Lead America or Barnard's Young Women's Leadership Institute?
 

So, my daughter and I are trying to decide between Barnard's Young Women's Leadership Institute or a Lead America conference on journalism for my chickie for this summer. They both sound like great experiences but her main concern is about what has more value on college apps. Both are in New York City and about the same cost. I think she's leading toward Barnard's program but I'm wondering about reputations of these kinds of programs. It's a lot of money and I want to make sure there is some value in sending her!

Anybody have experience with either of these?

Barnard is an excellent college. I'm sure that name alone would stand out on her activities resume. But the most important thing is which conference would your daughter enjoy more? It isn't always about name recognition.

She is on the fence between them and so wanted to know about name recognition. For my daughter, EVERYTHING she does is about college apps. I have had a talk with her... told her I hope that she doesn't regret her entire high school career because she is so focused on making sure she has everything in place for the "college apps" and she insists she's having fun too...lol.

She thinks both sound awesome to her, bottom line. She's looking for a tie breaker factor at this point.

I'd never heard of Lead America until this post. I'm extremely wary of summer programs that aren't tied directly to a university, as many of them are just cash cows that won't necessarily help students in any way. I'm not going to name any of them specifically since I'm sure there are plenty of GC-ers who are alumni of, or sent their kids to, those programs.

The Barnard program is highly regarded. Women's leadership initiatives are huge right now, because it's becoming more and more evident that women will succeed with great female mentors. Also, the Barnard campus is self-contained and pretty safe--I'm not sure where Lead America is housing their students.

As far as college applications, I'm not sure how much one program vs. the other will make a difference, honestly.

Is your daughter still interested in Brown?

My mindset with these things has always been "What will get you the most bang for your buck?" Barnard's program will certainly help her to get into Barnard. Lead America may be a smaller boost, but it will help at more schools. So, I would suggest that she consider whether she is seriously considering attending Barnard or a like-minded school; if that's the case, their program would be best. If she's looking to apply elsewhere, Lead America may be a better choice -- Barnard is not really on the radar of big state schools or research-focused institutions. That being said, there is no bad choice in this case, and both will be phenomenal experiences!

I beg to differ. Having attended a college program has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on whether or not a kid gets into the school. I worked with my college's summer program and it was a known fact that the percentage of summer students who ended up being admitted was not that much more than the general population. Virtually every kid applying to a school of Barnard's caliber has attended a program like this.

Barnard is totally on the radar of "selective" colleges. It's part of Columbia University, which is as research-focused an institution as any other. As one of the Seven Sisters schools, its reputation far outstrips most state schools, with the exception of UVa/Michigan/Berkeley.

This may be true for your college, but it's not true everywhere. In my experience, participation in a university's summer offerings will not guarantee admissions, but at the schools I've worked at, it was always factored into the admissions score if the student had participated.

ETA: OP, I think the program at Barnard would be a great summer experience!

Yes, she is still very interested in Brown. Right now, it is her top choice and she is thinking she will apply early decision there and early acceptance at Michigan. Michigan's is not binding, but she wants to know early that she has gotten in somewhere to relieve the stress of it all a little. Michigan is her last choice school right now. She was also accepted to Brown's summer pre-college program but since she is considering Columbia, she wants to see what it is like to actually live in NYC and see the Columbia campus, whether it could feel like home, etc. She's already pretty enamored with pictures of Brown's campus and we will visit there sometime this summer or early in the fall. She wants to really test the waters at Columbia/Barnard to see how she would like it.

I'm also wary of the Lead America thing without the direct tie to a college or university. The Digital Media and Journalism one she is thinking about there is at Fordham University, but is not directly related to the school. I had never heard of it either. I presume you're thinking of People to People as one of the other programs that really doesn't do anything. She has been on their European Discovery trip and it was an experience of a lifetime, but the goal wasn't the same as these summer programs either. We knew it was just a really amazing, once in a lifetime trip.

Over the past two weeks we have been to local presentations by Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. Those are her top picks at this moment, with Michigan as a "safety" school. She really wants out of this state though and I cannot blame her. There are unique things about each school that really interest her.

We have to put the deposit down on Barnard tomorrow if she is picking that one. I'm pretty sure that's where she's going to go.

ETA: SAT results come out online on Saturday. She's either going to be very happy or have a meltdown. I'm already bracing myself...

I wasn't thinking of People to People so much--that pretty much markets itself as a travel program, and it seems to be a great way to introduce international travel to high schoolers who otherwise wouldn't leave the country. I'm a major proponent of study abroad. Considering only about 20% of Americans hold a passport, anything is progress.

Forms and deposit have been faxed to Barnard :)

SAT scores are in. It's not as high as she had hoped but she's not melting down. She is very close to the "middle 50s" scores posted for all of her high interest schools. Once again, English is way up there, Math is above average, but not stellar. She's going to focus on math all summer and re-take in the fall. Most of the schools she is applying to do the Super Scoring thing (highest in each category whether taken at the same time or not). She said last night "I'm just going to trust that I'll end up where I'm supposed to."

Sounds like recruitment...lol.