Summer Engineering Seminar
Are your curious about studying engineering in college but not yet ready to commit? Santa Clara University in California offers a unique, one-week faculty-run introduction to engineering. It’s a fantastic way to be exposed to the various areas of engineering study. It’s also a chance to explore life on a beautiful university campus.
“In 2022, the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University will host its 33rd annual Summer Engineering Seminar (SES) program. This outstanding, five-day immersion summer experience is for current high school sophomores and juniors who are interested in exploring the field of engineering. The program offers specially designed introductory workshops taught by our engineering faculty that are presented as a mix of lecture and interactive work, spanning several fields of engineering. Participants will also get a taste of university life and the academic expectations of college, all while living in the dorms during the program. While interacting with our faculty, students, and other members of the SCU community throughout the week.”
How do I get started? Click here.
How do I expand this narrative arc?
Love taking apart and playing around with machines? Start a Tinker Club at your high school.
You don’t have to go far for another amazing summer program also offered at MIT. Check out the MIT BeaverWorks Summer Institute, where you’ll learn about engineering and designing autonomous systems in a variety of applications including cybersecurity, hacking, race car design, autonomous air vehicle racing, game design with AI and more!!
Try to win big at Toshiba Exploravision,which challenges students to think about future applications for current technologies.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SUMMER PROGRAMS: College admissions officers are very adept at identifying “resume padders”: expensive, one-off programs paid for by your parents which do not mesh with your narrative arc. Therefore, make sure any summer program or course you consider falls into one (or more) of these four buckets:
Highly selective/competitive
Totally unique + linked to your narrative arc
Evidence of adulthood (long hours, multi-year commitment or simply hard work)
A jumping off point or expansion for an authentic narrative arc.
If none of the above apply, a program could still have value to you if it allows you to test a potential interest. However, if it does not end up being a jumping off point for further interests, then you may not want to mention it in your high school resume