<p>i'm currently a junior and my counselor is pushing me to go to harvard summer school. he says that if i get an A, it might help my chances a lot. but i also heard from other students that summer school is not very useful. what's more impressive for the admission? spending summer at harvard and get an A on whatever courses i take or do research?</p>
<p>Harvard’s summer program will not look impressive to any admissions officer because they usually accept anyone who can make the payment (exaggeration, but you get the point). It will only show you have some motivation to learn outside of school, which isn’t so bad.</p>
<p>I would say that if you’re only interested in applying for a summer program because of prestige, please save yourself the time. You probably won’t get accepted and if you do you’ll be taking away a spot for someone who actually wants to go.</p>
<p>both! if you have the time that is. it usually depends on the type of research anyhow.</p>
<p>getting an “A” will be nice, but it probably won’t help you–especially if it’s already obvious from your record that you probably would get A’s at Harvard. It might help you get into an ivy or MIT/Caltech, but it’s doubtful it will be very helpful to get into Harvard in particular.</p>
<p>Research is better. If you can do research while at Harvard, then you can kill two birds with one stone. However, your summer is going to be very stressful.</p>
<p>Daughter did neither and was accepted but if you are determined to do one or the other it should not be for the sake of an application but instead your activity should be something that makes sense for you. For example, if all your ECs and passions revolve around music then doing scientific research doesn’t make sense while attending a summer program relating to music would. Don’t have the goal of “manufacturing” an application resume.</p>
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<p>I agree with this^</p>