My D15 went to summer camps for speech & debate to help her get better at her events, which helped her excel in her main extracurricular activity. She was always so good at math and science that I urged her to consider a STEM major even though she had no interest in STEM related EC’s. So during the summer between her junior and senior year, I found a one week engineering camp at our local state university. It was designed to give the students an overview of several engineering fields and every kid except mine had a really specific interest already. On the last day of camp they had an assembly with all the campers and parents. They asked the campers to get up and say what kind of engineering they liked best. It turned out that D15 was the first one called up, and she walked up to the microphone and said: “My favorite kind of engineering is none of the above. Because I’d rather be a lawyer.” There was an awkward silence and then some polite applause. My D15 ended up turning this story into her Common App essay, about how she loved science and math but was more interested in public policy and economics than in inventing or building something. I guess it worked because she got into her first choice ED.
So it turned out that the engineering camp was a week well spent, even though the result was to convince her that engineering was not for her. By the way, I found the camp by just hunting around on the website for our local state university until I stumbled across something. So far D19 has gone to speech & debate camp as well. For the last two summers she’s needed to do summer school to catch up on some stuff academically, so we haven’t had time to work in any additional summer camps.
Hey @homerdog just to clarify, I don’t think the kids were trying hard to be quirky and different at Tufts, I think the school just likes to admit a decent amount of interesting kids from all sorts of backgrounds. There were definitely “regular” kids, for lack of a better term, on campus. That’s why I said if you were more of a “regular” kind of a kid, you need to be able to deal with all sorts of others in a harmonious way. One of the kids I know that goes there is probably one of the more regular kind of kids there, but he likes politics, events, news etc., so that’s what he brings to the table there. I know a girl who plays sports there too, she loves it there.
My son is a sporty- geek type and he was there to play sports and meet some coaches. We met some other kids that he liked and the teams that we met with seemed nice. It’s hard to get in there without some sort of hook, and so sports may help him there, if he decides to apply. He’ll have to do well on his sat/act and then we’ll rethink things if things progress with the coach. At this point I don’t think it’s #1 choice anyways.
But I want you all to know that I do like Tufts and have nothing bad to say about it at all really. I think it’s a great place to study for the right kid. So that’s just my take on it, don’t discount it or add it to your list because of my assessment.
@carolinamom2boys You’re completely right. I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to sound like that. I am not a good “big” test taker so I was actually kind of happy with my score. I am in a super competitive environment where I’m basically constantly told a 33 isn’t good enough, so I’ve just had that mentality lately.
A 33 is really good and honestly “good” is very subjective. It really does go by a case by case basis. Student A may be just as joyful with a 25 as student B is with a 35. It really all depends. I didn’t meant to belittle students who work super hard to achieve what they see as a “good” score.
@gusmahler That’s awesome about the ACT! A 32 is great, but I’m sure she can get higher on the real thing. What ever happens I’m sure she will be great!
Did anyone whose student has taken the PSAT have audio accommodations? My D19 is scheduled to take the PSAT on October 25. Last year she had extra time, but this year she has extra time plus mp3 audio, so I’m wondering how that will work.
For us, summer programs have been really helpful to validate specified interests, while helping to indicate an interest for future endeavors.
S, for example, had an interest in a foreign language not taught at his school. So he applied for a free 4 week summer immersion program in that language after 9th grade and concluded that he wanted to learn more. The program also gave him a taste of college campus life (doing his own laundry, providing independence and accountability for his own time). This program also has served as a solid stepping stone to other language programs for subsequent summers.
For D, the summer after 9th grade involved taking some free DNA classes that lead to local internships during the school year. I think that background helped her get into some summer programs last summer where she gained that college campus life as well (and grew leaps and bounds). She’s applying to some paid internships this summer in specific research areas that peak her interest (and are tied to the research she did last summer).
Summer programs, whether free or not, can be helpful and are totally what you make of them. The time goes into searching for the right ones, then the applications (some of which require multiple essays), and meeting the deadlines.
I want to have more of a plan this year for what my kid is doing during the summer, but I don’t have much budget or a lot of ideas.
Kid is passionate about theater, psychology, theater, writing, theater, filmmaking and, uh, theater. We found a summer camp last year, but that was only a week and wasn’t very advanced.
We’re in Maryland
I thought about writing in the Summer Programs section of the board, but that’s been dead since 2008. Any ideas where I can look?
There are a ton of summer program in the MD area. D19 gets mailings all the time from places like GW and Hopkins.
But be careful. Some seem to be sketchy. A friend of mine sent his kid to a medical one at Hopkins. But the program touted itself as being geared toward excellent students thinking of going to Hopkins. But the kid got 80th percentile, which is far below anything Hopkins would accept. It’s just some program that uses the fact that it’s on the Hopkins campus as a selling point, without being actually affiliated with Hopkins.
Just be sure you’re sending your kid there to learn, not to get a leg up on admissions–because it doesn’t help admissions at all.
@gusmahler is absolutely correct. The summer programs my children participated in were held at college campuses that they will not be applying to (in fact, my son’s language program was held at an all girls school).
The criteria of the program should ideally be based on the subject matter that will be covered and the benefits your child will have from being exposed to the material.
I realize that there are a ton of really really selective summer programs that may provide a boost in admissions (TASP and RSI for example), but again, I would still argue that the criteria above should still apply.
My d will apply to a couple of local paid programs. I have no idea how competitive they are, I discovered them through college web sites by going to their pages and doing a search for high school programs. If she doesn’t get accepted for them, she will work part time and work on college applications and still be happy with her summer.
I’m wondering whether I should force him to take a fast food job if he doesn’t come up with a decent program or internship. I’ve got to stop Tiger Momming eventually, shouldn’t I?
@ninakatarina absolutely! I don’t think summer programs and/or internships are necessary at all, just a cool way to spend the summer doing something that you could not fully engage in during the school year (and if free, the better). After his summer language program last summer (which was only 4 weeks), my son bummed around the golf courses and thinks he might want to get a summer caddy job this summer. As long as he’s not on his computer playing games, I’m all for it!
And helping your son find a summer program that might help him further develop his interests doesn’t seem like Tiger Momming…does it?
It has been an unofficial requirement that all 3 of our daughters work in food service before they turn 20. A motivator for college performance! (No-show co-workers, 20 year-old managers, an inside look at fast food, etc).
Regarding the one-two-or-four week camps at prestige universities, they tend to be unaffiliated with the university. Still, maybe some of us have found them useful in giving high schoolers a kinda college experience? My oldest did a 9 day ‘leadership’ camp at Georgetown at 16, her first experience away from home.
One camp I regret we didn’t enable for our girls was a simple week-long day camp for middle schoolers at NCSU, for engineering. We had them going to soccer and gymnastics camps. They quit soccer by high school and still don’t know what engineering is, other than the major for the smart kids.
S19 just texted from school. The rep from Dickinson is there today and he’s going to the meeting. When he went to pick up his pass in the guidance office, the GC at the desk said, “Great school. So glad you’re going to the meeting. I wish I could get more kids to look at it.” Now, S19 is convinced that I know what I’m doing when I put schools on his list to consider. Guess it takes a wink from a GC to confirm that mom is doing a decent job.
The coming summer: A week-long family reunion, with some traveling on either side of it. Since the reunion is in Oregon, D19 has asked that we visit Western Washington and maybe Oregon State (since both of them have industrial or manufacturing engineering majors and sustainability minors), but that’s probably the closest thing to quote-college-prep-endquote stuff she’ll be doing the whole time.
Well, ended up being the ONLY one at the Dickinson meeting and talked to the rep for 50 minutes. I only got a quick bit of info before he had to run to XC. Sounds like he really enjoyed the meeting and I figure that’s some good, free practice for interviewing in general and for learning more about the school! Boy, I would have liked to be a fly on the wall for that one. I can’t imagine what they discussed for so long.