<p>A friend of mine is looking at summer programs on a college campus for her ninth grader. While many programs are geared for incoming juniors and seniors, the Brown program has mini-courses that allow younger high school students. </p>
<p>Do any CCer’s have experience with this particular program? Comments?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>My daughter attended one of the Brown summer sessions the summer before last. It was great! She gained a lot from the experience and I would highly recommend it.</p>
<p>Which view do you want…the “is this good for the student?” viewpoint OR the “is this good for admissions?” viewpoint…</p>
<p>Good for student: how can you go wrong?..Brown.</p>
<p>Good for Admisssions: the student should be able to qualify for admission without the .SSP. If the student is “so-so” or even “pretty good”…you may want to skip as Brown’s (or any elite school’s) SPP might convey a mindset that this “opportunity enriched” student should be doing better. </p>
<p>I <em>think</em> this is what the concensus it. But, could be wrong. Son has one none…so far.</p>
<p>momsdream and ncmom, Thank you for your replies.</p>
<p>My friend and her daughter are not looking for a program that will pad her transcript but it is an interesting point that I am sure applies in some cases. My daughter was very like this young girl and was genuinely interested in doing something academic each summer (as well as spending some time at home working, hanging out and playing tennis). When my daughter participated in Penn’s program I thought that it was a great opportunity to get a feel for a college campus before the college crunch began. The girl in question does not want to stay local so I was looking for information about the Brown program because it is offers classes for younger high school students which is not the case with all of them.</p>
<p>The summer-long programs always creeped me out. I understand that kids end up loving them, but you only have so many summers of childhood with your parents/children. </p>
<p>I think doing a few week-long programs are much more interesting as you get a different feel for each place or subject and you meet a new set of friends each time.</p>
<p>Brown does mini-sessions, Georgetown has a great (and very academic) IR program, etc.</p>
<p>Is the girl eligible for CTY? It’s somewhat cheaper than college summer programs and each sessions lasts only 3 weeks. CTY camps are located on college campuses, so the girl would have a bit of the college experience.</p>
<p>My daughter did the Brown summer one week program for enrichment. She took a class to help her be ready for AP biology. It helped a great deal with her year long course. We were not looking at the experience to “pad” her resume, but simply to give her a “college” experience in the Northeast. I think it is sad that kids(and parents) feel they have to look for summer experiences based on how it will look on the resume.</p>
<p>I attended Brown’s Summer Program in 2003. Now I am a first year at a LAC. </p>
<p>For the student’s sake: It was GREAT!!! I learned a LOT and just experiencing a bit of college life (actual classes with exams, papers, etc) made my college transition a lot smoother because I knew what to expect. Doing homework here is not as difficult because I learned time management. Definitely worthwhile for making a smooth college transition (especially if the child tends to be homesick or has anxiety).</p>
<p>For the admissions’ sake: Every person I’ve met who were in the program were rejected immediately by Brown, including me (at least that I stayed in touch). It didn’t really help overall. Don’t waste $6,000 if you’re doing this solely for the admissions at any college.</p>
<p>I toook Great Modern European Thinkers and The Golden Age of Russian Novel (which started a lifelong passion for Russian literature- I’m taking an upper level Russian lit class now because of my background).</p>
<p>My daughter attended the Brown 7 week program the past two years, prior to Jr. and Sr. years. She wanted to take real college courses. The first summer Brown separated the HS kids from the regular college kids. This summer, her classes were mostly Brown Jr and Sr kids and a few grad students. Her study group was 3 Brown Jr’s and her. She made A’s in Modern Middle Eastern History (great teacher, major research paper, 7 books to read) and in Medicine, Law, and Morality (great teacher) . Last summer she made B’s in Neuro 101 and Cognitive learning. She thoroughly enjoyed both summers. I must say that the kids are largely unsupervised and will need to be able to take care of themselves. They go for coffee and cheesecake at 3:00 am, they have visitors of either sex at any time. If your children are ready for the true college experience, it’s wonderful, but it has some risk. Last summer D had the roommate from h***. For the first 2 weeks of school, she either spent the night in the hall or laid in bed and listened to her roommate have sex with several different boys. I finally called the summer dean. They weren’t thrilled about interceding and I had to insist. They finally had the RA’s call a floor meeting and discuss those situations in general. Fortunately, the girl across the hall had an empty spot after 3 weeks and D moved. She was very happy after that and made a good friend. There were students there from all over and many foreign countries. Overall a good experience for a strong student that is mature.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your responses. I am going to pass them on to my friend and her daughter.</p>