<p>How essential are summer programs for being admitted into an Ivy League school, Duke, MIT, Caltech, etc.?</p>
<p>Have you read [this</a> thread](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1119860-how-important-summer-activities.html]this”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1119860-how-important-summer-activities.html) yet?</p>
<p>I hadn’t; for some reason, I failed to use search. I usually do, and usually get good results.</p>
<p>I applied to SSP, which fell through, and am applying to EPGY and PROMYS. I know that PROMYS is the more prestigious of the two, and the more beneficial, but I’m getting mixed opinions on EPGY.</p>
<p>EPGY isn’t bad. I’ve one friend who learned a lot from there last summer, and another who is attending this summer. But as the two are completely differently structured, I don’t know how comparable they are–if you’re entering a mathematics-oriented field, then PROMYS will be more relevant on your resume, and you can use your experiences there to speak about your interests in that field. But if [whatever you signed up to do at EPGY] is more aligned with your probably college major/career field, then that will obviously be more relevant.</p>
<p>I was going to study number theory at EPGY. EPGY is definitely second to PROMYS. Thanks for clearing that up for me. :)</p>
<p>Indeed, and perhaps apply to Ross as well, since they are cheaper and 8 weeks of Number Theory, and most of the staff from PROMYS originated from Ross, :)</p>