College Admissions Advice-Summer Plans

Summer Programs for High School Students

Hurt or Help your College Application?

It’s Controversial.

You’ve seen the glossy pamphlets with cheery students studying under a tree of a prestigious university or sun-kissed students with a shovel in hand standing in the dirt with an exotic vista in the background. If their child goes to one of the programs offered parents ponder if it will make their resume more attractive and give their child an edge for applying to that distinguished college.

The summer is a great time to enhance your college application if you know what to do. What you do can also hurt your college application.  How do you determine what program or plan your child should pursue this summer to enhance their college application?

Most colleges look for consistency in the students’ record indicating a long term focused effort in one area. The same activity year after year is more important to the college admissions process than going out and joining every club your junior year. It  may be considered padding the application.

If you have this focus, then summer plans should include a real life experience in your field. Internships are available if you know where to look.  If they are not there are tricks to getting your foot in the door. Who wouldn’t want a bright student?

What can look good, does not cost a dime and will empower and enhance a child application are internships. Often they are volunteer or low paid jobs and they are not difficult to find. Interns or volunteers to prestigious people will give a ground up experience to the child and more importantly again if they do well, it is understood that the person for whom they are volunteering will give them a letter of recommendation. A prestigious person’s letter of recommendation is extremely valuable.

For example, if a student loves science working in a lab as an intern or volunteer, even if it’s cleaning green gunk out of a post-docs beaker of going for Starbuck runs for the lab-it’s a good move.

In my many years of experience, there are only a couple of programs in math, music, fine arts and architecture that are admission’s officers have told me that they are recognized as valuable.  

This is not to say that the experience you will have such as putting up with an annoying roommate, exploring a different culture or cause or meeting new friends is not important. It can be extremely valuable but may not from the perspective of the college admissions office.

We have the fortune to live in a highly educated highly motivated area of the country.  Some colleges are weary of student who pursue high cost adventures but have never flipped a hamburger. If you don’t have a narrow focus then hard work looks better on your application then bopping around the world digging for fossils.

They would rather see you breaking a sweat in a lab than studying theory by swimming with sharks to “collect data” to the tune of thousands of dollars, airfare included.  Again, internships are the best way to learn to learn.

If you do not have an identifiable area of interest or if flipping burgers or making lattes to supplement your income is your destiny this summer. Don’t despair. Warren Buffet worked in a grocery store and Gwen Stefani worked at Dairy Queen for the summer. I have worked with many students, who got a great college essay from taking the ordinary and making interesting.

P.S. This advice does not apply to the scholar-athlete.