summer programs - Great College Advice https://greatcollegeadvice.com College Admission Counseling Fri, 15 Aug 2025 10:29:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://greatcollegeadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/758df36141c47d1f8f375b9cc39a9095.png summer programs - Great College Advice https://greatcollegeadvice.com 32 32 Advice for Juniors: Check Local Summer College Offers https://greatcollegeadvice.com/blog/advice-for-juniors-check-out-what-local-colleges-offer-this-summer/ Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:45:30 +0000 https://greatcollegeadvice.com/?p=9770 Juniors, have you started planning your summer break? If not, consider spending some time on a college campus. Read more to learn about some of the advantages of participating in one of these programs.

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]]> Juniors,  have you started thinking about what you will be doing this summer? How about spending some time on a college campus?
Many colleges and universities around the country offer programs for high school students during the summer. These may include programs where you can take a class for college credit, do a leadership program, play a sport, learn a language, write, explore a particular major and much more. While an obvious advantage to these types of programs may be bolstering your college application and resume there are many personal advantages for you. For example, taking a college class with a real college professor may give you that leg up when you actually enter college as a freshman. You will go into college with some previously earned credit and you will also have a sense of what a college class is like, the type of work expected of you and how to best interact with a professor. Another advantage to participating in one of these programs is learning what it means to live on a college campus. Often, these programs in the summer allow you to live right on campus in a residence hall. This gives you the opportunity to get a feel for having a roommate, living amongst other students, eating on campus, navigating your way around on your own and a sense of independence. These programs all have different lengths so whether you are looking to just spend a couple weeks or perhaps want to be away for a month or more you will likely find a program that interests you.
While there are programs at colleges all over the country to take a look at don’t forget to look at your local colleges as there may be special programs, or discounts, for in-state students.
 

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]]> Summer Programs: Choose Carefully https://greatcollegeadvice.com/blog/summer-programs-and-academic-enrichment-choose-carefully/ Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:47:18 +0000 https://greatcollegeadvice.com/?p=7415 Summer academic programs are very popular in the US. They can be great fun, and even enriching, but don't expect that they'll help you get into the college of your dreams.

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]]> I recently visited Brown University on opening day of the Summer at Brown program.  I took the opportunity to record my thoughts about these sorts of programs.

If you prefer, you can read the transcript below.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
So I’m here today on the campus of Brown University, one of the eight Ivy League campuses, and it’s a beautiful summer day.  Today is check-in for the Summer at Brown, and this is a program that’s for high school students—it last several weeks—and there are just scads of students that are checking-in to spend most of their summer on a college campus.
A lot of my clients ask me whether or not these programs are really a good thing to do during the summer and on the one hand, they can be a good thing because it is a good way to transition, or to think about, living on a college campus.  Students generally take a course or two—a morning course, an afternoon course—and they get a taste of campus life.
But one of the things I warn against is thinking that taking the Brown Summer Program is actually going to be a way to help increase your chances of getting into Brown.  It really isn’t.  These are completely separate programs that are run, not by the Admissions Office, but by a separate entity within the University.  They’re to make money, they’re to provide opportunity for students, but they really have no relationship with the Admissions Office.
So an alternative might be to think more about what it is you want to accomplish during the summer.  Are there certain things you really want to study?  If there are—like maybe it’s computer science or gaming, maybe it’s music, maybe it’s something like economics—look for the courses, look for the programs that offer those academic subjects that you really have an interest in exploring and find a college campus program that will allow you to do that, or a camp experience, or find ways that you can deepen that interest on your own.
You don’t necessarily have to come to a college campus to do that.  It can be very expensive.  Again, it can be a good experience.  There’s nothing wrong with doing these kinds of summer experiences on campuses around the country, but first of all, make sure you’re doing one that you really think will meet your needs and your interests and second of all, don’t think it’s going to be an easy way into that particular college.  It’s probably not going to be.

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