No student enjoys doing schoolwork over the summer, furthermore, if the project required these students to design the project themselves, even less of them would end up completing it. Teacher-designed summer projects are preferable because they require the students to do less work, they're easier to grade for the teacher, and some students don't have the necessary materials at home for a student-designed project.

On summer vacation school is the last thing that is on the minds of the majority of students, therefore, a student-designed summer project isn't ideal. Many of the smaller summer projects, such as simply reading a book, don't get completed despite being relatively easier in comparison to much of the work done during the school year.

A student-designed project would require extra planning and more time devotion that many people wouldn't be willing to give. However, a project of the teachers design would take much less time to complete and the result would be more students actually finishing the assignment.

Every teacher has multiple periods of students to teach. If even only half of the class each period turned in a summer project of their design, it would be a nightmare for the teacher to grade. A grading rubric would be rendered useless because every student turned in their own unique project from the topic of their choosing. This could cause unfairness in the grades given to these students because it would be up to the teacher's potentially biased opinion to decide what grades the projects deserve. If the project was entirely created by the teacher, on the other hand, a uniform grading rubric could be created and ensure that each student recieves a fair grade in accordance with the rubric. This is also beneficial to the students because having a rubric lets them know what they're being graded on and can help them plan out how they're going to complete the assignment.

For the people who don't have wifi or a computer at home, a project they have to design themselves would be a hard task to complete. For starters, students without access to a computer or wifi at home likely aren't going to even know about the project because they were unable to check Google Classroom, Blackboard, or wherever else the project wouldv'e been posted. If they do manage to find out about the project, it would still require the students to go to a public library or a friends house where they can access the internet. This is a hassle that would cause a majority of these students to simply not do the project.

Some people might claim that student-designed projects are better because it allows them to express themselves and their interests through their projects. Sadly, this is invalid because no students truly express themselves through a school project. They do it through things they love like sports, clothes, music, and art. Therefore, there isn't any point in allowing the students to design the project themselves.

A student-desinged project is inferior to one of the teachers design because it takes a larger time commitment, is harder for the teacher to grade, and requires materials that not every student has access to. In conclusion, a summer project is going to be boring to complete anyways, so it may as well be easier for the students and the teacher and not require the students to do more work.