I'm a female high school student who is really interested in computer sciences. I was really…read moreexcited about attending a summer program for computer programming because I wanted to be around other people who were excited about CS, too. I also was really looking forward to being taught programming concepts in a classroom.
I researched several summer programs and chose iD tech. Their website advertised the program as something that was great for younger kids, yes, but mainly high school age students who were serious about learning computer skills. If you go on their website, you'll see countless photos of *high school age people* having a good time. If you read their course information, they all sound like serious week-long courses that will really teach you something useful. I was excited for iD tech.
I am very disappointed to say that, in reality, iD tech was an extremely unenjoyable experience, and it wasn't because I was one of only two girls staying overnight that week or because the other kids had to be forced to shower on Tuesdays.
For one, the social aspect was awful. I was surrounded by very young little boys. I'm talking anything from ages 7-14. I counted only about five people, including my roommate and I, who were actually in high school. This was a shock to me; the website's photos were all of kids my age! So I was living in a dorm surrounded by little boys. I was eating lunch surrounded by little boys. There were few people my age.
The first night I got there, I was told to sit in a room filled with laptops and have fun. How? Play the video games on the laptops. Now, I do enjoy video games very much, but for three hours I was stuck in a room surrounded by people not my age, listening to them scream at each other as they (virtually) shot each other. Meanwhile, there was really loud music being blasted. It alternated between dubstep and tracks from The Little Mermaid.
If you don't like video games, or even if you just don't feel like playing them, there is little else for you to do. Throughout the day, classes were given video game breaks (at least thirty minutes long but sometimes longer). At nighttime, I was given an entire three hours to just sit in a room in front of a laptop. During other times of the day I could have played a board game, except it didn't seem like that much fun to play Munchkin with people who were so much younger than me. The disappointment of not even being around people my age (which, again, was expected by the way the iD website advertises itself) loomed over me for my entire stay.
The thing about being stuck with a lot of really young kids is that you have the same amount of responsibility as them. I'm sixteen. I can legally have a job and drive a car. I can take care of myself. And I had to walk to meals in a double-file line with children who came up to my shoulders or below. I couldn't go outside unless we were all going outside so there would be multiple adults to watch me. There was absolutely no freedom or independence for me or the other high schoolers.
It was such a frustrating experience. I would have stayed the whole week if my course was worth it, but it was not. It was nice to have an instructor around to ask questions, but class time was spent with me independently going through the iD tech learning track on my computer. It is a series of instructions relating to different programming concepts. It's important to be able to learn these skills independently, but come on.This camp costs over $1000. The only thing I got away from the camp was this online learning track, and I could have found a C++ resource just like it on the internet for free. As I said, I am an intermediate level programmer, which is what the course's suggested skill level was. I was basically retaught things that I had learned independently using free resources on the internet. In short, my educational experience was a huge disappointment as well.
***Here's the thing, though: iD tech camp is a lot of fun for some kids. It's fun if you are a boy, especially a young boy (middle school age or below) who loves to play video games no matter what. If you want to go to a camp to play games and kind of learn about some computer skills in a very shallow fashion, then go here. If you are a high school age student who is serious about learning some computer skills, this is not the place for you. I'm really sorry to say that. I was excited to go, but in every possible way, my iD tech camp experience was a disappointment.
***And, I will say that the staff, especially the directors, were very very kind, and that was a relief to me. They were very friendly and fantastic and took good care of the kids.
The problem was that iD is, at its core, NOT the program for me. If it weren't for the horrendous display of false advertising on their website, I wouldn't have gone through one of the most miserable experiences of my life.
