I don’t live in the U.S., but my dad wants me to pursue my undergrads from a good American university, preferably one of the ivy league schools. I am a good student, and my grades are pretty good. I would be finishing 10th grade by the last week of march and and I would have a nice, long break of about 3-4 months before starting 11th grade (I am pursuing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in 11th and 12th grades).
My dad wants me to apply for the on campus summer programmes offered by some universities, but I am not sure what they are and how they would be beneficial for me. Can someone enlighten me?
There are some very good summer programs and some that are day camp for rich kids. The only two I know a fair amount about are the summer leadership program at West Point and notre dame summer scholars. All of the program’s give you some sense of what life is like at the paeticular college’s campus. The best programs are selective with an application process that weeds out applicants and they offer meaningful academic enrichment in one form or another.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have applied for the harvard secondary school programme, penn summer high school pre college programme and stanford high school summer college. would they be of any help in the admission process or are they just for learning and experience.
Also, what are the benefits of earning college credits?
They are only for learning and experience and are quite expensive. They do not give any edge in admissions other than showing you did it, which is worth something, and you’d probably have a great time, but it doesn’t help getting into any of those schools.
It won’t give you a special edge in the application process. The Harvard, UPenn and Stanford programs accept most students. It will be a learning experience and you get the opportunity to live on campus. My kids did Summer@Brown and learned a lot from their classes. You can use the opportunity to tour other schools in the area - for Harvard - Tufts, MIT, etc. They are easy to get to by public transportation.
There is a thread on this site about prestigious summer programs. There are some that stand out on your application, because admission is extremely competitive. Programs like SUMAC, PROMYS, RSI and others.
College credit will be accepted, if you enroll at the school that granted them, as though you earned them as a freshmen. If you enroll at another school, it will be at their discretion. They may give you the units, but certainly won’t transfer the grade. For example, if you take a summer class as a high school student at University X and then attend University Y, University Y may let you use your statistics class to satisfy a prerequisite so you can take Advanced Statistics. No guarantees however. I would only pay extra for college credit classes, if I planned on applying at that school.