<p>My sister went last year. It is more rigorous than most on-campus summer programs and I think it gets greater respect in the college admissions process as a result. Ivy Scholars does turn away applicants and those who attend are top notch students, many of whom end up being strong applicants to Ivies. But, I don’t think it’s been quite as competitive to get into the program for full pay students in recent years as some of the old threads on CC might indicate. The program expanded during the past few summers and I think that eased the crunch of applicants a bit. Still, if you want to attend you should take time with your essays because they do have more applicants than slots.</p>