Many schools seem to want demonstrated interest.
Would taking a summer course (perhaps even 200-level) at the target school
be a sufficient demonstration of interest (virtual classes are the benefits of Covid)?
Thinking of signing up DS for a 200-level CS course. He’ll learn, will get credit,
“demonstrate interest”.
Any merit to that thinking?
Remember that many colleges do not consider demonstrated interest.
If the kids wants to take the class for the sake of learning, fine. To demonstrate interest? There are cheaper ways.
I think if you are taking courses on campus and you can craft a better “why us” type essay, it could help. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s going to move the needle.
Sounds like it will be a good for your child no matter what it means in terms of interest.
Nothing is on-campus these days … 
it’s good and bad …
The good is that he’ll be able to get to lecture and do the work wherever
we go (and we intend to to a lot of college touring this summer)
I don’t think taking some summer courses at a highly selective school does anything to demonstrate interest, even if that school considers demonstrated interest. On the other hand, if she’s accepted, she will be more likely to get course credit if it’s taken at the same school.
Yeah … will give him something to do as well … these days everything is still up
in the air with Covid … Travel … internships … camps … what a mess
I don’t think that I would pay extra for a class at a target school just to show demonstrated interest. I have always viewed it as more of a pass/fail that isn’t too difficult to pass.
The listed preference of “demonstrated interest” is so ambiguous to begin with so I could see where you’re going with it. I personally would aim at partaking in specific courses over the summer instead that are focused or at least loosely related to your child’s area of study. My child did this as he was a bio major and took part in an REU over the summer in biochemistry (hence the loose classification on the correlation). This panned out well for him in terms of getting accepted to his top institutions.
No doubt …
We had course in mind that we’d love him to take no matter what.
Like previous commenters have mentioned, for admissions colleges don’t care about summer courses you can pay to attend (competitive-admission or minority-recruitment programs are different).
For intro CS courses, there is little difference between one at a prestigious university and what is available for free online. My personal recommendation is against expensive pre-collegiate programs, as with the current pandemic students aren’t able to get the on-campus experience – which is normally a major draw of the whole thing.
Yes. True.
One advantage of taking the college course is getting credits towards the degree.
This summer is still totally at the whim of the pandemic … limited travel, limited internships
(as everyone is still remote). Might as well have DS take a serious course (we were thinking
a 200-level course, as (a) intros aren’t offered, (b) would be too basic as DS’ coding is decent already.
Just be careful, summer classes are not always the best way to introduce “real” college classes to a student. They move very fast. The grade in the class will follow the student forever. They will also have to send a transcript from this school to every school they apply. Obviously this risk is very student/subject dependent.
Our family had a very different experience than described by several posters in this thread.
Family member attended summer program at an ultra-selective school and received very strong support & encouragement to apply to that elite. The two profs also offered to write recs for same family member for another ultra-selective university which was considered to be the best in his intended major.
Based on the experiences in our family & on the experiences of classmates, I would strongly consider attending the summer program at a target school if affordable. I think that this would be especially helpful if targeting an LAC or LACs (although in our case & friends experiences were all at universities).
In all likelihood, the above mentioned students would have been strong candidates for acceptance regardless of taking the summer course or not.
In general, colleges are not swayed by pay to play activities. Sure, taking a summer course shows interest, but I highly doubt they will take the kid who did the summer course over the kid who couldn’t afford a similar thing and is otherwise more well qualified. Showing interest can be as simple as requesting an interview, emailing an admissions officer with pertinent questions, visiting the campus (if allowed), signing up for emails, and participating in virtual information sessions.
Happy to hear there are some anecdotal positive stories.
I mean maybe I shouldn’t saying “demonstrated interest” as DS will be applying ED.
Cost-wise the summer course isn’t too different from anything (of quality) he could pick
up online (in fact 2 summers ago the summer coding camp was about as much), so
might as well take the college course, and I do think it’ll be highly beneficial to DS.
Taking a summer class can work in the opposite way too. My daughter took a summer class at a highly selective college and found it so underwhelming that she did decided to not apply. Taking the summer class can help solidify or change your kid’s course of action.
And probably for the best!
Did she find a better school to apply to?
Define “better”…it’s been a hard year and her choices seem all over the place to me. She’s still waiting on some decisions and I guess we’ll take it from there. Thank you for your interest! I hope your kid enjoys their summer course.