Looking for feedback - has anyone's child gone to the NSLC?

[KimR]

DD received an invitation to attend an NSLC (National Student Leadership Conference) this summer. It sounds like an excellent program and she really wants to attend. She is normally fairly wishy-washy about summer programs like this but she is very interested in this (specifically law or medicine) and has even volunteered to pay for it herself. It's fairly expensive - over $2,000 so she must really, really want to go! Of course, although I might have her contribute some, we will pay for most of it.

I'm just wondering if anyone has done this and is it worthwhile. It sounds like a wonderful program based on the brochure, but I'm looking for someone with firsthand experience.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

My son did the one they offered during spring break in his junior year I think. He went to washington dc for the diplomacy one. We were thinking like CIA for him etc. The Jack Bauer type. They said they looked at his grades, etc.etc. The program is very well run. I think the summer one is at a university. His they stayed at a hotel for a week. Its chaperoned very well.They pick them up at the airport. I just got the info about the one you are asking for ds16. and I am sure its run by practically the same people. His was how should I say, a little deceptive as far as advertising was. They said they had over 20 choices to pick from and you got about 3 of them. He picked like CIA, etc. He ended up going to gettysburg, a war college and someplace else. He did the monuments at night thing. That seems like a basic thing. I honestly dont think the experience did anything for him college wise to get in etc. It was listed on his permanent records from high school. It is a big expense. I told dh I really am not going to consider it for the other 2 ds. Maybe the one at the college is more intense than the one ds went to. They also said they were recruiting for some colleges, like american university and georgetown.

 

[SeaSpray]

My DS15 got this in the mail this week, too. At first I thought it was just another "advertisement" from a college because he's been getting several each day in the mail, ever since taking the PSATs. lol

Anyone else with experience with this??

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Both of my kids were invited several times but we didn't even consider it because of the cost.

 

[LindaR]

Ok....our experience with this organization was a negative one. I'm sure the programs are great and very informative.....but we didn't get that far. My daughter (age 14 at the time) wanted to do this. Raised money (my boss gave frequent flyer miles so she could fly in business class - little more attention - her first solo flight) and she was ready. I made numerous phone calls and spoke with those in charge 5 or 6 times because my daughter would have to arrive the day BEFORE the conference started due to the fact that we live in New Mexico and it would take all day to get to DC. We made arrangements for the staff (who, BTW are mostly college students) to let her in the dorm (they stayed on a campus - some groups stay in hotels). She was taking a taxi from the airport with explicite (or so we thought) directions to get to the campus and find the dorm the organization was staying at. It took over 1.5 hours to complete the 10 minute taxi ride. Driver kept stopping students to ask for directions to find the dorm with this group. (He and my daughter were on the cell phone with me almost the whole time - and he turned his meter off when they arrived at the campus and would not leave her by herself - thank goodness). Once they finally arrived at the dorm, no one answered the locked door! Come to find out, the student leaders decided to go out to eat. Another 1.5 hours passed. (My daughter was really freaked and in tears and hungry). They then told her that they would not "help" her or be responsible for her until the following day. EXACTLY the opposite of what I had arranged with the leaders of this conference. Now of course, the leaders were in Florida and the conference was in DC, so I could not get ahold of them until the following day. I ended up speaking with a couple of the student leaders and was appalled by their attitudes. This campus was in a very, very bad neighborhood in DC and they plainly stated that they didn't HAVE to bother with my daughter until the following day and it was her problem that she arrived early, not theirs, and that they were not aware that they had to babysit. Finally spoke with the "supervisor" of the student leaders and "expressed" my unhappiness. He clumsily tried to undo the damage. I was on my land line AND my cell phone at the same time. Had a taxi called (the other one had left when he thought all was well) and had her taken to a Westin (I think it was) next to the airport for her to spend the night and booked her on a return flight the following day.

I felt like if they could not "be responsible" enough to handle this situation, they could not handle doing this for 7 days! There is alot of "off campus" tours and conferences and the student leaders are supposed to make sure that nothing happens/no one gets left behind or seperated, etc. Well, they flunked the first test and I was not about to give them another chance to see if they could get it right the second time! My daughter got alot of negative attention and that killed any desire to participate in this conference.

This is a very long story, but the "leadership" called me the following morning to ask what they could do to fix this and get her to stay. Nothing. They then tried to tell me that she should just suck it up because the conference was non-refundable. I let them know that I expected a full refund within a week or that I would publicize their lack of communication and failure to properly care for the kids and go into detail about everything that had gone wrong. Got my refund.

Now this is YOUR choice whether to send your teen. I hope that this was an isolated experience but I have no way of knowing. I was freaked out because my 14 yo daughter was on the other side of the country and the adults who were supposed to be responsible for her care didn't want to be bothered. ANYTHING could have happened to her.......

This is a very abbreviated version of what happened........but its enough to get my point across that you need to think about this or any other conference. There are lots of organizations who send invites for summer conferences and the potential is always there. What you see is not always what you get.

 

[KimR]

Oh my goodness, LindaR, that is horrible! Thank you so much for the feedback, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. You don't hear of these types of experiences on the brochure or website. I realize this might be an isolated incident but you can bet I will be taking this into consideration.

 

[LindaR]

KimR, you don't know HOW upset I was! I thank the LORD that I planned and planned! I got a credit card with HER name on it (she only had about $200 in cash) so that any purchases that she needed to make would be on the card and she would not be flashing cash. The hotel alone for that night would have used most of that cash! BTW, a person under the age of 18 cannot reserve/pay for a hotel room! I was on the phone with the manager and explained the story and he risked his job to allow her to stay in his hotel without an adult. Since he was the night manager, he made sure that he checked on her frequently (via phone in her room), room service was free (so she didn't have to go anywhere to get food that evening or in the morning). He called me twice to tell me he'd checked on her (pm and am) and called me when he personally put her in the van to go to the airport!

I am a planner, checker and double-checker.........and even then, I was not able to prevent this from happening to my daughter. Once she got home, we did talk alot about this and she learned alot of lessons about how to handle situations that don't turn out the way they are supposed to. This was really stressful.......and I am so thankful that it did not have a bad ending. We learned alot of really good "lessons" from this. Good luck.

 

[Sandy V.]

I'm sorry about your experience, Linda. Sounds like you handled it very well, and I'm glad your daughter got home safely.

My DD (now 19) attended one of the NSLC conferences when she was 17 (after her junior year in high school). She thought she was really interested in international relations, so we thought it would be a good experience. She had a good time, but I don't think it was the moving experience she thought it would be. They DID get to go to the Pentagon, though, and that was a neat opportunity.

I honestly don't think it made an ounce of difference getting her into "good" colleges. DS is now almost 17 and I offered to send him if he was interested (in the interest of fairness), but he doesn't see the need and I'm not pushing it.