Is choosing s ummer programs  really about finding the most famous campus or about creating something that admissions officers can actually evaluate? Every summer, California students fill out applications with program names. However, when admissions committees review files, they consistently see the same pattern: high grades, busy schedules, and little evidence of g enuine intellectual production . The students did not fail because they lacked ambition. They failed because p

Introduction: AI for High School Students When people say “AI,” it can feel like they’re talking around  you, not to  you. One person means robots. Another means coding. Another means jobs disappearing. Another means something you were supposed to start learning three years ago. So when someone casually says, “AI is important,” the quiet question that follows is usually: What part of this actually applies to me right now? If you’ve been feeling that confusion, nothing is wron

What if the most important summer of your academic life happens before junior year? Most families believe college preparation begins in 11th grade. Admissions officers privately disagree. S ummer programs  in ninth and tenth grades can reveal something far more valuable than polished résumés: early intellectual direction . So here's the actual question: If two students apply with the same GPA four years from now, but one began building real-world projects in early high school