WAG Summer College Camps

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rgmom

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I may be a bit premature for next summer, but I am a planner. My girls have attended IGC for a few summers and have enjoyed it immensely. However, now that they are a bit older and both have big dreams of competing in college, I would like to send them to a college camp this summer (they will be incoming high school freshman 9/15). I know many of the big universities with woman's gymnastics teams have summer camps, but I am sure they are not all created equal.
Does anyone in the know, have any recommendations for a good college camp that would be appropriate for 13 year old level 9/10s?
Thanks in advance!!
p.s. we are willing to travel
 
I suggest going to a camp at a school that your dd's have a desire to attend. And, be realistic; help them shape thier expectations and target schools that are both athletic AND academic fits. If a school is not an academic fit, why would you want to compete there when it doesn't meet the academic goals.

Good Luck.
 
So very true. and an excellent point. :)
 
So how do you get a 13 year old to figure out what they want academically from a college? My DD has absolutely no clue what she wants to do when she grows up. She is a strong academic student with a love of math but is wary of science. I really don't know how to help her as my college selection process was a bit odd.
 
I think most D1 schools are well rounded academically for whatever anyone may want to study. You may not want her to go to a camp at say one of the military academies or an Ivy League school if those types would not be of any interest in to her. But then again, I don't see what it could hurt either. Heck, I don't even know if those school offer summer camps ;)

We choose a school close to home and had a very good experience this past summer. It didn't have a huge number of girls in attendance, so my DD got a lot of individual attention. Of course the attention came from the student atheletes and so they may or may not have been "the best" coaches. But she gained a lot of confidence and worked on new skills while she was there. It also help her to really gain a new love for the sport. Since we picked a local college for her to participate in, now we can go watch the girls who helped train her compete this winter. My DD can't wait and has been trying desperately to talk her gym friends/teammates into going next summer and coming to competitions this winter.
 
Last year PSU had an "advanced skills" camp for girls going in to 9th grade and up who are interested in college gym. I think it was in August. Last year was the first year they offered it. I assume they'll offer it again, though I don't know anyone who went so I can't speak to how useful/successful it was. DD went to their regular gymnastics camp and it was a good experience.
 
So how do you get a 13 year old to figure out what they want academically from a college? My DD has absolutely no clue what she wants to do when she grows up. She is a strong academic student with a love of math but is wary of science. I really don't know how to help her as my college selection process was a bit odd.
I knew where I wanted to go to college when I was 5 and it was solidified by the age of 7, as was my major... of course, I am not NORMAL! At the time, nobody in my family had gone to college, so I had no family influence there.

If she doesn't know what she wants to do when she gets older, then make a pro/con chart for her top 5 choices of gymnastics camps... different college summer camps offer different things - some offer overnight accommodations in the dorms. Is that something she would want? Others only offer day camp options.
You might also want to consider the strength of their gymnastics program, % of student athletes that graduate within 5 years, typical ACT/SAT scores, and how cute the guys are (or that might just be me ;)).

Good luck with your decision.
 
Well, you should look at the area of the country. Do you want your child going to college 2000 miles from home? Or maybe they have always hated the heat, so you don't want to look in the South. That will narrow it down some for you. Then if your dd is interested in a specific field of study that will narrow it down more, if only by ruling out schools that don't have that program. Really any large school will offer so much in the way of academic choices that the schools would be fine for the majority of people.
 
A lot also depends on where you live and how late into the year your dd's go. Some colleges have camps early to mid-June and many northeast kids are still going to school themselves so they can't even entertain those schools for camps. Some schools will have multiple weeks of camp as well. Many colleges do camps now, so you should have plenty of options available to you.
 
My DD had a good experience at ASU last summer but I've heard the head coach retired this year so I'm not sure if they will repeat the camp or not. It was pretty low-key though, so I"m not sure it would be a good fit for someone super ambitious/driven. And she said more than 1/2 the camp were local girls and she was probably the one who traveled furthest.
 
Last year PSU had an "advanced skills" camp for girls going in to 9th grade and up who are interested in college gym. I think it was in August. Last year was the first year they offered it. I assume they'll offer it again, though I don't know anyone who went so I can't speak to how useful/successful it was. DD went to their regular gymnastics camp and it was a good experience.
Yes, I heard about that. I think this could be a possibility. I have heard that Penn States regular camp is a good one. A few kids we know have gone there in the past and have really enjoyed it.
 
My DD had a good experience at ASU last summer but I've heard the head coach retired this year so I'm not sure if they will repeat the camp or not. It was pretty low-key though, so I"m not sure it would be a good fit for someone super ambitious/driven. And she said more than 1/2 the camp were local girls and she was probably the one who traveled furthest.
Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.
 
A lot also depends on where you live and how late into the year your dd's go. Some colleges have camps early to mid-June and many northeast kids are still going to school themselves so they can't even entertain those schools for camps. Some schools will have multiple weeks of camp as well. Many colleges do camps now, so you should have plenty of options available to you.
yup, that is definitely a consideration for us, as we are in the northeast. As long as we don't get too many snow days, and don't have to go to school until the end of June. lol
Granny Smith, did your daughter do any college camps?
 
I've heard Penn state camps for all kinds of sports are good. What about Rutgers? NC state I heard is good too but far for us.
 
I guess my suggestions may be too far for you, but in case your family wants a vacation: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, and Utah are all popular camps for gymnasts in my area.
 

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