Summer Programs For Your Teen

Students and parents often ask me for suggestions about where it would be best to send their teenagers for the summer. I think that the summer is an excellent way for your teenager to experience studying at a world-class university. Your teenager will benefit from being around other, well-motivated and high-achieving teenagers, but he or she will also get to see if they like the city where the university is located. Here are three programs that show you just how wide the spectrum is.

Total costs below are estimated to include the tuition cost (per credit), the housing cost, and various administrative costs (i.e., for the visa). Please double-check with the university, though, in all cases.

Stanford Summer Programs summer.stanford.edu 8-Week Program (22 June - 18 August 2019) Cost: $14,426 to $17,054 USD. Application Deadline: 3 April 2019 (if you need a Stanford-sponsored immigration form), or 1 May 2019 (if an immigration form is not needed).

The Stanford Summer Program is excellent because of its breadth. Students can take courses from basically any of the university’s department, such as Computer Science, Economics, and Civil and Environmental Engineering. These courses are designed as college-level courses and are an excellent foundation for university studies later on. As well, students have a chance to visit other nearby universities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Yale Summer Session Intensive English Program

https://summer.yale.edu/academics/intensive-english-program

5-Week Program (1 July - 2 August 2019) Application Deadline: 20 May 2019 Cost: Roughly $13,000 to $16,000.

This program is excellent because it provides students with a certificate of achievement; because it is highly structured and taught by well-qualified instructors; and because it focuses solely on the one skillset that international students will need for success: written and spoken academic English. The curriculum is rigorous, and the schedule is quite demanding. The biggest benefit to this program is that students will get to network and meet potential future professors at Yale.

Digital Media Academy - Tech Camps at the University of Toronto https://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/canada-tech-camps/university-of-toronto/

One-week and two-week camps, 15 July to 23 August 2019 Application Deadline: Various Cost: Housing is roughly $1,500/week. Tuition is roughly $1,000 to $1,300/week.

These camps are the most flexible of the three options. They are located in Toronto, so there is no need to worry about American visas (nor the exchange rate). The cost is also significantly cheaper. The camps are open for kids aged 7, through teenagers who are 17. The curriculum is extremely modern: course topics include 3D Printing and Modelling, Electronic Music Production, and App Development. All of the topics are presented in a friendly and playful manner.