Summer Camp

It's that time of year when parents and students start thinking about their summer programs and especially what camps they are going to go to. Somehow we’ve created stress about summer programs. Summer traditionally was a break for students and time to rejuvenate and for the more talented elite students a way to work on their passions. Now it seems to have morphed into more college admissions mistakes.

First, colleges and universities pay very little attention to your summer camp selection. If you go to a summer program at a college or university it doesn’t mean you’re going to get accepted into that program. Brown University has been popular recently for a lot of students in China. Of the dozens I know that went I only know of 2 that were accepted to Brown.

Secondly, colleges and universities are looking for connections to your passions and values. Throwing in a camp that is a bit different and not related to your high school activities can actually hurt more than help your college application. The idea or purpose of the activities section of the application is to show what you have a passion for and what you like to do as a person. Not how many different activities or academic accomplishments you have.

So what should you be thinking about for summer? I would first think about your extracurriculars. If you have your own club, work hard on that to set it up for more success in the next academic year. If you have a blog, make it better and focus on increasing your subscriptions and audience. If you are into global health issues go to a camp or program that serves people through a global health initiative. Yes, of course if you’re a STEM person go to a camp or program that is STEM related. However, it would be much more effective to create or research a STEM problem on your own, especially with an industry expert and some other students from different high schools. Think proactively and then take a leadership position instead of buying an off the shelf activity that everyone else is buying.

When I was developing my own summer camp I had the opportunity to create a great forestry program with forestry departments from the Pacific Northwest. I quickly learned that they were more interested in the money and numbers of students. Making the process somewhat exclusive would help drive numbers and therefore pricing. I opted to create a camp that taught what I thought my students needed more - character development and the ability to identify and then articulate their values as a person - much more important to college applications.

So when thinking about summer programs, think about your child’s passions and interests, not what YOU think looks good for colleges and universities. If you’re thinking that so are multitudes of other parents. It therefore isn’t really going to let your child standout from others. What makes your child standout is having them do the things that they really have an interest in and a passion for. Working on a personal project in this area is much more beneficial than going to a camp. If your child is a bit of a couch potato without much motivation, finding camps that will make them work and face this problem would be more beneficial than going to an academic camp.

Famous Alumni

Patrick Paul Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel went to a community college in West Orange, New Jersey called Lincoln Tech. After receiving his associates degree he moved to Silicon Valley where he worked then finished his electrical engineering degree from Santa Clara University graduating magna cum laude before getting his masters degree from Stanford University in computer science.