Summer's Coming Up... Here's How to Spend it

(Hey, quick aside, Jack Beecher here. Hopefully, my perspective as a high school student who just went through the process helps you and your family!)

We’re quickly approaching spring, and before you know it, it’ll be summer. But how, as a high schooler, are you supposed to spend that summer to maximize your odds of getting into college?

As a current senior, I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently. What would I do differently if I could redo my summers? Would I try to cram in a couple more activities to fill in the slots on the Common App? Would I spend my time studying to prepare for the upcoming fall? Or would I mope around dreading the forthcoming college admissions season?

Well, luckily, if all that sounds terrible to you, good. We don’t believe in that here in the CollegeConsulting.us community. We believe summer should be a time to have fun, hang out with friends, and live life... all while setting yourself up for the best chance at admissions success. Sound good?

To do that, I have three tips for you.

Tip #1: Showstopper Activity

You want to spend your time playing video games, hanging out with your friends, watching movies or TV, or whatever you like doing, but you feel like you can’t. You think that if you don't first work on your eight different extracurriculars, you won't get into college. Here’s where I’d like to step in and relieve some pressure: you don’t need to do eight activities at once. A better strategy is to save time and energy and invest in one or two main activities to really stand out. (Note: if you’re interested in this, Cal Newport’s How to Be a High School Superstar is a great read.)

I’ll give you an example of such an activity by describing my last summer. Most days, I spent hours golfing, and since that's one of my favorite things to do, it was easy for me to invest mass amounts of time to excel. And as it turns out, admissions officers love to see that. They want to see how you can commit and stand out in one or two things. They don’t care about how much time you spend on your 8th activity that doesn’t relate to your passions. So instead of pouring yourself into eight different extracurriculars, that’s what I’d encourage you to spend your next summer doing: find one or two activities you're passionate about and go all in.

In our College Confidence Roadmap, which we supply to all high schoolers in our program, we call this the Showstopper activity (credit to Admissions Science for coining this term).

The Showstopper activity relates to your path/desired major and makes you stand out in the eyes of the admissions committee. I didn’t know this, as I wasn’t in the program last summer, and that’s why I spent most of my time outside of playing golf on things like tutoring and volunteering.

Instead of that, if I had been in the program, I would’ve known to spend more time working on something like coding an app, which would've showcased my commitment to the major I applied for, computer science. And although yes, coding an app sounds like a lot of work, the thing is, if I mainly devoted myself to that, along with golf, and not the other extracurriculars that didn’t relate to my path, I’d have actually had more free time while still improving my chances of admission.

Of course, that doesn’t mean to drop all the other activities that aren’t your Showstopper activity—those have their purpose as well; it just means that college admissions officers care more about your top one or two activities than the ones you throw towards the bottom. No longer is the day of a "well-rounded" student who joins every club and team. Commit to one activity and stand out. Then, you’ll have more time to be you while drastically improving your chances of admission.

Tip #2: Finalize College List—Juniors, listen up

It’s critical to get your college list as close to as finalized as possible during summer. For me, I like to call this the 98% rule: get 98% of the way there. It’s not completely done, you might add/delete a college to your list still in Senior Fall, but it’s pretty solidified.

This is crucial because next fall you’re going to want to spend time with your friends, on your essays, and on your homework, not tinkering with your school list. And don’t worry, if you're in the College Confidence Program, it will be easy for you to stay on pace; the importance is constantly emphasized. However, if you’re not in the program, make sure to start working on it now, no matter your grade. You’ll thank yourself later.

I was late to join the program and late to construct my school list, and trust me, I paid the price. It’s way harder to multitask figuring out what colleges to apply to and applying to them than just having your list already made and applying.

Tip #3: Start Your Essays

We all know that summer goes by fast, so spend your time wisely. Juniors, with Senior Fall upcoming, the most important semester in terms of admissions, make sure you leave plenty of time to do work for school by starting your essays during the summer.

Yes, I know writing essays doesn’t sound like the most fun way for you to spend a warm summer day, but trust me, as a current senior, you’d much rather do them during the summer than wait til you’re swamped with homework to try to start.

As per the actual writing, Jack Delehey provides great tips in both his program, where he walks students through a 6-week writing boot camp, and old blog posts (check them out here.)

Next Steps

To reiterate, in our program, we don't ask students to spend all their time working on college. We want them to have fun, and we do that by offering an easy solution: find the extracurriculars that energize you and commit to them to stand out, not the other ten things. Simple enough?
Now, what are the next steps? How do you put these tips into practice? Well first, if you’re not already a member, you can join our completely free community where, by going to the Classroom tab, you can watch "Section 2.2: Different > Difficult" to help your child find their Showstopper activity (pictured below).

Alright, that’s enough from me. Enjoy the rest of your school year and summer. You deserve it.

Best Wishes,
Jack Beecher

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