<p>I’m about to commit to Stanford Summer School. (summer.stanford.edu)</p>
<p>What are your thoughts/experiences about it?</p>
<p>Will an “A” from the courses carry any academic weight?</p>
<p>GordonGekko, the summer course would carry academic weight commensurate with the difficulty of the course, just as it would if taken during a different quarter (assuming a Stanford professor teaches the course). If you are asking whether getting an A in a summer school course would help you get admitted to Stanford, the answer is probably not. If you read the Undergraduate Admissions FAQs on the web page, they point out that the main value of attending summer programs is in doing something educational and productive with your summer; it doesn’t constitute a hook. If you have a Stanford prof teaching the summer course and you make a hugely positive impression on him or her and the prof writes a letter strongly in favor of your admission, that could conceivably help somewhat, depending on the strength of the overall application. (This applies to virtually all college summer programs, other than those which involve challenging entrance exams. The latter programs do tend to give a boost to admissions at top colleges.) Attending the summer program could also give you more of an informed perspective on a school when it comes time to write the essay about why that school is a great fit for you, for what that’s worth. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response!</p>
<p>I’d like to do something during the summer that will ‘cap off’ raw academic ability. My underclassman HS scores are sub par (compared to the high level Stanford-type applicants); giving an additional piece of information might help loosen doubts an admission officer would have about my future college academic performance. </p>
<p>Stanford is also a very desirable place to be, especially in the summer. I hope that combined with the people there, this will definitely help me as a growing person.</p>