We are looking into enrolling our son in BBN in Cambridge, MA. Obviously, like everyone else, we’d like to increase his chances of getting in. Do you know if it would help if he attended a summer camp there? I’m thinking this would give him the chance to meet with the staff and be known to them. Or that’s not how summer camps work? 
Depends.Many private schools have outside staffing for summer classes, and use the summer courses as money makers for the school. Check it out, ask how many regular faculty are teaching.
Even if a regular faculty member were teaching at the summer school, in most cases this doesn’t do much in the way of swaying admissions. My son’s BS won’t grant credit to courses taken over the summer (even at his own BS). This is because the summer courses are much easier than the same classes offered during the school year.
If your son wants to do a course to get a feel of what it would be like to attend a particular school, by all means go ahead. But don’t do it simply to gain an advantage in admissions, as it probably won’t work.
My kid attended one of these summer camps, loved it, worked very heard, got great grades and referenced and
did not get accepted to the school that ran the camp.
He got accepted to a different school he is attending now.
I got an impression that summer camps have very little to do with the actual school itself. Most of the summer teachers come from other places and have no influence over the admission process.
With this being said, our son got a “taste” of a boarding life. He realized that one needs to study very-very hard to get good grades. Not sure this experience is worth ~$10K we spent on the program.
My DD is attending a summer academic boarding program this summer. This program offers a full year
credit for some of the courses she will be taking. My personal opinion for doing such a camp is to introduce her to next years courses. I do not believe that going to a summer camp to gain entrance into that school is a sound plan.
Thank you all for your valuable feedback. It definitely helped us in the decision about summer camps.
Hi @shahla00, have you narrowed it down to BBN only? Are you only going to apply to one school? There are many more great schools in the area such as Nobles, Milton, Belmont Hill, RL and more…
@CaringMom11 BBN is our first choice but we definitely will be applying to other schools too. We liked Brimmer and May. What are your thoughts on B&M? Does it compare to these other schools BBN, Milton, etc?
I sincerely don’t know much about Brimmer and May and BBN @shahla00. I do know about Milton, Nobles, RL and Belmont Hill, Concord etc.
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Summer camp administration is usually very much separate from the regular school administration. The only advantage to going to the camp would be learning the physical layout of the school.
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Brimmer and May is very small and the academics are not on the same level as those of the other schools you’ve mentioned. It would be a good likely school in case things don’t work out at the other schools.
Milton, Nobles, BB&N, Belmont Hill, RL are all peer schools in terms of academics. One could quibble about which is superior depending on what a particular student is looking for (a more intellectual, sporty, artsy, etc. environment), but no one would be shocked to see a family turn one down for the other. Brimmer and May is a nice school, and it may turn out to be the perfect school for your child, but if you did turn down a school like BB&N or Milton for B&M your decision would generate some surprise.
One good way to get to know these schools is to attend events at them, either in the week or two left in the regular schedule this spring or in the fall. Go to a soccer game or a play and talk to a lot of people. Ask parents what they like about the school and watch the kids. DD decided against one of the schools listed here. One of the factors was the behavior she observed at a soccer game. One team was slaughtering the other by a very large margin and the parents were still cheering loudly and enthusiastically as the imbalance mounted (if I remember correctly, it was something like 8-0 when we left) and the coach didn’t seem to be making any effort to put in the second stringers or adjust the lineup. It gave us a sense that the school culture was more competitive than she wanted.
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@Sue22 thank you so much for the elaborated reply! It’s hearing from parents like you what helps those of us that are new to this. Thanks again!
Just wanted to share my experience: I went to Andover’s Summer Session and all of the house counselors/deans were regular faculty. (Got a stern talking to in 8th grade by my future math teacher… oops.) I got 6s in my courses (highest grade at Andover) and was later admitted as a regular student. One great thing about the program is that you can write about the school really well in your essays or talk about it in an interview, especially if you got to know an actual faculty member!
Conversely, I did a 2 week writing program at Choate and then got waitlisted. However, that was 2 weeks compared to 5, didn’t have grades really, and I didn’t meet any Choate faculty members.
@cassat,
I was speaking specifically about non-residential camps, like you’d find at a day school like BB&N. Even at boarding school day camps only a few of the faculty are members of the school-year faculty. You’re more likely to encounter school-year faculty at a residential camp because the faculty live on campus and often extend their role as dorm parents to the summer program.
(Not disagreeing with you, just clarifying for anyone who might think our posts were in opposition.)
Oh sorry! Didn’t realize BB&N wasn’t residential. I wasn’t disagreeing with you either, just wanted to offer my experience!