Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, summer ... attending:

- Penn ... Penn.
- Brown ... Columbia.
- Harvard ... Duke.
- Harvard ... Cornell.
- Brown ... NYU.
- Brown ... Brown.

Fun, interesting, meeting kids from all over the world, making life-long friends. Boarding for 4-8 weeks as a teen cultivates intense friendships.

Mine did the Yale Young Global Scholars program and loved it! Attending a different ivy, but these programs also help students to discover their proposed majors better, and to write their Why [insert school] essays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

OP smartly asked the right question. The rigorous, academic three week Summer at Brown class was really a transformative experience for our DC. DC was a very academically-oriented smart kid in a wonderful high school but few of his friends shared his intense academic interests. At Brown, he met a cohort of more similar kids from different states and a few other countries - he stays in touch with a couple still . He had the experience of living in a dorm room, going to a dining halll, and juggling a Challenging work load balance against social interests. As a very strong student, he had never before reallly had to be efficient - learn enough to grasp a subject without reading every word of an assignment every time . That may sound like an odd lesson to tout but it was a useful life skill. The level of intellectual engagement and debate in class was far greater than he had experienced up to that point. The course was taught by the Chairman of the department at Brown, and the TA took the time to really critique the first two of the three required papers DC wrote. This was a class designed for high school students but taught on a college level. We did not want him to take a summer class for college credit - that would have added more grading pressure and distracted from the overall experience. When we picked him up after three weeks, DC said it was the best summer experience he's ever had and that he'd never made so many friends so quickly. After Brown, he felt more strongly and we - as parents -- felt more comfortable that he could thrive at a very selective university and not feel diminished by being one of the pack when surrounded by so many equally smart kids. To our surprise, he was able to distinguish between the summer program and what he learned about the school, and decided not to apply to Brown. He ended up at a different ivy where he has done very well.

Yes, it was expensive. Was it with it? For us, absolutely. But, if I had to borrow or dip into his college or our retirement fund to pay for it, he would not have gone. That would have been a shame, but that's life. My parents could have never sent me to such as program and i obviously found a different way to land a career enabling my DC to have this other option. He would have done fine without it. But the experience taught him a lot and taught us a lot about him, enabling all of us to make more informed decisions about college.

thanks for posting. what year(s) did your (or other parents) child do this, or would you recommend it be considered?

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, summer ... attending:

- Penn ... Penn.
- Brown ... Columbia.
- Harvard ... Duke.
- Harvard ... Cornell.
- Brown ... NYU.
- Brown ... Brown.

Fun, interesting, meeting kids from all over the world, making life-long friends. Boarding for 4-8 weeks as a teen cultivates intense friendships.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

OP smartly asked the right question. The rigorous, academic three week Summer at Brown class was really a transformative experience for our DC. DC was a very academically-oriented smart kid in a wonderful high school but few of his friends shared his intense academic interests. At Brown, he met a cohort of more similar kids from different states and a few other countries - he stays in touch with a couple still . He had the experience of living in a dorm room, going to a dining halll, and juggling a Challenging work load balance against social interests. As a very strong student, he had never before reallly had to be efficient - learn enough to grasp a subject without reading every word of an assignment every time . That may sound like an odd lesson to tout but it was a useful life skill. The level of intellectual engagement and debate in class was far greater than he had experienced up to that point. The course was taught by the Chairman of the department at Brown, and the TA took the time to really critique the first two of the three required papers DC wrote. This was a class designed for high school students but taught on a college level. We did not want him to take a summer class for college credit - that would have added more grading pressure and distracted from the overall experience. When we picked him up after three weeks, DC said it was the best summer experience he's ever had and that he'd never made so many friends so quickly. After Brown, he felt more strongly and we - as parents -- felt more comfortable that he could thrive at a very selective university and not feel diminished by being one of the pack when surrounded by so many equally smart kids. To our surprise, he was able to distinguish between the summer program and what he learned about the school, and decided not to apply to Brown. He ended up at a different ivy where he has done very well.

Yes, it was expensive. Was it with it? For us, absolutely. But, if I had to borrow or dip into his college or our retirement fund to pay for it, he would not have gone. That would have been a shame, but that's life. My parents could have never sent me to such as program and i obviously found a different way to land a career enabling my DC to have this other option. He would have done fine without it. But the experience taught him a lot and taught us a lot about him, enabling all of us to make more informed decisions about college.

thanks for posting. what year(s) did your (or other parents) child do this, or would you recommend it be considered?

Anonymous wrote:

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

OP smartly asked the right question. The rigorous, academic three week Summer at Brown class was really a transformative experience for our DC. DC was a very academically-oriented smart kid in a wonderful high school but few of his friends shared his intense academic interests. At Brown, he met a cohort of more similar kids from different states and a few other countries - he stays in touch with a couple still . He had the experience of living in a dorm room, going to a dining halll, and juggling a Challenging work load balance against social interests. As a very strong student, he had never before reallly had to be efficient - learn enough to grasp a subject without reading every word of an assignment every time . That may sound like an odd lesson to tout but it was a useful life skill. The level of intellectual engagement and debate in class was far greater than he had experienced up to that point. The course was taught by the Chairman of the department at Brown, and the TA took the time to really critique the first two of the three required papers DC wrote. This was a class designed for high school students but taught on a college level. We did not want him to take a summer class for college credit - that would have added more grading pressure and distracted from the overall experience. When we picked him up after three weeks, DC said it was the best summer experience he's ever had and that he'd never made so many friends so quickly. After Brown, he felt more strongly and we - as parents -- felt more comfortable that he could thrive at a very selective university and not feel diminished by being one of the pack when surrounded by so many equally smart kids. To our surprise, he was able to distinguish between the summer program and what he learned about the school, and decided not to apply to Brown. He ended up at a different ivy where he has done very well.

Yes, it was expensive. Was it with it? For us, absolutely. But, if I had to borrow or dip into his college or our retirement fund to pay for it, he would not have gone. That would have been a shame, but that's life. My parents could have never sent me to such as program and i obviously found a different way to land a career enabling my DC to have this other option. He would have done fine without it. But the experience taught him a lot and taught us a lot about him, enabling all of us to make more informed decisions about college.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have multiple students who do summer at Harvard each year. Almost all of them are rejected from Harvard when they apply to be admitted as freshmen.

I have a low opinion of this program because students who do this ALL come back believing they will be admitted to Harvard, assuring me that professors had told them they "had a good chance." These students sometimes go back to the summer program several times, and often these are weak students. I understand Harvard is making (a lot) of money from these students in the program, and it must be difficult for the profs teaching in the summer program (to make extra money) to be confronted with weak students who must be placated to ensure they keep coming back and paying, but the whole things leaves a bad taste in my mouth and leads to heartbreak each year when rejection letters come out.

I know quite a few kids that have done the Harvard and Brown summer things. This year alone they're going to Brown, Duke, Cornell, Harvard, Yale. I'm not saying they got in because of the programs, I am saying these programs attract highly motivated kids. There's a lot of value in kids being exposed to smart diverse peers from around the world. Further, being away at summer school is far more productive than what the average lazy ass American teen -- which is sit on their ass all summer, maybe scoop ice cream while texting.

That's lovely, but most of my students who did Harvard for summer actually believed they were going to be admitted to "real" Harvard because of the programs, and because of what the profs told them. Also, I can only conclude that grade inflation is rampant at the Harvard summer program because mediocre students I taught were given outrageously inflated evaluative feedback. It was NOT fair to do this to kids and their parents. For what it's worth, I live and teach in Europe, so many of these families were not American and they (and their kids) truly believed the students were going to be admitted as Harvard freshmen. The admin/PR for the Harvard summer school does nothing to discourage this delusion. I currently have four academically mediocre students who are convinced they will be receiving acceptance letters to Harvard in the near future, and they will all be crushed when they receive the rejections. I see this every year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have multiple students who do summer at Harvard each year. Almost all of them are rejected from Harvard when they apply to be admitted as freshmen.

I have a low opinion of this program because students who do this ALL come back believing they will be admitted to Harvard, assuring me that professors had told them they "had a good chance." These students sometimes go back to the summer program several times, and often these are weak students. I understand Harvard is making (a lot) of money from these students in the program, and it must be difficult for the profs teaching in the summer program (to make extra money) to be confronted with weak students who must be placated to ensure they keep coming back and paying, but the whole things leaves a bad taste in my mouth and leads to heartbreak each year when rejection letters come out.

I know quite a few kids that have done the Harvard and Brown summer things. This year alone they're going to Brown, Duke, Cornell, Harvard, Yale. I'm not saying they got in because of the programs, I am saying these programs attract highly motivated kids. There's a lot of value in kids being exposed to smart diverse peers from around the world. Further, being away at summer school is far more productive than what the average lazy ass American teen -- which is sit on their ass all summer, maybe scoop ice cream while texting.