Improve your Course Rigor this Summer on a Budget

I've been reading posts of HS students scrambling to apply to pay-to-play college summer programs. Some of these are short like a week or two. Some are six to eight weeks. The shorter ones do not not give you any kind of academic credit, maybe just a certificate for participating. Some of the longer one actually give you credit depending on which college you apply to. So you might get 1 or 2 college credits for enrolling in these. Whether you choose a short or long one, the common thing is that these are expensive and do not fit most high school students budgets. A short program can cost between $3000-$6600 and a long one might cost $7000-$10000. If your parents can afford this, it's a great way to experience living on a college campus. You get to room in a dorm, eat in a dining hall and hang around campus. It's like an expensive test drive. The down side is that you don't get a lot of academic value for participating in these and they do not help you get into the school where you are attending the summer program. So if you apply to Harvard, Brown or Columbia for the summer, think of it as an fun extended learning trip, not a bankable boost to your college application.

If you are a high achieving lower to middle income student, then I recommend applying to the scholarship based summer programs like MIT's https://www.cee.org/programs/research-science-institute, or Stanford's https://simr.stanford.edu/application.html

Since these are more merit based, they will enrich your narrative for intellectual vitality and curiosity.

If you do not get into such prestigious merit based programs, do not fret. You can still boost your academic narrative by doing the following things.

-Enroll in your community college and take a college course that either maps into your academic narrative or something not offered at your high school.

-Enroll in a MOOC like eDx.org and take an AP course online through MIT, RICE, Georgetown, Davidson or Boston U. ( and other colleges)

-Enroll in outlier.org and take a college course taught by 3 or 4 Ivy/Elite professors online.

All 3 paths will cost you about $100-$150 per college credit which is far less than paying up to $2000 per college credit a private college. So for $800 bucks (vs $8,000 to $12,000) you can add 6 college credits on your Common App and if you get As in the class, (or in the case of APs if you get 5s), then you will be able to get full value at your intended college. This is best way to get 'bang for your buck' on your college application. Even HS students who have to work a summer job can still squeeze out a few hundred bucks for a 3 credit college course.

So good luck planning your summer if you are 10th or 11th grader.