Please bear with me with the backstory:
My daughter attends a Philadelphia public school. She’s taken the most rigorous schedule but it doesn’t have AP or IB program, etc. As a junior she’s taken the highest math (Calculus) and the few that do this generally get into the UPenn High School Honors Program and take more Calculus there in their senior year. She’ll also most likely get into Drexel’s High School Honors Program and can take 1 class there each quarter starting this summer. Though with Drexel’s restrictions the class will most likely be a language class or something like Psych 101/Soc 101/etc.
So with that info let’s look at this coming summer before applying to colleges. One option is to try and go to UPenn’s Summer Academy for Neuroscience Research which last 3 weeks in July. My daughter is interested in majoring in Neuroscience in college so this fits. It’s not guaranteed but she’d be a strong candidate. It has no cost as you have to apply, interview and be accepted - this option is only for Philadelphia Public High School students as there would be other residential students there that paid. If she does get this it will preclude her from taking a class at Drexel during Summer unless she can find one that meets after 5:00 PM. And also would prevent her from the following.
Another option would be take Calculus at Penn during their Summer Session II. She’d take the class that she could take in the fall and thus in the fall take the next Calculus class. She’d also be able to work a Drexel class in since her afternoons would be free. The benefit of this is that she’d have an UPenn and Drexel class with grade on her transcript when she applies for EA and for RD she’d have 2 from each school.
So for admissions purposes to select school which looks better - a summer research academy at an Ivy or a class with grade (assuming it’s a good grade) at an Ivy and another class with grade from a midsize research university?
Hope this makes sense.