Let's Talk Summer Plans for Teens
If you have teenagers, do they have their summer plans nailed down yet? What are they doing? What are you considering? What summer plans have your teens done in the past?
This post is in partnership with Summer Discovery, but all thoughts and feelings are based on personal experience.
In my experience, there are two kinds of parents— the parents who started planning their kid’s path to success from the second they were born, by choosing schools, handpicking extracurricular activities, and signing them up for college level courses starting in middle school, and the parents who refuse to play that game. “Let kids be kids,” these parents say. “If my kid wants to hang out with their friends all summer, as long as they aren’t committing any crimes, that’s okay with me.”
Actually, make that three kinds of parents, because I probably fall somewhere in the middle.
As you know, we’ve been sending our kids to sleep-away camp for the past five years, because camp insures our kids remain happy, active, surrounded by friends and screen-free all summer. Our plan was to send Mazzy again this year, but then we got a curve ball. Most of Mazzy’s camp friends chose to pursue other options, like college courses, teen tours and internships, which led Mazzy to scrap her camp plans as well. Initially, I was sad that her summer camp experience was coming to a close prematurely, but then I realized that the summer after sophomore year is the perfect time to try some new experiences. How that choice looks on her college application is not our first priority, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a consideration.
When we were researching her options, one of the companies we came across was Summer Discovery, which offers college level experiences and programs on select campuses. When I looked at the site on my own, I was under the impression that a kid had to be pretty serious about one particular subject (STEM, pre-med, business, etc.) in order for one of their programs to make sense, which wouldn’t be a good fit for a kid who is still discovering who she is and what she wants to pursue. I also thought the programs were purely academic. While I have nothing against learning over the summer, I also know my kid and want to make sure she has fun. It is vacation, after all!
It was about this time that Summer Discovery reached out to me for a partnership. I told them my concerns and they suggested I have a call with one of their program specialists, who could help me navigate and understand what they offer. She showed me how to search the site per university, as opposed to searching by subject, which allowed me to see the breadth of educational options that I didn’t find on my own. She also explained that while some colleges had program academies (where your child would apply if they were really serious about one particular subject), other colleges had more explorative academic experiences, where you could select one subject for the morning and a totally different subject for the afternoon. Also, while the programs are designed to be college level, they are more hands-on and experiential than just sitting in a classroom. There are no grades, no tests and no homework. This is definitely NOT summer school.
The specialist showed me how to search by school, which allowed me to see how different the offerings at each campus were too. For instance, while schools like Dartmouth have academies in subjects like science and research, schools like UCLA have courses in subjects like creative writing and social media. Each program is set up so that it has a good balance of educational time and extracurricular time, so it feels more similar to a sleepaway camp experience than school. For instance, there are nightly activities and planned weekend excursions to things like sporting events and theme parks. But she said the main takeaway from most of the students is not what they learn in the classes (although that’s of course a big part of the experience), but how it feels to be living amongst friends on a college campus, with a dorm assignment, a roommate, a meal card and a lot of independence. Kids end up exploring current interests, discovering new ones and leave with tons of new life skills.
I left the call thinking that Summer Discovery was a way better fit for Mazzy than I had thought. Yes, it will look great on a college application, but that’s not the only reason for a kid to do it.
Mazzy is not the kind of kid who has had her heart set on a specific university since birth, and Mike and I are not the kinds of parents who are going to impose our own alma maters on her. So later that day, when Mazzy and I went through the Summer Discovery program offerings together (fashion design, psychology, creative writing, etc.), I think it was really the first time that she had seriously thought about her post high school options. The exercise gave her a better sense of what kinds of courses are offered at colleges in general (who knew you could study talent management?) and how different the university offerings are from one another. It was great to see the light bulbs go off in her head as she learned what’s available to her and where, like roadmaps to possible futures.
If you are interested in learning more about Summer Discovery, they are still taking applicants for this summer and you can check out their full catalog here! You can also do what I did, and sign up for an introductory call (click Get More Info and fill out the form) with one of their Summer Specialists. They are the #1 recommended pre-college summer immersion experience by high school college counselors and the largest provider of pre-college experiences (grades 1-12). They have a ton of programs—over 300 courses in 12 fields of study at 18 prestigious college campuses, including Dartmouth, UCLA and Michigan. Each program provides a best in class curriculum with hands on academic programming, along with travel, recreation, exclusive campus access, safety standards, passionate instructors handpicked by the universities, and tons of off-campus adventures.
If you have teenagers, do they have their summer plans nailed down yet? What are they doing? What are you considering? What summer plans have your teens done in the past that created a great impression?
Pay to play programs on college campuses do not enhance college applications - especially ones NOT run by the college itself. While I understand this is a paid partnership, stuff like this is what feeds into the rat race for upper middle class families with high school aged kids. You could argue that taking a class on a certain topic might ignite the student’s passion into an area that could translate into something that helps college applications. But you certainly don’t need to spend $10,000 for a 3 week stint at summer discovery ucla to accomplish that.
My daughter is the same age as Mazzy and finishing up sophomore year. She’s going to be a day camp counselor for her second year but thinks next year she’ll want to do something different. She wants to work but also wants a little more flexibility! She also will train for the fall soccer season and probably do some SAT prep. But most importantly, she will make time to chill out with friends, go to the beach, and enjoy the summer! Life is way too stressful for high school kids these days. They need time to veg.
There is so much pressure to do things all the time that’ll make a “great college resume” and my kid feels it, too. If my daughter wanted to do something like Summer Discovery and it was in our budget, I’d be open to it. But only if she wanted to because it would be fun and interesting. I’ve heard from many admissions counselors that these types of programs are cool for the kids, but they do not give an edge in the college application process—so that shouldn’t be a motivating reason to do one. (My older daughter is a college freshman so we’ve been through the college search madness.)