Anonymous wrote:What free programs? What's MITES

MITES (http://oeop.mit.edu/programs/mites) is a highly competitive engineering summer program for high school students, hosted by MIT. The school pays for tuition, room, and board. The students who are admitted to MITES tend to be the top STEM students in the nation.

There are others held in a similar regard: Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP), Summer Science Program (SSP), Research Science Institute (RSI). All competitive, highly selective, and free. They will confer an admissions advantage because they are renowned programs.

What free programs? What's MITES

Anonymous wrote:^^ That may be but I studied this extensively on College Confidential and many who shelled out the big buck for summer at Stanford or Summer at Harvard did not get in when they applied in the fall.

Why would you think you could buy admission with one summer program?

There are some free programs which are, like MITES

Stanford's and Harvard's were excessively expensive, too. We couldn't even consider them. One of the participants said on college confidential that only one kid from the program got into Harvard for real - so that did it for me.

High school kid summer internships are such BS. Sitting around in your phone turns into co-writing published research after the tiger mom finesses the resume.

Anonymous wrote:It's a money-maker for the colleges. Not an opportunity to pick their freshman class. A better use of time would be to get a job, an internship, or to devote time to a hobby. These are looked on much more favorable than the fact that you were able to pay $3,000 for a summer college program.

They're more like 10K-13K. And UChicago's is legit too.

Anonymous wrote:This one at Cambridge is not even affiliated with the University. You have to read the fine print. "We are not in any way affiliated with Cambridge University". They are simply leasing the dorms and rooms and supply their own faculty. http://cambridgesummerinstitute.com/

Calm down. There are plenty which are not affiliated but if you actually go to the Cambridge university website and look for summer programs you will find the courses which are.

Its definitely not rocket science separating them out.

It's a money-maker for the colleges. Not an opportunity to pick their freshman class. A better use of time would be to get a job, an internship, or to devote time to a hobby. These are looked on much more favorable than the fact that you were able to pay $3,000 for a summer college program.

This one at Cambridge is not even affiliated with the University. You have to read the fine print. "We are not in any way affiliated with Cambridge University". They are simply leasing the dorms and rooms and supply their own faculty. http://cambridgesummerinstitute.com/

^^ That may be but I studied this extensively on College Confidential and many who shelled out the big buck for summer at Stanford or Summer at Harvard did not get in when they applied in the fall.

Anonymous wrote:No. They are money makers for the institutions. Read up carefully on the intended program on College Confidential. Many students will say that ONE person in the expensive summer program may have gotten in that fall and that that student would have gotten in anyways. Often the program isn't even run by the University but an outfit that rents dorms and brings in their own faculty. Some are legit. but those are usually for poor urban children or minority students.

The colleges and boarding schools I listed are run by the schools.

No. They are money makers for the institutions. Read up carefully on the intended program on College Confidential. Many students will say that ONE person in the expensive summer program may have gotten in that fall and that that student would have gotten in anyways. Often the program isn't even run by the University but an outfit that rents dorms and brings in their own faculty. Some are legit. but those are usually for poor urban children or minority students.

I think they can be. My sister took one at Cambridge in the UK and met some of the professors of her chosen major. It did actually help when she applied because she applied to their colleges and they already knew her when she went for interview and they already knew what a genius she was because they had met and taught her. And she got in and did really well there.

Not for admissions hooks, just overall, do they benefit teens?