Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if any of them are offered for college credit but I think they all purport to be at the level of a college class.

Well if that had been the point you responded to, and the point of the OP, then your post would be well taken.

Unfortunately it is neither.

I don’t know if any of them are offered for college credit but I think they all purport to be at the level of a college class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD was so excited to hear she could take a college level class after 8th grade. She got an A+ in a UMD science class. Do I think it is a ticket to Harvard no? Does it say this kid is more then ready for college. Yes

Respectfully, no one is talking about taking a college class here. Congrats on your successful humblebrag.

Almost of these programs involve taking a college class.

No, they don't, not the ones the OP is talking about. This post refers to summer programs at a particular college giving you an admissions bump at that college (it doesn't). They are explicitly for HS students and usually not for credit.

https://precollege.brown.edu/summeratbrown/

Taking a real, regular summer class at a college as a HS student is a totally different thing, and IMHO much better, but irrelevant in this thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD was so excited to hear she could take a college level class after 8th grade. She got an A+ in a UMD science class. Do I think it is a ticket to Harvard no? Does it say this kid is more then ready for college. Yes

Respectfully, no one is talking about taking a college class here. Congrats on your successful humblebrag.

Almost of these programs involve taking a college class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid did NIADH at WM this summer and took a graded 200 level class for college credit through the history program. I do not expect it to prop up a college app. At most, it’s a small nudge because it’s a show of demonstrated interest, which WM cares about. .

But, my kid loves history is looking at SLACs. And WM topped his list late junior year. The three weeks on campus made them more comfortable with the idea of college and helped them focus in on what they did and did not want. After NIADH, my kid is still apply to SLACs, but WM is more like 3rd or 4th choice. They said that there were great things about the school, but also things they were less excited about.

So money well spent.

But no, I doubt it would be the deciding factor on WM’s side. It might be a deciding factor for my kid though.

Thanks for explaining it so nicely.
Personally, I don't think I have enough money for that kind of discovery, but we'll see.

It was expensive. More expensive than I would normally consider. But this particular kid is 2E, and finding a good college fit and giving them the confidence that they could navigate a college campus is turning out to be extremely important. They inherited money from a great grandparent, which has been set aside for college. I let them dip into it for pre-college, because I think launching this particular kid is going to be a challenge. If they end up with a bad match and flunk out or need to transfer, that’s a lot of money lost. So, there was a cost-benefit Assessment, not just blindly writing a check.

My other kid is very different. I’m not sure I would send them to a pre-college program unless it was very specialized and specific. But, I would let them withdraw some money to spend some time in an overseas program one summer. For various reasons, I think this would be great for them.

PP you replied to. I see exactly what you mean, I have a 2e kid as well, and for him... we might have to do whatever it takes. Hoping that "whatever it takes" won't break the bank!

I would recommend WM NIADH if he is at all into history. Excellent, well run program. It was $4200 for three weeks. Which was not cheap for us. But was reasonable in the grand scheme of pre-college programs. Dorm, food, a college class— and one that was very, very site visit heavy at that. It’s in line with in state tuition for WM. The one my kid really wanted at Chicago was $11,000 for 4 weeks.

And my kid is in one of the super rigorous DMV HS programs. And still felt like this was pretty rigorous academically. I looked through the syllabus and handout and agreed. 4 site visits a week. 40 ish pages of dense original source reading a day, small group seminars to discuss complex topics, three papers over three weeks. And they did not go easy on grading the papers. I think giving a semester of 200 level credit at the grade they got for the work I sat down and reviewed was pretty realistic. Which was reassuring. Because 2e means worrying that your kid will write a brilliant paper and forget to turn it in. Or forget to set an alarm and attend class. It was nice to see that they could manage pretty well without the 504, parental reminders, etc. they did laundry in the dorms, used the low limit credit card I gave them and stayed in budget walking to pick up toiletries and snacks, got along okay with their roommate, etc. and seemed to enjoy the freedom.

I think after the program, my kid and I both feel better about college apps. Fingers crossed. This is a kid has so much potential— if we can manage the transition well. I know it’s scary. Good luck to you and your kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid did NIADH at WM this summer and took a graded 200 level class for college credit through the history program. I do not expect it to prop up a college app. At most, it’s a small nudge because it’s a show of demonstrated interest, which WM cares about. .

But, my kid loves history is looking at SLACs. And WM topped his list late junior year. The three weeks on campus made them more comfortable with the idea of college and helped them focus in on what they did and did not want. After NIADH, my kid is still apply to SLACs, but WM is more like 3rd or 4th choice. They said that there were great things about the school, but also things they were less excited about.

So money well spent.

But no, I doubt it would be the deciding factor on WM’s side. It might be a deciding factor for my kid though.

Thanks for explaining it so nicely.
Personally, I don't think I have enough money for that kind of discovery, but we'll see.

It was expensive. More expensive than I would normally consider. But this particular kid is 2E, and finding a good college fit and giving them the confidence that they could navigate a college campus is turning out to be extremely important. They inherited money from a great grandparent, which has been set aside for college. I let them dip into it for pre-college, because I think launching this particular kid is going to be a challenge. If they end up with a bad match and flunk out or need to transfer, that’s a lot of money lost. So, there was a cost-benefit Assessment, not just blindly writing a check.

My other kid is very different. I’m not sure I would send them to a pre-college program unless it was very specialized and specific. But, I would let them withdraw some money to spend some time in an overseas program one summer. For various reasons, I think this would be great for them.

PP you replied to. I see exactly what you mean, I have a 2e kid as well, and for him... we might have to do whatever it takes. Hoping that "whatever it takes" won't break the bank!

Anonymous wrote:My DD was so excited to hear she could take a college level class after 8th grade. She got an A+ in a UMD science class. Do I think it is a ticket to Harvard no? Does it say this kid is more then ready for college. Yes

Respectfully, no one is talking about taking a college class here. Congrats on your successful humblebrag.

My DD was so excited to hear she could take a college level class after 8th grade. She got an A+ in a UMD science class. Do I think it is a ticket to Harvard no? Does it say this kid is more then ready for college. Yes

All the teens I know who've done these programs have landed at T15s or UVA/UMD at worst. They clearly help, in more ways than one.

That said, the kids who want to do these programs are serious and studious -- the apps aren't exactly fun and easy and school during the summer is a repellent to average kids. And I don't know too many parents willing to pony up $10,000-15,000 on a dim kid. And I don't know too many low-income kids eager to turn in copious amounts of paperwork required to get generous aid.

Anonymous wrote:https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september-october-2019/the-other-college-admissions-scandal/

A view of the efficacy of the pre-college summer programs & courses (offered by numerous universities) in tipping the scales on college apps towards admission. Apparently not much, other than a select few, key is if it's not tuition-free then it probably doesn't influence adcoms.

I totally expected them to admit on the record that coming to their $10,000-15,000 summer programs was helpful in admissions. Just like I totally expect all the pretend "need blind" colleges to admit in small print, j/k we CLEARLY know who's rich and who's not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid did NIADH at WM this summer and took a graded 200 level class for college credit through the history program. I do not expect it to prop up a college app. At most, it’s a small nudge because it’s a show of demonstrated interest, which WM cares about. .

But, my kid loves history is looking at SLACs. And WM topped his list late junior year. The three weeks on campus made them more comfortable with the idea of college and helped them focus in on what they did and did not want. After NIADH, my kid is still apply to SLACs, but WM is more like 3rd or 4th choice. They said that there were great things about the school, but also things they were less excited about.

So money well spent.

But no, I doubt it would be the deciding factor on WM’s side. It might be a deciding factor for my kid though.

Thanks for explaining it so nicely.
Personally, I don't think I have enough money for that kind of discovery, but we'll see.

It was expensive. More expensive than I would normally consider. But this particular kid is 2E, and finding a good college fit and giving them the confidence that they could navigate a college campus is turning out to be extremely important. They inherited money from a great grandparent, which has been set aside for college. I let them dip into it for pre-college, because I think launching this particular kid is going to be a challenge. If they end up with a bad match and flunk out or need to transfer, that’s a lot of money lost. So, there was a cost-benefit Assessment, not just blindly writing a check.

My other kid is very different. I’m not sure I would send them to a pre-college program unless it was very specialized and specific. But, I would let them withdraw some money to spend some time in an overseas program one summer. For various reasons, I think this would be great for them.

As a parent, I would use it as a tool to see my student's interest in a certain major. UMD-CP has a week long engineering program for HS students. If your student hates it, you move on.

Anonymous wrote:My kid did NIADH at WM this summer and took a graded 200 level class for college credit through the history program. I do not expect it to prop up a college app. At most, it’s a small nudge because it’s a show of demonstrated interest, which WM cares about. .

But, my kid loves history is looking at SLACs. And WM topped his list late junior year. The three weeks on campus made them more comfortable with the idea of college and helped them focus in on what they did and did not want. After NIADH, my kid is still apply to SLACs, but WM is more like 3rd or 4th choice. They said that there were great things about the school, but also things they were less excited about.

So money well spent.

But no, I doubt it would be the deciding factor on WM’s side. It might be a deciding factor for my kid though.

Thanks for explaining it so nicely.
Personally, I don't think I have enough money for that kind of discovery, but we'll see.

My kid did NIADH at WM this summer and took a graded 200 level class for college credit through the history program. I do not expect it to prop up a college app. At most, it’s a small nudge because it’s a show of demonstrated interest, which WM cares about. .

But, my kid loves history is looking at SLACs. And WM topped his list late junior year. The three weeks on campus made them more comfortable with the idea of college and helped them focus in on what they did and did not want. After NIADH, my kid is still apply to SLACs, but WM is more like 3rd or 4th choice. They said that there were great things about the school, but also things they were less excited about.

So money well spent.

But no, I doubt it would be the deciding factor on WM’s side. It might be a deciding factor for my kid though.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september-october-2019/the-other-college-admissions-scandal/

A view of the efficacy of the pre-college summer programs & courses (offered by numerous universities) in tipping the scales on college apps towards admission. Apparently not much, other than a select few, key is if it's not tuition-free then it probably doesn't influence adcoms.