Parents often ask me how their students can become more competitive for college admissions. My answer? They should make the most of summer.
The Strategy
I don’t want your student engage in some kind of cloak and dagger subterfuge to get into their college of choice. Rather, I’d like them to be as competitive as they can be by doing things that reflect positively on them and help them grow. With that in mind, to make the most of summer for high school students often means engaging in experiences that would encourage an admissions officer to smile and say “Hmm.”
High school students spend their summers in many ways. They may hold an array of summer jobs, including retail jobs, camp counseling, lifeguarding babysitting or landscaping. Others volunteer at nonprofits, while others attend sports camps or travel. The question I would ask is: can some of these same activities help make your student even more competitive for college admissions? The simple answer is yes.
How to Start
A great first step to make the most of summer is to encourage your student to think of summer as pre-college. Do this by asking them: “can you think of a way to make this job or volunteer opportunity really support your college application?” Perhaps the biggest thing I’d like high schools student to do is to both think and reflect. Here’s what I mean. When they’re serving people in a fast food restaurant, what are they doing? Besides the obvious customer service, they’re also dealing with difficult people, solving supply or personnel problems, or bookkeeping. what else may have happened during that time? Your student can keep a journal or chat with you about some challenge they faced and resolved at work. Or, they can tell the story of a coworker and how they connected even though they come from vastly different backgrounds. That can be a great beginning for a college essay.
Traditional, Yet Still Effective
There are some great summer activities students can engage in that can make a difference. Activities such as summer travel, volunteer work or enrolling in a community college course in their field of choice often appeal to admissions officers. Remember that service is an excellent way to spend the summer, so long as they do something significant. Afterwards, they can focus in an essay on what they learned from their experience. I also strongly encourage scouts to earn their Eagle Scout rank or their Girl Scout Gold Award. While admissions officers see plenty of Eagle Scout and Gold Award recipients, earning these honors doesn’t hurt their chances.
Quality Over Quantity
Just as high school students who participate in an abundance of clubs in high school, never becoming deeply involved in any, to make the most of summer, quality beats quantity. Students demonstrate quality by taking on leadership positions, supervising others, and creating unique projects, such as organizing literacy tutors. A young New York City high school student developed a website with three of his friends to help people find COVID-19 vaccine appointments. This was at a time when getting the vaccine was incredibly difficult because of the short supply. That’s a perfect activity to make the most of summer—and distinguish all of them with admissions officers.
A Caution
This approach sounds like the helicopter parent/ Tiger Mom rolled into one, but that’s not my intent. You don’t have to browbeat your student nor make them spend 50 or 60 hours a week becoming super student. Some students respond positively to this, while others don’t. High school students can have normal low to medium-key summers yet still craft them to become more competitive for college. In fact, I would recommend strongly against focusing so heavily on preparing for college that they dread the summer months. That’s a recipe for disaster and not a way to make the most of summer.
The essence of this strategy to make the most of summer is to help your student become intentional about their summer choices. On top of that, they should reflect on what they learned during summer, how it may have changed them, and the impact they had. They can distinguish themselves this way as smart, mature and reflective young people. And to be honest, those are the kind of students admissions officers love to see!