Assume, hypothetically, that you kid got admitted to two summer programs, a top 6-week math program and a top 4-week music program. But the dates are overlapping. Kid would do both if he could make it work, which obviously is not an option.
Which one will you choose? Assume that cost is identical/not a concern, and distance from home is the same. Living conditions are identical.
I’d encourage the kid to decide.
Cop out. 
I’d pick the music program, if everything else was equal, because it leaves more summer left for other things.
Fair point EK, though it could be turned around. The remaining time the kid will be in the parents’ hair complaining that he is bored so the parent will have to find yet another summer camp.
The program the kid wants to go to the most. Summer is for enrichment, but also rejuvenation.
“Cop out” and a smiley face?
The kid wants to go to both programs the most. That’s the problem.
Wellspring, I have to be the tie breaker, so I can’t just pass it back to the kid. The kid doesn’t know what to do, though he knew full well when applying to both that they are overlapping. I guess he thought he wouldn’t get accepted into both which are both very competitive, but now that he has, what to do?
If the kid choosing what’s important to him is a cop out, I guess it still depends on the kid then – do you want to see him 4 weeks or 6 weeks out of the summer?
I don’t want him to go to either!!! I want to see him all summer.
My husband doesn’t want DS17 to do away camps longer than 3 weeks during HS because we’d miss him too much, and we only have a couple years left with him. That kind of puts a crimp in things since he is interested in astrophysics and would probably be competitive for SSP (6 weeks) next summer. So, I’m conflicted on whether he should apply if Dad might say “no”. But, I agree with DH that I like having DS around (he’s the one who laughs at my nerd jokes). Also, his younger sister actually relates to her brother better than to us, but I suppose we should all face the fact that he’ll be off to college in a couple years.
My D had two overlapping summer programs, but one didn’t choose her so the decision was made. We’re waiting to hear if the remaining one picked her now. But had it come down to it, I’d have had her make a list of “pros” and “cons” of each, then choose, the way some parents here do with their kids’ college choices.
I think you really do need to make him have the final decision-it’s his summer. I have no issue with my D going away. She’s got a plan and a summer program is part of it. I don’t want to get in her way. The program is free AND pays her to attend, so finances don’t figure into it.
That is a good idea SSeamom. I will encourage him to structure the problem instead of going by gut feeling and just giving up.
Personally, I was planning to tell him to alternate each year between math and music, that he cannot get everything in life, so on and so forth.
Can he do music at this level elsewhere if he goes to the math camp?
Can he do math at this level elsewhere if he goes to the music camp?
Is there a possibility to leave program 1 before its end in order to go to program 2?
I think MYOS1634 is asking the right questions.
Which experience is more likely to be transformative for the kid? I know that for my older son the camps where he got to be around high-powered math nerds or even better computer geeks were transformative for him. There were plenty of local opportunities to be involved in high powered music.
Also, if in the long run you think he’ll go into something mathy rather than be a professional musician, I’d lean that way.
My views may be colored a bit by my older son’s best friend from high school who went to music camp every summer in high school and I think might have been better served by learning to work on his own without his parents and/or learned to work at a job. (Just an anecdote - lots of kids are obviously very well served by a top-notch music camp.)
It is hard to say what he will do 10-20-30 years down the line. At this point he doesn’t want to go to a conservatory nor study math in college. To him it is just relaxing downtime to either do math or play/compose. It is purely to recharge his batteries.
Your kid sounds very talented, but I would help him make this decision, not leave it up to you. Does the math camp expose him to learning concepts he would not get otherwise, or advance him further along the math curriculum? Does the music program do the same, or could he get that in a program more local to home? Is this in the early summer, or does it end right before school begins? How about how it affects family vacation plans, if at all? Whatever he decides, I hope he has a great time.
The math camp will most certainly be beneficial to this math knowledge, while the music camp will be more fun (free concerts!). Timing wise between the two camps, school ends in first week of June, we have 1 week then to visit family, then we are covered mid-June to mid-August leaving one week for a trip to Europe. Then school starts again.
Even if he doesn’t do math as a major, there are a lot of STEM majors that use a lot of math: physics, engineering, etc. I tell parents at our school who ask why their kid is having trouble with AP Physics 1 that physics is really just math with word problems about dropping, throwing, and spinning things. (The school lets some kids take it before they’ve seen trig, which messes some kids up.)
Agree with mathmom about the huge benefit of connecting with fellow math/computer nerds if he doesn’t have that at his school.