Adult “camp people” like me struggle with this idea.

When I think back to the seven summers I spent at a sleep camp in Maine, I mostly have sensory memories: the sound of slamming screen doors, the happy songs in the dining room, the smell of needles pine tree on the path that leads to the (always too cold) lake. These summers are dreamy and expansive, full of togetherness and growth.

For children who go to overnight camp for several weeks or more, it is a multi-summer experience that usually ends with one or two final teenage summers, often the summer after ninth or tenth grade. year.^th grade – full of special privileges, capstone projects, and sought-after leadership roles. To skip this summer, for Camp People, is to miss the icing on the cake, the end of the era, the coda to the camp experience.

But today, more and more families, considering college earlier than ever, are looking back at those early teenage summers and re-evaluating them. Singing, swimming, sitting around the campfire may not be enough. “They think [about] “what will it look like on a future college application,” says Corey Dockswell, director of Camp Wicosuta, a summer camp in New Hampshire, who has noticed for several years that families are reconsidering the final summers of their young adolescents. .

“Parents contact me and ask about the experience the kids have had over the past year at camp – they really wonder if it's 'a rich enough experience.' While I don’t think it’s a judgment on the camp, I think it comes from pressure building earlier and earlier,” Dockswell said. “Pressure from all sides: what the parents hear, what the children hear. »

Another factor, according to JD Lichtman, director of Camp Tapawingo, a summer camp in Maine, also seems to be a bit of “the pent-up travel bug that is part of the long tail of the pandemic.” (Tapawingo is where I went for many summers as a child, and where I send my own daughters, ages 10 and 14, so naturally JD was one of the first people I called to ask about this issue, especially in light of conversations I've heard from some of my teenager's friends recently.)

Lichtman finds that children and families want to take more trips – family trips as well as solo enrichment projects for children – which can reduce camp sessions, which can also require a significant time investment . Social media plays a role in this phenomenon, says Lichtman. “Kids see their classmates posting all these great photos from here and there, and then these campers tell me, ‘I saw my friend doing this or that thing,’ and it makes them reconsider camp,” Lichtman says.

Chloe (some names have been changed), an 8^th New York student who has attended a four-week camp every summer since age 9, says she probably won't return after ninth grade: 'There are so many other things I should be doing now like so many places traveling instead of just being in one place. I want to do a program in Europe next summer. This “should” is key: for Chloe, it means that her burgeoning ambitions for the future better align, given what she sees in her social context, with something like traveling abroad.

Skipping senior year of camp was the best decision for teens for writer and college admissions consultant Samantha Shanley, who began attending a YMCA camp in New Hampshire in 2015. The time commitment (six weeks) doesn't simply didn't work anymore for his son, who chose to take an intense month-long NOLS wilderness program that summer – and the generalized program they offered was no longer stimulating enough for his growing interests. specific for hiking and survival skills.

Carrie, a Maryland mother who sent her two children to summer camp, considers herself a true camper. “Our children are constantly under pressure and so, for me, offering a camp is a gift. It's a time warp where there are no devices and they're completely in a bubble – it's a real gift.

However, instead of spending the summer after 10 a.m.^th After serving as a counselor-in-training at his beloved camp, his son will take classes at a college this summer and complete a brief internship, activities designed to help him build his resume. The motivation for change comes from her child, Carrie says; he believes that “it is time for him to do something different and build a certain narrative about his academic application.”

Much of this anxiety is moot, says Sara Harberson, a college counselor based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “Camp is not a 'reportable activity,' but neither are paid programs and trips that children can take abroad, nor are 'start of study' programs,” says -She. The privilege these programs demand is not something you want to emphasize in today's admissions climate, she notes, where it is undesirable to emphasize the benefits of life as a candidate. While they can be entirely fun and educational in their own right – and yes, they can lead to amazing experiences that could help a child refine their interests or “find themselves” – it is not advisable to do this type of activities keeping in mind your college application. , agrees Alexis White (aka Alexis College Expert), a college admissions counselor based in Southern California.

What you do the summer after ninth grade is rarely mentioned in your college application, Harberson says. Part of this is purely pragmatic, she notes, since the Common App only has room for 10 activities (including school, athletics, music and community service) and it is You might even have room to include what you were doing after ninth or tenth grade.^th the score is slim.

To parents who ask: “I always say that the summer after 9 years is a “free summer”, and even the summer after 10 years is a “free summer”.^th That's okay: it's really this summer, between junior and senior years, that you might want to pursue something that interests you in a real and meaningful way, with a volunteer opportunity or a job.” , explains Harberson.

Still, if an older high school student wants to spend the summer at a summer camp and it is enriching for them – especially if it is a role as a training advisor, which provides leadership training – they should absolutely do it, because you can't choose every activity with an eye on pleasing a college, White says. “You have to treat yourself and feel refreshed and ready to start the new school year. A lot of these kids really need a break,” Harberson says.

What's more problematic, though, is this kind of early “summer optimization,” says Ruby, a consultant and parent in Portland with a son who will likely start overnight camp in a few years. Ruby “lived ten to two” as a child and now longs for the freedom of that time. (Despite the fact that most camps no longer last a full eight weeks, this slogan, about how some kids love camp and countdown to the year, has stuck in some circles.) “Why should everything be real- a world award? Why does everything have to make you progress? “Can't something be done just because it's fun?” people hysterical about their kid being left out; if the kid wants to be at camp and fuck with his friends at the lake, go do it for how many years you won't have that much fun! ?As adults, we spend so much time trying to recapture that lightness and joy that we feel at camp.

Another way to look at it, Dockswell says, is to compare the long game to the short game. “For me, the short game is college – and by that I mean focusing on your summer activities in terms of how they will help your college prospects. The long term, however, is about raising a child to become a global citizen imbued with good values, who has learned to manage conflict, work as a team and demonstrate resilience.

For camp enthusiasts, that's exactly what happens around the campfire. Freed from digital distractions for the first time in a year, the children fight and make up. They create and collaborate. They form new friendships and learn to live with someone who drives them crazy. (Preparing a roommate for college!)

There's a pure childhood feeling at camp that allows them to stay a kid a little longer – and this dichotomy between fun and the future can be confusing for some parents. “Creating a CV seems quantitative…I did this program, I went here, here and here– while the camp is rather qualitative,” explains Dockswell. But she insists the skills they learn at camp at ages 13, 14 and 15 are far superior to those in other programs. “If your child is interning at 15 in a psychology lab, besides being able to say that, are they really developmentally mature enough to absorb what they're doing? They are developmentally ready to learn teamwork and conflict management – ​​the camp thing. I can't take your children to Spain, but if you want a resilient, independent and cooperative child, I can.

The final year of camp is a true culminating experience, full of key role models for younger campers, as well as real responsibilities and privileges. ” It's not nothing. It's not just another year, it's the last piece of a puzzle. It’s the end of an experiment,” says Dockswell.

There is no endless summer, that's what we know. And part of the beauty of summer, no matter your age, is its fleeting nature. Whatever boys and girls choose to do this summer, I think as parents we hope it will be full of memories and lessons that will last well beyond college.

A central part of the Camp Tapawingo tradition is that the camp name means “Place of Joy.” For me, and now my children, to have this place-even if it's only in memories, it's All.