High School Summer Programs

To cut a long story short, I've been invited to apply to summer programs at Columbia in New York City and Stanford. The first is a three week session, while the latter is a whopping two months and (probably) more rigorous. (For instance, there are final exams.) Does anyone have experience with similar programs? Right now, I'm leaning toward applying to Columbia because (a) it's shorter, (b) it's in New York City (not that I dislike Palo Alto), and (c) I think I'd have a better chance of being admitted. Although the courses offered by the Stanford program sound fascinating (abnormal psychology anyone?), eight weeks seems a tad intimidating - homesickness isn't an issue; it's social anxiety. People drawn to programs such as these frighten me a little bit. As Marx once said, "I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member."

Thoughts?

I have mixed feelings about my experience at Carnegie Melon last year... on one hand I learned a ridiculous amount about programming and organization (and life in general, man ) and met awesome people who I still talk to, but on the other I was sleep deprived for six weeks and ended up getting burned out before school even started (I procrastinated my summer work and pulled an all-nighter before the first day of classes). Also, I didn't really get along with my roommate so that definitely marred things.

My advice is to only do it if you know you're really interested in the classes... otherwise you'll end up demotivated and depressed that you're spending your summer at school. Also that should ensure you have something in common with the other people and that you won't have to hang out with Walkers and Sam Fomons.

Also, holy shit: http://ce.columbia.edu/Summer-Program-High-School-Students/Computer-Graphics-through-Game-Programming

Jsk did Stanford. He hated it.

Paul schrieb:

Jsk did Stanford. He hated it.

Why?