How to select a chess summer camp?

When you search for chess summer camp, you will see a lot of summer camps with the shinning word "chess" in their ads, but some of them only do chess one hour a day. They are not real chess camps. The organizers just use the hot word to attract parents. Chess is only a minor activity among dozens of other activities. Most times the organizers don't have anything special to offer, so they offer a mixture of everything which they think may pique parents' interest.

To qualify as a chess summer camp, it should have at least half a day on chess exclusively. Otherwise your child will not get enough exposure and will not gain much chess experience.

The second thing you should check is the teacher. Sometimes the (famous) name on the flyer may not be the one who will teach the camp. S/he organizes the camp but hires someone else to teach. Or s/he just lends his/her name to the organizer for marketing purpose. You have to ask.

As selecting a coach, you should select a teacher with rating high enough to help your child. Unrated teachers are only good for total beginners. You should do some research on camp history and the teacher's teaching methodology. If you can talk to previous campers, they would provide you great insight on how the camp is run. The more information, the better.

It never hurts that you know the teacher before.