Pre-college programs for high schoolers are big business in the US. Most of these programs are coordinated by third-parties and hosted on college campuses. They’ll give you a taste of “dorm life” and what dining hall food really tastes like. They can also be super fun, with loads of camp-like programming interspersed with your academic taster class. Some of them are less structured, and essentially are exactly like college-life, you have a class schedule (and usually take the same summer school classes that the currently enrolled university students do) and a room, but no “camp staff” to plan other events or help you connect with your peers. You might earn a college credit or two at either of these options.
Last summer, I saw typical program costs for both of these types of programs ranging from $3000 to $6500 for 2-4 week programs.
While they can be really fun, and energize you for the hard slog through the applications season, these summer programs generally have no bearing on your actual college admissions results. Most college admissions officers see these programs as expensive summer camps.
It may be more cost effective (and actually better for your college application in general), to do something intensive in an activity you love, or take on a short term job. Both of these would show some personal depth or grit, which are pretty desirable attributes in a future college student.
Job options:
Camp: If you’re in the US this summer, look to work as an assistant teacher in a local day camp. Many pre-schools offer summer programs to elementary students and hire high schoolers as assistant counselors. You could also do a Counselor-in-training program at an overnight camp. You’re unlikely to earn money as a CIT, but you’ll get a lot of lovely outdoor time, and can work with horses, arts, swim, etc.
Summer Hire: If you’re at post, you can look into the embassy summer hire program. Not every post is running the program this year, but it’s an excellent opportunity to build out your experience list, pick up a little bit of spending money and also just get an insiders look into what professional work really is like.
Start a micro business: Some low-investment businesses that work well for teens include: Redbubble or Society6 product design (reuse your school art projects!), tutoring or running a small hobby class, do administrative tasks on Fiverr, or do the data projects that are still too hard for robots as a tasker for Amazon’s MechanicalTurk, Appen, or Humanatic.
Classes or Camps:
If you look outside the US, you’ll find that pre-university summer programs are significantly cheaper. In person classes at London area universities, for example, are around $500 (plus $700 for housing) for a 2 week session. Some include free transportation from the airport as part of their course fee.
Many of these will also offer live virtual programs this summer, with times that are more convenient for people at EUR, AF and posts further east.
Cambridge is offering 2 week virtual programs for less than $300: https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/virtual-pre-university-summer-programme
York University has short course options that are free (tasters) and low cost: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/international/applying/summer-schools-and-short-courses/
Specialty programs in arts, medicine and lots more are searchable, or I can help you find them if you let me know what you’d like to learn.
Volunteer Options:
This is a great list of volunteer ideas that can work almost anywhere. I’d recommend that you do something that is important or fun to you, rather than worry about your volunteer work “looking good” on a college application. https://www.teenlife.com/blog/50-community-service-ideas-teen-volunteers/
Traditional US Pre-college programs, Individual Research programs, and Volunteer opportunities with established programs
A compilation of some great options from CollegeMatchpoint: Many of these are in the “costly” range, but if you scroll down a bit futher, you’ll see information on programs that will match you to a 1:1 mentor to pursue a personal research project, or virtual volunteering. If you are open to paying a bit more this summer, the list of pre-college programs is also very extensive: https://www.collegematchpoint.com/college-matchpoint-blog/springsummer2022opportunities