By all means embrace all the delicacies of summer, but take advantage of time you have now to put you at an advantage during the admissions process and positively impact your future.
Here's a list of things you can do this summer to prepare for college admissions:
#1: Finalize your college list.
You have crafted a preliminary list. Assuming that you have had a chance to learn about each of them via college fairs, websites, and campus visits, it's time to reduce your list down to a final 8-12 hopefuls. A good list has 1 to 2 reach schools, 6 to 8 target schools, and at least 2 safety schools.
For each school, ask yourself these questions: Do I qualify? Can I afford the school? Do I need to schedule an interview? Have I talked with students who now attend the college? Does the school offer my major? Does the school's housing meet my needs? Does the social life fit my style? Have I seen the campus? What are the summer opportunities regarding honors programs, work, study, etc.?
#2: Update your resume.
Junior year is the most important year of a high school career. You're taking your most challenging classes yet. You are familiar and comfortable enough with your school and aware of activities to be involved in that align with your interests. You have been inducted in the National Honors Society, and picked up other scholastic awards this year. Take a moment to reflect on your accomplishments and drop them into your resume.
#3: Get involved in a summer program or project that matches your interests and builds college skills.
Colleges like students who are productive during the summer, participating in activities that support their interests and cultivate skills such as leadership, discussion, advocacy, confidence, and an ability to work part of a team. Before summer recess begins, check with your guidance office for information on summer programs offered by local colleges, companies, or community-based organizations.
If you're affiliated with a religious organization, your youth group leader is another good person to speak with about potential opportunities.
Can't find anything? No problem, act like an Eagle Scout and design your own project. Identify causes that are important to you and make a plan to address that issue.
Summer programs for high school students
Design your own project resources and ideas
#4: Read three books not assigned in school.
Although you're on an academic break, continue to read over the summer months to continue fostering your critical reading and literacy skills. Research shows that students who read over the summer do better in school in the fall. What's exciting about summer reading is that there's time to read books not normally assigned in school. When I was in high school, my favorite books, and books that I referred to as influences in my college applications, were ones I read in the summer such as Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Read the list of books below, adapted from a Washington Post article printed last June 2014, on recommendation of college admission officers.
- Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
- Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocationby Parker Palmer
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
- Strength's Finder by Tom Rath
- Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler
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