Does elite pre-college camps look good for prestigious colleges? Answered
Hi! I'm entering freshman year. This summer I'm attending one of Columbia University's pre-college programs (Online immersion for 1 week) I'm wondering if this looks appealing for colleges. Will it cause any difference?
(I also got my application decision back in less than 24 hours, does that mean anything? I submitted my application on January 30, and had my results back on January 31. On the website, it said, I will receive my decision in 1-2 weeks )
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2 answers
You and other applicants to Ivy League schools will be judged on a individual holistic basis and the sum of the parts rather than the individual data points will inform admissions officers whether you deserve a seat at any of these schools.
Try to think of the your narrative being composed of big, medium and small building blocks, then I would be break it down as the following
-Big blocks are UWGPA, Course Rigor, Test Scores, Intellectual Vitality/Curiosity, ECs, Essays, (opt.Portfolio submissions)
-Medium Blocks are Awards, Honors, Competitions, Recommendations, Scholarships, Interviews and personal character, Peer recommendations, Class rank
-Small blocks would be paid summer programs, passion projects, evidence of interest in the school, religious affiliation (if you are applying to a Christian/Catholic/Jewish college),
The other factors that help the college admissions team decide how much leeway you get for each of these blocks are whether you are an ALDC candidate or have a "hook".
-ALDC means Recruited "A"thlete, "L"egacy, "D"evelopment/Dean's list $$$$ big donor, "C"hild of faculty or staff.
-Hook means "Black", "LatinaX", "Indigenous", "non-CIS", "Low-income", "1st-generation"
So you can see that there are more important things that will determine your acceptance to an Ivy or Elite or Top Liberal Arts college than what paid summer program you do. If you focus on paid summer programs, this will mostly inform the college admissions team that you come from a wealthy background and have more resources at your disposal than other applicants. So the benefits might be not be so purposeful in the end.
If you are truly clever, I would try my luck at applying to summer programs that are very rigorous and hard to get into like the MIT ones. I'm attaching a link to those and on that page are other more rigorous summer programs that are more prestigious and academically challenging.
https://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/summer/
Good luck.
Hello, so it really depends on the college and the rest of your application but overall it does not do much. Colleges, of course, like to see that you are exploring academics and passions over the summer. But, those summer camps are usually for you tp explore that campus and is more beneficial to just you. On college applications summer camps do not do much, but I suggest going for yourself. (I am really not sure with why it was back so early, you did not clarify if you got in. If you did I would not question it, getting in is what mattered! But, if you did not my guess is it was cancelled due to Covid. Then again, I feel they would state that so I am not sure. I wish you luck!)
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Yes, I got in. Thank you for the feedback it was helpful.