What should you do this summer?

Apr 15

That is the ultimate question.

If you are a student, you are counting down the days until the end of the school year so you can take a break from academics, catch up on your sleep and hang out with your friends. If you are the parents of a student, you are concerned that your student will sleep until noon, then spend the rest of their day on some device, either playing video games or watching Netflix wasting valuable time that could be spent doing something that can go on a college application.

So the struggle begins.

Here’s the thing with summers: that is VALUABLE time, so DON’T waste it. During the school year, student’s are limited significantly in what they can do simply by the academic day. Add to that homework and extracurricular commitments, and there is very little time left for anything else. Summers are different.

So how should you use it?

More Academics: The pressure to excel in academics naturally spills over into the summer. Many families look at those 2-3 months as an opportunity to take more classes to get caught up with the pack or get a leg up on the competition. But not so fast. Let’s take a closer look at that approach. Academics play a vital role in the college application process - they show colleges that a student can be successful at their institution, they show them how you choose to challenge yourself and how you do when you are challenged. They are looking for increasing rigor and positive grade trends over four years. That is not a closely guarded secret. As a student, you have 9-10 months out of the year to show that to colleges. When it comes to summer, colleges want to see what you choose to do with your free time so they can get know who you are as a person - something that is very difficult to show them during the school year. So if you have free time, what will you choose to do with it? More academics? If so, you must acknowledge what you are communicating about yourself to a college - you are a student that values academics over everything else. And that’s perfectly fine…. some colleges are a looking for students just like you.
Pre-College Programs or College Affiliated Programs: Beware of Pre-College Programs or College Affiliated Programs. Don’t misinterpret that - those programs can be amazing and can help students get a feel for what college life is really like, explore majors and careers and earn college credit. I recommend these types of programs to students all the time for a variety of reasons. I said beware because students and parents often enroll in programs that have an affiliation with a highly selective school with the misconception that it will influence the student’s college application. That is absolutely not the case. So if you want to do one of these programs for one of the reasons I mentioned, then you should do it, but if you think it will help you get into the school of your dreams, you should think again.
Pricey Summer Programs: A quick google search will produce a lot of expensive summer programs on the market. Not all summer programs have to cost a lot of money, but some do. You need to do your research and find programs that you like, yes it will take work, but they are out there at all price points, and some are even free. There might be excellent reasons for doing one of the pre-packaged high priced summer packages, and that’s fine. Just remember, the goal is for you to have an experiential learning opportunity that is beneficial to you. So as long as you have vetted the program and feel like you will benefit, then go for it. Just don’t feel obligated to sign up for a high priced program so that you can put it on your college application.
Mission trips: Mission trips are quite possibly one of the most overused community service projects in the college admissions process. That’s not to say they aren’t valuable service opportunities and that students shouldn’t do them. The key is to make sure they are authentic, and you focus on what you learn from the experience. Think about how your mission trip fits into the bigger picture of who you are and how you are developing as an individual. In the process of serving others you should be learning, again using this experiential learning opportunity to grow as an individual.
Career Exploration: Summer is a great time for career exploration. We spend a lot of time talking about what you want to major in when you get to college, but the real question is, What do you want to do? How do you know the answer to that question until you try some things? You can get a job and work; you can volunteer, apply for an internship, job shadow, or do a career exploration camp. You might find something you love, or you might find something you hate. Either way that is valuable information, so try things and discover what you like, see what you don’t and maybe even find your passion.

Take Away:

The college application process is about trying to identify students that are a good fit for specific schools. To do that, schools start by looking at your high school transcript to see how you did in your classes, how you chose to challenge yourself and how you did when you were challenged. Once they have an idea you can be successful at their institution, and you have the academic mentality of the students they admit, if they admit by holistic review, they have to know more about who you are as a person. So they start looking at everything you chose to do beyond the academic day. That’s when these summer choices come into play. It shows colleges what you value and what you prioritize. It shows them your dedication to things over time. It shows them what you are passionate about. It lets them see what you value so much that you dedicate your free time to doing it.

Yep. That’s what summer is for.