<p>My dream college is having a summer program. I am hesitating whether or not I should apply. If I didn’t do well in the program, will they keep a record of it and when I apply for that college next year, would they reject me because I didn’t do well in that program? What if I didn’t have a good essay for this summer program application, will they remember that and when I apply for that college, will they reject me on the basis that I didn’t have a good essay before?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>I don’t think they’ll reject you just because of your performance in their program. Remember that they’ll have to look at your whole college application before they decide. As for the essays, I don’t think they’ll remember you specifically since it’s likely that hundreds of other students will be applying and who knows if some of those students also wrote bad essays?</p>
<p>Look on the summer program’s website. I can almost guarantee you that there is a disclaimer something to the tune of “Attending this summer program gives you no benefit in the admissions process.” This means that you’ll get no advantage from spending money to attend this program.</p>
<p>It also means that a bad essay or a bad experience in a class won’t get you blacklisted from said college. However, if you can’t handle the admissions process or the water-down version of a college class that is a summer program, you probably aren’t equipped for admission to that college in the first place.</p>
<p>Yes you are right, but does “no benefit” also mean “no disadvantage”?</p>
<p>I think instead of “no benefit,” Glassesarechic meant to say that it has “no IMPACT” on your undergraduate admissions decision.</p>
<p>There will probably be almost no impact on your acceptace/rejection if you attend a program at that college.</p>
<p>This is a classic, “it depends” question…there are two programs that are just off the top of my head that I know do give preference to summer attendees…Cherub program at Northwestern and Summer at Syracuse…just for everyone’s info…</p>
<p>My sister met with her regional admissions officer twice at the Columbia Summer Program so while the program itself may not have helped substantially, the connection definitely did.</p>
<p>Did she get into Columbia?</p>