How to get into prestigious summer programs?

I’m already committed to college, but I got rejected from all my reach schools despite having near-perfect stats and what I perceived as strong EC’s. The main difference that I saw between my profile and the profiles of people accepted to top schools was participation in prestigious summer programs (YYGS, RSI, etc.).

I applied to both RSI and PRIMES, but was rejected by both. When applying to RSI I had done 3 years of research under a math professor at a local state school and published a second author paper from that. When I applied to PRIMES, I solved all but one problem on the problem set correctly, but was rejected after getting an interview.

I’m pretty frustrated because I know I have the mathematical ability and maturity to succeed in those programs, but that the admissions officers must have decided that wasn’t the case for reasons I don’t understand. It can’t have been my LORs, because I read them and they were incredibly good — so it was either my essays or my resume that was the issue.

When you get denied acceptance from a competitive program or college, there really is no way to know why. These programs have far more applicants than they have spaces. And everyone just about is a top applicant.

I would suggest you start looking forward. UMass is a terrific flagship university with many wonderful things to offer. Embrace the opportunity. Get involved in the school. Enjoy your classes, activities, and the other students.

Love the college that loved you back. And don’t worry about summer programs. The vast majority of college students never attend one.

Look to the future, not the past.

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Yeah that’s valid. It’s just that my friends constantly poke fun at me for going to UMass, they tell me that UMass is for ‘normies’ and that I’ll be surrounded by dumb people. My Dad tells me that I’ll never make any money doing math at UMass. I’m just frustrated

Your dad is wrong. The UMass grads we know…CS, Math, Engineering…are doing VERY well in their careers.

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Math is a great major no matter where you are.

I feel bad for you if your dad is telling you that you can’t succeed, when you haven’t even started college.

Many from elite schools work for people from schools like UMass - at my company we have many examples of this - such as Vandy working for W Georgia.

Work hard and you’ll show everyone what success looks like.

Math is a great major with lots of possibilities. It’s very attractive to employers.

You have zero idea why you were accepted or denied at schools and zero idea if getting into a summer would have mattered.

So go forth - and show everyone the where you go doesn’t matter - and UMass is a strong school regardless.

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Just adding…you are accepted to the UMass honors college. Congratulations! Make the most of your time there!

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So it is unfortunate your current social networks are not more supportive.

However, I assure you this is very, very temporary.

What is about to happen is you are going to go to UMass, and you are going to start taking Math classes for prospective Math majors. And you will quickly realize your professors and instructors are very, very good at math, and so are at least a lot of the other undergrads–particularly the ones who are going to survive as Math majors beyond the first couple terms.

So the Math faculty and (surviving) Math students will become your new community (assuming of course you are one of the survivors), and you will be supportive of each other.

But also competitive, in the sense there will be various things people want (top grades, maybe research positions, maybe internships, maybe grad programs, and so on) that not everyone can have. Hopefully it will be a friendly competition, but there will definitely be other students very competitive for anything you might want for yourself.

So that will become your focus, And for good or ill, opportunities for peer competition will not be over. To be honest, they are really never over for any sort of selective educational and professional career track, at least until you hit your career peak and are no longer looking for further advancement.

In this greater scheme, whatever your HS peers thought about any of this will cease to matter to you. Family–who knows, but a lot of times parents and such come around as they also start to realize what opportunities you have, how competitive it can be to actually make use of them, and so on, such that they can be proud of what you actually do with those opportunities.

No promises, but it happens a lot. And in any event, ultimately you and your educational peers, and eventually your professional peers, will know what really matters, and who has actually accomplished what of real significance.

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I know it is hard to ignore toxic comments from your friends and environment. On our tour of UMass, the guide had gotten into Princeton but was at UMass for financial reasons. The top student in my son’s class made a similar decision. In the honors program you will be surrounded by very bright students and connections to workplaces for internships and jobs may be excellent.

I doubt attendance at those summer programs made a difference. Instead, whatever led to acceptance at those programs may have led to acceptances at schools.

Once you are on campus this will fade. I have heard similar stories at top public and private schools where going to a state U is dismissed. Honestly it makes me angry.

UMass has cross registration with Amherst College, Smith, Hampshire, and Mt. Holyoke and is located in a thriving community, near Northampton as well. I love the area.

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I’m sorry you don’t have support around you. You will make new friends at college who will recognize you for the great and achieving person you are. (Honors program, right?)
And unfortunately, well, sometimes parents have high ambitions for their children and do not hide their disappointment well, but the best way you can counteract that is do well (and of course, people from colleges all over the country do very well!)

Best of luck with the new school year - you are going to do just great. One piece of advice: attend all the freshman activities to try get yourself a new social circle as soon as you can, who’s as excited about where you’ll be as you should be!

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Generally speaking, you, not the school attended will be the divisive factor for your future. Control what you can and try the best you can in any environment, you will thrive no matter where you go.

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Very true, and I note while in circumstances like this it can be taken as a comforting thought, it is also a type of warning.

No matter where you go for college, you really will not have secured anything in terms of further education and career paths. These are in fact two sides to the same coin. Graduates from flagships and actually many more less “prestigious” colleges are going to end up competitive for any given desired next steps. And that means some graduates from the most “prestigious” private colleges will get out-competed by those other graduates.

I think some HS kids, and some parents, really have not fully internalized all this. They kinda just can’t imagine graduating from Harvard and yet being out-competed for something they want by someone who graduated from UMass. But it is absolutely going to happen to many graduates of Harvard, both immediately after college and then many more times in the future.

So yes, matriculating at UMass doesn’t limit what you can do, and matriculating at Harvard doesn’t secure anything. Because it really is true, in the end most of what matters is going to be up to you, and it really never stops being true until you have finally gotten every advancement or such that you will want.

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Thanks everyone

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Please ditch these “friends” and find some real friends - you’ll meet them in college.

There’s no sound logic for anyone to come to such conclusion.

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I was a math major in university, and have worked in high tech for my entire career. I have worked with a lot of U.Mass graduates (literally tons of them). The best of them are superb, and are every bit as smart and every bit as successful as the strongest graduates from MIT, Stanford, or anywhere else.

A while ago on a different thread I mentioned a very tough problem I was asked to work on that totally stumped two MIT graduates. The second of them took one look at the problem and said “You have to go talk to [name]”. I went to talk to [name] who quickly, clearly, and very concisely explained the solution to me. At this point it was about noon, so I said “would you like to get lunch”. We went to lunch. Since my older daughter had just started university and he and I both had other children in high school, we started talking about universities. He mentioned that he was a U.Mass graduate. He is also one of the top experts in the world in one very specific high tech area, and a very nice guy, and very successful.

He is however not even remotely close to being the only really, really technically excellent U.Mass graduate that I could mention. I could give you a pretty long list, all of whom are very successful, and all of whom have earned some significant money. I would not want to name any names however given the name of this web site (particularly the “confidential” part).

And U.Mass is very good for mathematics.

And if you look at graduate students, such as master’s degree students, at any highly ranked university, then you will find that they got their bachelor’s degrees at a very wide range of universities, many of which (probably most of which) will be ranked no higher and in many cases lower than U.Mass.

For a math major it is generally a good idea IMHO to get some background in computer science (eg, some knowledge of algorithms and data structures would be a good idea). U.Mass is very good for CS also.

In terms of what you are actually asking about on this thread: I think that ship has sailed. However, in general I recommend that high school students when deciding on summer activities should not even think about university admissions. Instead, do what is right for you. Be genuine. Be yourself. Treat people well, be fair. Whatever you do, do it well. This approach has worked for our family at a range of universities, including some that are ranked a bit lower than U.Mass (but were very good and a very good fit for the student) and some that were ranked rather highly.

And none of us are likely to ever know why we either did or did not get accepted to a highly ranked summer program or a highly ranked university. We can guess, but it is only a guess.

What we can do, it to do the best we can where we are, treat people well, and be responsible. We can keep ahead in our class work. We can attend every class and pay attention. We can look for good internship opportunities (particularly after we get some time into university). It sounds like you are good at math. This is an ability that is going to help you, and that will bring in opportunities. Some of these opportunities will be interesting and fun and eventually lucrative as well.

And U.Mass Amherst is a very good place to get your bachelor’s degree in mathematics (or CS, or any one of multiple other fields).

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My daughter happens to be currently attending a prestigious selective summer program (45 applicants accepted this year out of >1800). She was very surprised to be accepted. It has turned out to be a learning experience for her in many ways that she didn’t expect.

The program includes many lectures and short talks from professors and other researchers, and every one of these professors and researchers takes some time to tell their story of how they ended up in this position. My D said it’s very striking to her how many of them did not attend “top” universities for undergrad. Many of them took a very circuitous path towards where they are today (such as changing majors, experiencing failure, etc). My D thinks this has been one of the most valuable parts of the program for her, giving her a sense of greater freedom going forward… because where she goes to school, and what she picks for a major, isn’t going to determine everything about her future.

My D has also been struck by how some of the kids in this summer program seem so obsessed and stressed about getting in to “top” colleges that it’s hard for them to concentrate on actually participating in the summer program they are in. Some have a competitive attitude which makes them hard to work with. Some have also made toxic comments to other kids based on what HS they are attending, or what city they live in, or their clothes, or their race (which shocked my D).

On the other hand, my D thinks that some of the most interesting, nicest, and smartest kids in the program are the ones targeting regular public universities (generally because of financial reasons).

She says she has learned this summer that she doesn’t need to attend a “top” school in order to have smart, interesting classmates, be successful, and have an interesting career… and at this point, she’s not sure she even wants to go to college alongside the kids who want so badly to attend “top” universities. At this point she feels that she would really prefer to attend a large public university.

By the way, UMass Amherst is on my D’s college list (and we live in CA).

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Thanks, I appreciate that

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Consider taking some courses from Amherst college - it’s pretty close to UMass. And ask your current professor if they can give you a warm introduction to anyone they know at UMass or anyone you want to work under at UMass.

Also see if you can get permission to take advanced courses early, like math 523H freshman year if you’re strong with proofs.

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Just an FYI on the UMass-Amherst honors program—we know several wonderful students admitted to their honors program. We also know several other students from the same HS graduating year (2025) who were not admitted to the honors program, yet had higher GPA’s than a few accepted into the honors program (and one with a 1560 SAT score, yet he wasn’t accepted in UMass-Amherst’s honors program. He’s still attending UMass-Amherst in the fall!) We know students accepted to Tufts, Boston College, Purdue for engineering, BU, and NYU who were accepted to UMass, but not their honors program. Long story short: lots of highly intelligent students attend UMass-Amherst who are not in the honors program.

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I’m so sorry-that’s awful. We have a good friend attending UMass-Amherst this fall. He had a 1560 SAT score. He self -studied for AP classes he didn’t even take, and got 5’s on the exams! My child is attending UMass-Amherst this fall. We know several students attending this fall who chose UMass-Amherst over Boston College, Boston University, Princeton, Purdue engineering, and Tufts. And these students are not in the honors college, which is mystifying, but that’s okay. These students chose UMass for many reasons—some are pre-med and want to enter medical school without debt; One preferred the engineering program over others. You will do well, and you will thrive!

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And you are in the honors college!! That’s fantastic—you get AC and professional movers! You’re going to be so happy at UMass!

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