Navigating summer planning requires ruthless honesty about goals, finances, and alternate possibilities.
Who Should Enroll
- The Exploration-Focused Student: Students eager to study esoteric subjects not offered at their secondary schools, such as cognitive linguistics, international humanitarian law, or playwriting.
- The College-Readiness Test Case: Teenagers who need to prove to themselves and their families that they can handle dorm living, roommate dynamics, and social autonomy responsibly.
- Families with Ample Disposable Income: Households where paying tuition fees will not strain resources earmarked for four-year undergraduate costs.
Who Should Walk Away
- The Resume-Chasing Strategist: Anyone spending money primarily to improve their odds of getting into Brown, Dartmouth, or Columbia.
- Families Stretching Budgets Thin: Households taking on loans or raiding college savings accounts under the mistaken impression that this program represents an admissions prerequisite.
- Advanced STEM Researchers: Students looking to publish primary bench research; those candidates are far better served cold-emailing principal investigators at local research institutions for unpaid lab assistant roles.
