<p>My DS is a rising senior and just got back from the University of Alabama summer program. He took Infinite Mathmatics and Chemistry 101. He made an A in the math course and an A+ in Chemistry for final grades and received full credit. His GPA is either 3.67 or 3.89 and his class rank is 20th out of 362 students.</p>
<p>His SAT scores for CR was 680 and Math 620. His ACT was 32 with high scores in Math and English. He has not taken the SAT subject tests yet but will in the fall. He has some EC's, some work experience but has not won any academic awards. </p>
<p>DS is interested in attending Rice, Boston Univ, Johns Hopkins, Univ of Penn, UNC at Chapel Hill, Stanford, and possible Vanderibilt and Tulane. His safety would be Univ of AL, Auburn and UA at B'ham.</p>
<p>Given that his SAT's scores are good but not terrific by CC standards will the grades at Univ of AL help him at all?</p>
<p>They will definitely help, perhaps significantly. Depends on the value placed on them by admissions counselor. Check with admissions offices. Perhaps submit documentation of course content and grading standards, if available.</p>
<p>DS should not submit his SAT scores if possible. 32 ACT would normally correlate to a 1450 or so SAT, so use the ACT.</p>
<p>top 5 schools are usually for top 1-3 people in the graduating class
(barring incredible ECs and essays), so Stanford would be a real reach.</p>
<p>As to your question, U of Alabama summer school is OK… doesn’t really tell me anything about whether DS can handle courses with regular students at very competitive Top 50 colleges (last I checked U of Alabama wasn’t in the top 100). If I can use a baseball analogy, it’s like asking if a player who hit .350 at a double A farm team would impress the coach on a Major League team.</p>
<p>DunniLA: Figure the 20 to 70 range (I’m more intent at getting into 20-50 though). Particularly other large big 10 schools like Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc.</p>
<p>You have to apply for the summer programs. My DS got invited to apply to the summer Honors Course at the University of Alabama. He had to write an essay, submit ACT or SAT scores and get teacher recommendations. The cost was reasonable compared to the majority of other summer programs. Harvard and Stanford’s cost well over $5,000. This one was $1,500 and then my son ended up getting a local scholarship to cover almost all of the costs.
It was a good learning experience for him. His books cost $350.00 for 2 books. When he was finished the college book store offered to buy them back. He sold them back but only got $85.00 for both. Definitely a bad choice but most students were gone for the summer and he did not have anyone else to sell them too.</p>
<p>You mean summer after your senior year? Well assuming you go to a school with a good reputation and you get a decent grade you can transfer the credit. But you’d essentially be paying a ridiculous amount of money for a few credits. I’m also not sure if programs let people in that are about to attend college, and if they did it would be very awkward being the oldest kid there by more than a year (since it would be all rising juniors and seniors).</p>
<p>The one my son attended was a regular summer session at the Univ. of AL. It was part of the Honors Progam course offerings. He was the youngest student in class since everyone else had finished HS. His professors did not know that he was still in HS unless he choose to tell them. He was treated as a regular college freshman with the exception of having slightly more supervision. He had a curfew and had to be back in the dorms by 10:00 p.m. and was not allowed to go off campus.</p>
<p>Just doing one of these summer programs shows some academic initiative, a positive. Doing well in the course also says something positive about one’s ability to do college-level work, even if the school isn’t on the same plane academically as the one you’re applying to. But I wouldn’t count on it to do too much work in the admissions process. It’s just one more data point in the adcom’s review of the applicant’s total body of work. And tons of kids do these programs, so it’s not as if just doing it makes you a standout. </p>
<p>One good reason to do one of these summer programs is to give you a feel for the campus and the town of a school you’re considering applying to. That’s probably the main reason schools offer the programs in the first place: it’s a recruiting device aimed at highly qualified potential applicants.</p>