 3-week JSA summer program for high school credit, which might also be hard to get in. I’m not sure.) Other summer things she did were a public speaking class with Education Unlimited (no school credit offered), something called Business Week Washington, and maybe 1-2 other programs.
Would those summer programs go under Activities? Or in Additional Information? Are they even worth mentioning?
For the summer programs where she received school credit–those will show up on her high school transcript.
Another thing to note about college applications: there is a limited number of extracurriculars and honors/awards that you can list on the common app. This is because (1) admission officers don’t have time to read through each student’s hundreds of accomplishments and (2) they want you to only provide the activities or honors that you were most involved in, achieved the most in, or have the most impact/relevant to the major you would like to pursue at their college.
That said, if she has one or two of all those summer programs that were really impactful for her (allowed her to see what she is passionate about/wants to study) or in which she received an award in those would be useful to list. Just because she got into a competitive summer program doesn’t mean she should list it on the common app (although that is an awesome accomplishment, there are more important things to put on there).
If you do not want use one of the few spots that you can list extracurricular activities in, she could mention the programs in one of her essays if it is relevant to the topic!
Thanks. It’s very closely related to her #1 EC, which was being founder and president of the ACLU club at her school. It gave her lots of ideas of topics to cover in the club. Her essay touches on her ACLU work but isn’t 100% about it. I’m wondering if she should just put it under her ACLU EC in the Activities section?