Hello,
My daughter is HS freshmen, She got accepted in to Rosetta Institute’s summer program BIOMEDICAL CAMPS - Rosetta Institute for NeuroScience program. She has completed Biology and Chemistry Honors courses at high school already. I want to collect some opinions on the course those who have their kids attended, not attended the course or selected but not decided. This is an expensive (~4K) course and requires efforts (drop off pickups or stay at dorm etc.
I am positive she will have a good learning experience but I am debating how helpful this will be for her dream to get in to most competitive colleges. I appreciate all comments
hey! i have a few friends who went together to the program, if the one you’re referring to is held at ucsd. i believe it is 4k for two weeks? your daughter will be doing lab work and such, so the price does kind of make sense. However, 4k for two weeks is still expensive compared with cosmos (also held at the same campus), which is 4k for 4 weeks. I have heard that rosetta isn’t insanely strict, my friends had a blast because it was more relaxed.
as for prestige, i think this summer program should be seen as a great learning opportunity instead of a ticket to any t20s. nothing really is a ticket to those colleges, so depending on your goals rosetta might not be worth it. if you’re really only aiming to spend money on extremely prestigious summer programs, this is probably not one of them. not to say that the program is completely pay to win (all program are tbh), but this program just isn’t on the level of MITES, RSI, SIMR, etc. however, if you want your daughter to have a great summer learning about her passions, i do think rosetta is a great place for that!
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My understanding is that none of the summer programs is going to help stand out for college more than any other productive activity (a job, for instance regarded highly). The only exception would be the handful of very competitive, very prestigious, mostly math-based programs. Or perhaps some of the highly competitive programs in music (National Youth Orchestra).
As for Rosetta, my understanding is that she will do lab work and classroom work and also have a lot of peer/group activity with the other students.
@hebegebe and @Chekov — are you the posters who are experts about the prestigious summer programs that help with college admissions?
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OP—I sent you a DM.
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Correct.
A few things are (such as RSI and TASP), but admission to them is more competitive than acceptances to the top-20 colleges.
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I am definitely far from being an expert, but @hebegebe is, and he is right that the programs like RSI that are not shy about the matriculation stats of their alumni are also clear about their own selectivity.
Here’s a Forbes article written by the current RSI director (he wasn’t at the time it was published):
There is a little-known secret method of getting a student admitted by top colleges and universities.
Getting perfect grades and admissions test scores is not enough to get into the most selective colleges and universities. College admissions offices want more than just great academic performance. They want students who go above and beyond.
There are certain summer programs and competitions that act as a mark of excellence. Students who attend these programs or earn the highest rank in these competitions are much more likely to get into the most selective colleges and universities.
One of these programs is the Research Science Institute (RSI) run by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE). CEE was founded by Admiral H.G. Rickover and Joann P. DiGennaro more than 35 years ago to keep the U.S. strong in science, mathematics, technology and engineering. The RSI program is free to participants.
Most RSI alumni, known as Rickoids, enroll in some of the nation’s most selective colleges and universities. A third (33%) attend Harvard, 22% attend MIT, 10% attend Stanford, 5% attend Princeton, 5% attend Yale, 3% attend Caltech and 2% attend Duke.
There’s just one catch, which is getting into RSI.
RSI is more selective than MIT, Stanford, Harvard and all other colleges and universities worldwide. Only about 2% to 3% of U.S. applicants are admitted to RSI each year.
He then goes on to list some other well-regarded summer programs and high-school competitions.
What is common to many highest-caliber programs is that in addition to their selectivity they are free to participants - though there are certainly exceptions (MathCamp, for example).
In any case, in the spirit of “applying sideways” I would only encourage my child to participate in a program they were genuinely interested in without regard for the admissions prospects. If the main motivation for doing anything in high school is to better the college admissions chances, it is very likely to result in a disappointment.
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