summer dilema and appropriate description of competive programs

[jackief]

a couple questions, don't know if this will get bumped to the cafe, but they do relate to college as does everthing. And I wanted to get parental perspective from those who have been there before.

First Q: My daughter applied to a couple different summer programs. The first one is a 4 week camp counselor program, she should hear on that any day. The second one is a 2-3 week travel program, she won't hear on that one until sometime in May or possibly later. She has a very good shot at the first one by I would guess unlikely for the 2nd.

Plan B if she is not accepted to the 1st program is to get a summer job. She would apply for the job before hearing the outcome on the second program. I assume it would not be a good idea to mention to employers that there is the remote possibility some other opportunity would come up in the middle of the summer. How should she handle this? I think that if she were to get a job she would do it well. I fear if she were to inform an employer when she finds out about the possibility of leaving in the middle of the summer.

Second Q: both the above programs are very competitive, the first one 8 girls are accepted from throughout the state, the second one is a national competition. She has previously been on another opportunity where she was selected from a national pool. My quesiton is since adcoms are probably not aware of details of these programs, as they would be for well known science competitions, how would one include this info on the competitiveness in the program description?

Thanks for insight

[riverrunner]

In an essay. That's about your only option. Don't underestimate adcoms, though. They've probably seen and are familiar with zillions of activities kids spend time on.

[idad]

A resume can contain a brief description as well.

[hsmomstef]

as far as a description -- it depends on the college you are applying to, many have very few lines to describe summer programs.

keep in mind that just because the program was competitive, it doesn't necessarily give the college application a boost. It is more what the student gains from the experience rather than the fact that they were provided an opportunity that colleges are looking for -- and this is where the essay comes in.