You had a great summer, but what now?
Did you know that what you do with your summer experience after it’s over could make or break your college application? As the school year kicks off, you might think your summer experience is over. But that’s a missed opportunity! Every summer experience has value, and you can build on it even after it ends. Whether your summer was life-changing or just a fun break, it all counts. Whether you attended a selective program or traveled with family, every experience matters. Here are a few suggestions to maximize your summer after it ends.
Option 1: Write a college-application-style essay about your summer experience.
It may sound premature, but writing a college-application-style essay about your summer has real benefits. First, it’s a great way to capture your experience, making it easier to recall details later. But even more, it’s great practice for your future college applications.
Writing a college essay is different from writing a typical high school English or history paper. College essays are personal and reflective, while high school essays are more analytical and objective. Because of this dichotomy, it’s important to practice as much as possible before the real thing. By writing this practice essay, you’re also adding to your ‘college essay bank.’ With some luck, you might even use it for one of your real applications.
Option 2: Keep doing what you started during the summer.
This is the most obvious way to extend what you did this summer, but this option also has the most challenges. You can continue any summer experience during the school year. If you attended an organized program, the challenge will be transitioning from expert guidance to self-guided work. Here are a few suggestions to make the transition more seamless.
Do your prep work. Without expert guidance, you’ll need to handle more prep and research on your own. It might take longer, but you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
Allow yourself room to struggle and fail—it’s part of the process. Things will get harder without guidance, especially with the demands of school and daily life. Give yourself space to experiment and grow.
Find a guide. Even without your summer program, you can still find your own guide—network to find a mentor (see the next section) or find support through other means. Having someone to guide you is important.
Option 3: Expand your network.
Besides directly working on the thing you did this summer, you can also work to connect with others in the community, especially locally. Building a local network is one of the best ways to make your experience last and have a bigger impact.
If you fell in love with 3D printing from your two-week workshop at UCLA, you can connect with the local maker community where you live. This can mean attending events at maker spaces or even a Maker Faire if one comes to town. Even if you live in a small town, you can start a club at school and connect with others who share your interests.
Alternatively, you can also go online and network globally. The process differs slightly from networking locally, but the general idea is still the same. You’ll rely more on social media tools like Instagram or Facebook or professional networking tools like LinkedIn. It might be more challenging to cut through the noise online, but with the right strategy and some patience, you can start making meaningful connections with people around the world.
Conclusion: What this means for college
And now, back to the elephant in the room: college. If you’re like most high school students thinking about summer experiences, the key question you’re considering is how colleges will interpret what you did. Will they find it impressive? Will they think you made the most of your time? Colleges interpret your summer experience as a window into your true interests and motivators because it’s the single largest piece of self-directed time throughout the year. During the school year, your time is filled with required tasks, but summer is your chance to do what you really want. So, for colleges, this time is more representative of the “true you.”
Colleges care most about how meaningful your experience was. These techniques will help you get the most meaning and significance from your summer experience. So, as you may have noticed, the three suggestions shared above are not mutually exclusive. In fact, we recommend that you do all three. This will help ensure that you get the most meaning and significance out of your summer experience.
