Planning for Summer

How should you choose what to do in the summers during high school? What do colleges want to see? What should your priorities be? 

When should you begin to plan? Early spring – February to March – is a perfect time. The college programs, particularly, have deadlines coming up.  

There are many productive ways to spend your summer. Colleges love to hear what you’ve chosen to do, but don’t want to dictate your activities. Go deeper with the interests you already have. Get a job! Travel! Take a course! Shadow a professional in a field that interests you. See if your parents’ workplaces or their friends’ workplaces or their acquaintances are open to letting you intern in a law firm, do research in a lab, or volunteer with an organization that serves others. Learn something you don’t have time to learn during the school year. Be curious!

Your activities don’t have to cost money. Holding down a job—any job--shows initiative and responsibility on your part. Choose activities that you like and are eager to do. When you go deep in an area over a sustained period of time, you show self-discipline and are likely to gain some leadership experience. Do not live for your resume! 

Talk with your parents. Find out what plans they already have. Brainstorm ideas. If your plans cost money, can your family afford them, or is there a way to find funding? 

There are many programs for high school students held on college campuses. Some are short – just a few days – and others last for weeks or even most of the summer. They tend to be expensive, but some are not (especially programs for underrepresented minorities or groups, such as women in engineering or other STEM subjects). Some are run by the colleges themselves and may provide some college credit. Most are run by outside organizations that just use the colleges’ facilities. Either can be good, but make sure you know who is in charge and who is teaching. If the college’s own faculty are teaching, you will see what studying at that college would be like, and you may obtain professors’ recommendation letters at the end that will stand you in good stead if you apply to that college. That’s not the norm, though; don’t expect that attending a program at a college will help you with admission. What will help is the fact that you’ve taken the initiative to explore an area of interest during the summer. 

Here's a resource for summer programs at colleges:

https://www.precollegeassociation.org/fairs

And for summer programs in general:

https://www.teenlife.com/category/summer/?program-type=summer 

Happy exploring!