Some schools have summer projects for their students to ensure continuation of learning. While the continuation of learning is good, what's keeping the projects from becoming overwhelming and eating up precious summer time that could be used for a number of other things? Looking at things from this viewpoint, the idea of the projects being student-designed can bring forth a less time consuming project that can also be appealing to the students.

Projects take time to do. Especially if it's a big project. These projects, if not being ignored by the students, cut into the time that students have over the summer to do things like relax, meet up with friends, work a summer job or go on a family vacation. Teachers don't know what students do in the summer, so letting the students design the projects allows them to conform to the schedules of the students over the summer.

Teachers tend to not really know the interests of their students. This causes uninteresting work that'll most likely not get done. However, if students were to design these projects, they'd have a whole lot more interest in the work. Students know what interests them, so it would make sense for the students to design a project that would be appealing to them.

Now, there are the claims that things won't go as intended or the students will slack off regardless of if they made the project or not. I don't see this being an issue. If the students make the project, they know exactly what to follow and how they plan to follow it. Students can easily conform the project guidelines to their interests and have more interest in the project.

All in all, student-made summer projects would be better. The students would be able to set up their guidelines and have the work easily manageable alongside the rest of their schedule. It'd also make for some really interesting results.