Importance of Summer Programs

curiousme2
Sat, 06 Apr 2019 14:30:13 +0000

I’m no admissions counselor, but from what I’ve read here on the forums and gleaned from college counselors, you do NOT need to do a formal summer program; especially if your main reason for doing one is to pad your resume. As long as you show that you are pursuing your interests and doing something productive over summer, you should be fine.

There are very few (extremely extremely selective) summer programs that would make a difference in college admissions by name recognition alone.

Since you don’t specify which program you are considering, it’s hard to for us to say whether or not it would likely provide a legitimate learning experience and be worth your time and the $5k. I suggest you search for that specific program here on cc.

You want to spend your summer doing self-study and research. Do you have a local mentor that you are researching/interning under?