College Admissions Counseling Blog

The New York Times has a recent article about summer pre-college programs where students travel around the country, or around the world, taking classes or exploring the world. I think some of these programs are fine and if a student has an interest in a particular program and the family can afford the program then it is not a bad way to spend some time in the summer. However, many students feel that they need to participate in this type of program to be viable candidates for selective colleges which is not true.

At one point colleges might have been impressed by the student who spends the summer in Italy taking an art course but those days are gone for most colleges. The highly selective colleges recognize these programs are often simply a venue to "enhance" a students resume and they are rarely impressed that a student attended such a program. Moreover, they can sometimes work a disadvantage in the application process because many of these students come off as just like every other applicant who has lots of advantages in life. The unusual student, and the one that often catches the eye of the admissions committee, is the student from a well to do family who spends the summer working at a job because it is unusual for such a student to have a summer job.

Summer programs are fine and if they enhance the students background in their field of interest they can be helpful for admissions purposes. For instance, if the student's focus throughout high school has been on art and its many aspects, spending time in Italy studying art may be helpful. But don't be misled into thinking that you need such a program to be a successful applicant at a highly selective college.

If you are looking for a summer program to enhance your ongoing interests, there is a good new website called Enrichment Alley that I would recommend checking out. This is a nice website in part because many of the programs listed are for students who do not have the resources to attend one of the fancy programs discussed in the Times article.