“Is the paid pre-college program at NYU/ Columbia/ Brown that I just sent my kid to actually going to help them get into college?"
I hear some version of this question a lot. The branding looked good. The price tag was high enough that it felt like it had to be doing something. And it seemed like every other kid at school was signing up too.
If your 9th or 10th grader has no idea what they are interested in yet, and a week on a college campus gets them excited about biology or urban planning or film, that is worth it. Use it that way. Go in curious, come out with a direction to follow. That is a good outcome.
However, the prestige of the university that sold this program does not transfer to the student.
Admissions offices are moving towards deep interest and student stories because you simply cannot fake it. You can feel the authenticity because it starts early and is sustained. There's a story behind it. That story could start with an NYU pre-college arts program, but it is not the centerpiece of their story. It's the springboard for their curiosity, the beginning of their narrative.
True signals are harder to manufacture by design. A class taken for a real grade at a local college has stakes (the grade goes on your college transcript). An internship where someone was counting on them to show up and contribute (we encourage all internships to have an output, otherwise it is just shadowing). A competition with actual results (audiences are important, share your work with the world).
Some of the strongest opportunities are also the easiest to overlook. Free programs at museums, libraries, and cultural institutions can give students exposure to new ideas, deepen their interest and connections with professionals willing to help.
Last year, one of my students was interested in architecture. He took a pre-college architecture program as a rising junior. He learned that he did not want to pursue this career, but was more interested in cities as a whole and the systems they represented. He got involved in his community, working with local organizations to create more green space for local residents to enjoy. At the same time, he used his network to connect with a professor and help him with research for an upcoming book on city parks in his borough. We found a unique program at the University of Michigan that combines design, technology, and city planning. He took it one step further and volunteered to help for an event they were putting together in New York City. Not only meeting the admissions rep but the head of the program. From pre-college program to genuine interests, a narrative is born.
The pre-college program isn't the story. It's the beginning.
🗓️ NYC Opportunities
Every issue, we'll point you toward specific NYC programs, deadlines, and events that help your student explore what they're actually curious about and build the kind of depth colleges are looking for. Here's what's worth your attention this week:
1. Fall Journeys Mentoring Program, Girls Write Now (High School)
Deadline: Fall 2026 applications due August 31, 2026; free
Girls Write Now pairs New York City public school students who are girls or gender expansive youth with professional writers for one on one mentorship, workshops, and publication. The Fall 2026 Journeys run from November through January, and a mentee spends that whole stretch developing her own work alongside a working writer who comes to know her voice. It serves students from historically and systemically underserved communities across the five boroughs. This is the opposite of spreading thin. A student goes deep with one mentor over months and comes out with finished, often published writing and a relationship behind it. That kind of sustained development is exactly what a humanities application should be built around. Learn more and register →
2. National Arts Competition, National YoungArts Foundation (Grades 10 to 12)
Deadline: 2027 application closes October 6, 2026 at 8 PM ET; application fee applies, with fee waivers available
YoungArts runs a national competition for artists in grades 10 to 12, and its Writing discipline covers fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, spoken word, and more. Applicants submit a portfolio of their own work, and winners earn cash awards, mentorship, and entry into a national network of artists, with the chance to be considered for the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts. The 2027 application is open now and closes October 6. This one rewards the student who has been building a body of writing and is ready to connect it to where they want to go. It is one serious project rather than another membership, and it asks a young writer to put their strongest work forward on a national stage. Depth is the whole point. Learn more and enter →
3. New York Times Summer Reading Contest, The New York Times Learning Network (High School and Middle School, ages 13 to 19)
Deadline: New responses accepted weekly through August 14, 2026; free
The Learning Network's Summer Reading Contest asks students to pick anything in The New York Times that caught their attention and explain why, in a short written response or a 90 second video. A fresh window opens every Friday and closes the next, and this year's edition runs through August 14, so there are still several rounds left to enter. It is open to anyone ages 13 to 19, anywhere. The move here is not to treat it as one more weekly task. It is to let a student go deep on the habit of reading closely and writing about it all summer, so that by August they have a real body of responses and, for the strongest entries, published work in the Times. That is a throughline in a student's thinking, not another line on a list. Learn more and apply →
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