Anonymous wrote:It is just one thing to show how they used their summer. If your kid is going to be taking other classes or doing an internship, it's not any different.

Depending on what the class or internship is, I would disagree with this. You have to apply to governors school and your academics have to be very strong. It's also 5 weeks of additional school in the summer which shows a pretty high level or dedication to a particular subject. A lot of the classes kids take in the summer are not that competitive and pretty much anyone can do it if they can pay. Governors School definitely shows a high level of committment.

Anonymous wrote:Irrelevant and a waste of time. Whatever happened to just being a teenager? Summers should be for lifeguarding and chasing chicks.

My daughter's not interested in chasing chicks, nor being called one.

A kid we know who attended last summer was deferred from BC last week. It's certainly not a silver bullet.

Irrelevant and a waste of time. Whatever happened to just being a teenager? Summers should be for lifeguarding and chasing chicks.

Is it a grind or do the kids have fun?

Three of my four attended summer residential governor's academies and all 3 were accepted at UVA and W&M. Most of their peers from the academies were accepted at both as well. Since it is so difficult to be accepted into a summer governors academy, who knows whether it was acceptance at the academy or whether they would have been accepted by UVA and W&M regardless. Selective colleges outside of Virginia had no clue what is was to the extent it came up in interviews.

Yes. I honestly believe participating in a summer governor's school helped move my son's application from the "maybe" pile to "admitted" at Virginia Tech.

You can only participate in one governors school in VA.

Can't hurt. I know a woman who entered UVA with many governor's schools with so many credits she entered as a second-year student. She graduated in only three years. Now in law school. I believe her GPA (via the governor's schools program and college courses she took as a high school) was 6.0+. Not FCPS

It is just one thing to show how they used their summer. If your kid is going to be taking other classes or doing an internship, it's not any different.

My DC made it governors school. Didn’t have a great SAT; GPA 4.0. Got into gov school. Wonder if it would help.

It cannot hurt. It might or might not have much impact on admissions…

Who knows? My kids did it and had a great experience. Isn’t that enough?

DC is at WM.
Won't be able to tell if it helped fir admission but I'm sure it didn't hurt. DC loved gov school and shaped their interests..

Do VA public universities (William and Mary, UVA) value participation in governors schools (summer residential)? Does it help with admissions?