As we near the end of our 12 years in high school, especially those of us who are in grade in grade 11 right now, many are probably looking to gain a little bit of either work or university experience before we write our university applications. (This is a real thing guys, you’re almost there!)
So last summer, I went to UPenn through Summer Discovery for a Pre-College Biology Course, and I already did a blog on my experience specifically.
But I promise this blog will be different. I wanted to write to you more about why Summer Discovery is a great opportunity, and how it will benefit you.
Why spend summer at a university?
One reason is: you can use it in your resume. Yeah, yeah, life isn’t just about getting into good university and whatever other cliché things you’ve been told. However, we cannot simply deny the effect of each line in your resume on the rest of your schooling and occupation. Especially if you end up applying to the university that you go to for summer, having that experience could work to your benefit.
Past the superficial let’s-get-into-an-elite-university mindset, in this program, you can learn in a real university class. These classes are not designed to go soft on high school students. They are real university courses with university students enrolled in them. This is the most accurate experience of university before you go to the real thing.
Networking is an important factor to success later on. In Summer Discovery courses, you meet university professors, university students, and other high-achieving high school students. You can learn at least one thing from any of these people.
What do you do in this program?
For details on the course I specifically took, I suggest that you check out my previous blog. Long story short, you are experiencing what college/university really is. There’s no set time tables at Summer Discovery. Everything is up to you. Everything from meal times to morning wake up times need to be done by yourself.
For residential aspects, you stay in the university’s dormitories (the Quad at UPenn). Learning to live by yourself without your parents is an important lesson, especially if you’re going away for university. Doing laundry, cleaning up after yourself, and everything else, like schedules, is up to you. Since you’re only taking one course, you do have a lot of free time to do anything.
For those who like travelling and going out, at Summer Discovery, there are weekend trips. In my case, we went to New York, Hershey Park, Ocean City in New Jersey, and Washington. Also, you are not stuck with an RA group the whole time. Rather, you are allowed to move around anywhere, as long as you are within the set boundaries. UPenn was especially good for this, since it’s in University City, and everything that you’ll ever need from restaurants to clothes stores to the movies was available to us.
You are also given an access card for the specific university you are attending. In my case, I got a PennCard and it was labelled as “Undergraduate.” This meant that I can use any facilities within UPenn – libraries, gym, practice rooms, any online services and more.
Do you actually study in this program?
Oh ya, you definitely do. My class had 3 midterms and a final in 6 weeks, so I had to fit studying time as well. I also had lectures everyday, for which I had to do pre-class readings, and labs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for which I had to do prelab and postlab work. (I gotta admit, a lot of my last days were spent in the library with my classmates).
Have no fear, however. There’s still room for fun. Everyday, there were Summer Discovery-wide activities available. For example, my friends and I went mini-golfing one day and it was a great break from studying.
Why would anyone take part?
Again just getting the experience is a good reason that anyone would go to this. For myself, I know getting this 6 weeks’ worth of college experience will help me adapt to the university environment when I get there next year.
The selection process for the programs are not done in a “you pay, you come” kind of way. There is an application that needs to be filled out. This is yet another part of the college experience. How will you convince the admissions officers that you are passionate, diligent, and fit to be at their university?
And the list of reasons goes on: meeting new people, learning in a new environment, getting challenged…
I found that my program was a great balance between fun and study. Thinking about what I would’ve done at home instead (e.g. sitting around watching Netflix for hours, shopping, etc.), I think it was a really good use of my time.
(Applications are open now, so anyone interested should check out the website).
I also mostly talked about the 6 week Pre-College program at UPenn, since that’s the one I was a part of, but there are many other programs including internships and the length and subjects available varies with each campus.
