Since January my HS junior was involved into summer program application process. Stats: SAT 2300(1 sitting), GPA 3.98UW, 4.78 UC, 9APs, good EC with leadership positions, good essay writer. Results: rejected from MITES (should not have applied. Middle class non-minority), COSMOS, did not hear back from UCLA HSHSP (probably no), got into 2 in a top 5 national research programs (listed on MIT website) on the opposite coast with the price tag less than a half of COSMOS and a free coding program. Still waiting for 2 more programs. What shocked me from this experience are rejections from COSMOS and UCLA, especially COSMOS. DC was planning to do research this summer, so COSMOS was a backup plan, but they rejected my child, twice. I cannot help but worry that next year we might get the same results from the UC system. As California residents, UCs are our financial reach, match and safety. With this year results I cannot help but wonder what is going to happen next year during the admission process. Is my child standing a chance at a decent UCs?
Don’t worry about it. A lot of summer programs are much MORE selective than the actual colleges that host them. For example, my state flagship has a summer program with a 10-15% acceptance rate, but the overall acceptance rate to the college itself is around 40-50%. Likewise, RSI has an admission rate of 2.5% while MIT’s acceptance rate is around 7%.
The stats look good, just make sure to have stellar essays. Best of luck!