<p>I've heard a lot about programs like these not being worth the money and time. Even if they don't necessarily help directly with admission, are they a good overall experience, and is Yale's in particular better/different/worse than others? If anyone could talk about their experiences or what they've heard that'd be great. And also... how could something like getting solid grades at a challenging university not help...? Thanks.</p>
<p>My daughter attended a pre college summer program at Yale. One thing you should know is it is not all pre college students. It was a good experience but I would say that about 90% of the summer students do not speak English or not as a first language. My daughter had a hard time making friend because of this as the students would tend to cling together in groups of their native tongue. I think that was the only down side of the experience. Otherwise she received two A+ and got to see if Yale was for her or not. It is very expensive for US residents. From what I understand other countries pay for their students to come here so if you are from the US, its expensive for 5 weeks. They had some wonderful add on experiences for the students and the dorm life was worth the look.
Did it help her get in? We should soon find out, but she did like the professors and got to know them</p>