Should I Do A Summer Program?
As I sit by my cozy fireplace staring into my snowy backyard, it is hard to imagine it is time for summer planning. I want to thank my colleague Meg Joyce for writing this super informative blog, “Should I Do A Summer Program?”
Every year at Admissions Village, we notice a new crop of summer programs aimed at high school students. Held for the most part on college campuses throughout the country (including some abroad), programs are proliferating and filling up more quickly than ever as awareness increases. Many of them are very good, but are they necessary? Is a summer program going to help you get into the college you want? The answer, like everything in college admissions, is: It depends, but they are NEVER a golden ticket in the world of highly selective college admissions.
To understand what we mean by this, it helps to remember colleges are thinking about many things when they evaluate the activities in your application. Of course, they like it when you’re involved outside of the classroom, but they are not just looking for an accounting of your time. Instead, admissions officers review your activities (and really, your entire application) to learn more about what motivates you and how you are using that to impact your community. Admissions officers are also looking for evidence that supports the major(s) you have indicated on your application. Gone are the days when high math grades and test scores were enough to allow you to check the “School of Business” box on your college application (like Meg successfully did when she was applying to college way back when!)
Without the demands of daily schoolwork and other commitments, summer is the perfect time to work on activities that help you answer these questions. For some students, attending a summer program will be super helpful, and for others, not so much - but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Here is our breakdown of the factors to consider when deciding whether or not to attend one.
College Major or Career Exploration. Summer programs provide a chance to explore a potential career or college major interest. Attending lectures, listening to professionals, going on field trips to organizations, and working on group projects with like-minded peers are great ways to learn what this field or major entails and what can be done with it. Programs vary from broad overviews to very narrowly defined on a niche topic, so even if you know you want to study human behavior, for example, in college, you can still benefit from attending a program called Brain Basics: From Biology to Behavior or another called Social Inequality (both are on offer at Brown University Pre-College this summer). Gaining this type of knowledge helps you rule majors in or out, which is useful information to have when building a college list, choosing which courses to take in high school, and planning activities for the upcoming school year.
Summer Programs Help Students Build Evidence to Support Their Major. Taking high school classes in an area of interest is great, but colleges also like to see students back that up outside of school whenever possible. Attending a summer program could be the first step you make in this direction. You might also seek out specific programs to strengthen or expand an already solid list of experience.
The Chance to Experience Life on a College Campus. This can be especially valuable if you’ve never been away from home on your own and want to try being in charge of your schedule and having increased independence before you head off to college.
College Research. Summer programs can help you determine what kind of campus you prefer for college - urban, rural, big, small, self-contained, close to home, etc. Additionally, if this is a college you think you might apply to, you’ll get a sense of the culture, traditions, and values at that university, which you can use to inform your supplemental essays.
New Friends. Though short in duration, these programs are bonding experiences. We often see students make friends they stay in touch with afterward.
Confidence Boost. A new environment can be a big confidence boost for some students. It’s a chance to be whoever you want to be without anyone having preconceived notions about who you’ve been so far. Aly’s own son wrote his personal statement on how attending summer travel programs made him more courageous to the point where it became his signature trait.
If all this sounds pretty great, it can be. But there are many instances where you would be better served doing something else. First, these programs can be expensive. Costs vary and can run from several thousand dollars for a one or two week program to over $10,000 for programs that run longer than three weeks - and this doesn’t include travel expenses. You can save some money by attending the online version (if one is available), although we typically recommend attending in person in order to gain the full experience. A small number of the most highly selective programs are free of charge or well subsidized, but these are extremely challenging to gain admission to and/or devoted to certain student populations. Need-based financial aid is sometimes available.
You might already be off to a good start exploring and solidifying your interests. If that’s the case, you can often learn many of the same things you’d get from a summer program by doing something else. We recently worked with a student who expressed an interest in business. Hoping to raise chickens on her own, “Sophia” came up with the idea of a backyard egg business. She conducted market research with neighbors, calculated start-up costs (which she paid for with her carefully invested savings), investigated town regulations, and successfully presented her business plan and projected return on investment to her parents. One night, after Sophia’s Chickens had been in business for several months, a fox killed six of her hens, and Sophia had to decide how - and if - to restock. The bonus to all the hands-on experience Sophia acquired? Discussing her experience launching and running the egg-selling business made for great supplemental essays that supported Sophia’s interest in a business major; they were also memorable for the reader. Another example is a student who hopes to apply to medical school one day. They would learn as much or more by taking an EMT course and volunteering with the local ambulance corps, not to mention the good they would do for their community.
Both of the activities we just described had an impact not just on the student but on their communities. Sophia supplied reasonably priced fresh eggs for her neighbors, and the EMT provided basic medical care and sat with patients who needed someone to hold their hand when they were scared, allowing the more senior EMT’s to focus on advanced procedures. Colleges care about what kind of community member you will be on their campus. Stories like these help colleges visualize who you are, what you care about, and how you’re going to make the other students on campus have a better experience.
Attending a summer program is not the key that opens the door to admissions at highly selective colleges. A small number of summer programs are extremely selective. Students who attend one often go on to be admitted to the most selective colleges. Not to be too corny (and with proper credit to Sophia), but it is a question of the chicken or the egg. Was it having that summer program on their resume that moved the needle for them? Probably not. These students were well on their way to having outstanding applications, with or without that selective summer program. They would have done something noteworthy that summer regardless. Interestingly, many times they do not gain admission to the college that held the summer program. That is because - it bears repeating - summer programs are not the golden ticket to selective college admissions. Students are routinely accepted into highly selective colleges without them.
With a handful of exceptions, summer programs do not help students get admitted to the college where they were held. When they do help, it is only in EDI. The University of Chicago just launched a program called Summer Student Early Notification. Students who have completed any UChicago summer program earn the option to apply before October 15 under the binding Early Decision I plan and receive their admissions decision within three weeks or by November 1st, whichever is sooner. This effectively gives students who are not admitted to the University the ability to apply to a second EDI school. Students who reasonably believe they will be a competitive applicant at the University of Chicago AND are comfortable with EDI should probably consider their summer program, IF they can afford it. This is the only program we are aware of that has this benefit. That said, you only gain the right to hear back early. It, like every other summer program out there, is not a shortcut to selective college admissions.
And finally, if you decide a summer program would be a good fit for you, think of it as a complement to everything else that you do. One or two is plenty. Some tips:
Look for programs that are run by the university where they are held, as opposed to ones that are run by an outside organization. You may need to do some sleuthing to figure that out. Words like partnership, etc. are good clues.
Drill down on the specific program to see who is teaching it. Are they university faculty, adjunct professors, grad students, or professionals in the field? Our preference is always for faculty as they are trained, experienced educators. That is not to say you can’t have a great experience if someone other than a faculty member teaches, just please be aware.
In the end, the most important thing is what you get out of the program and that you are doing it for the right reasons. Use it to gain knowledge, to learn more about yourself and what you want, and to set yourself on a path that has an impact.