What I’ll cover in this blog:
-Importance of high school summers
-Summer Academies
-Summer coursework
-Internships
-COSMOS
-Research programs
-Volunteering activities
-Other Options
-How Goal Admit can help
Importance of high school summers
Summer activities are an essential part of the college application. Colleges want to know that you utilized your summers gainfully, learning and pursuing your passions. Most programs are competitive and hard to get into so preparing a list and applying in advance to a wide range of programs will ensure that you have a productive summer. Please spend some time during 9th grade winter break scouting for summer programs. There are several options available for high school students, which I’ll cover in this blog.
Summer Academies
“Summer Academy” programs offered by top colleges in the country like UPenn, Stanford , CMU, and MIT. These are expensive (over $6000 including room and board) 3 or 4-week immersive sessions covering a variety of majors and subjects. If you can afford it there is the cachet of a top school in your application and the experience is worth the money, interacting with top faculty and a diverse student class.
My older son attended the “Biomedical Research Academy” at UPenn after 10th grade and got an early taste of college life and independent living along with the experience of top-notch faculty.
Summer coursework
Summer courses offered at various colleges (some have pre-requisites and can only be done in 10th/11th grade) including UC Berkeley (https://summer.berkeley.edu/student-types), Stanford (https://summer.stanford.edu/high-school), Cornell (https://sce.cornell.edu/precollege/), just to name a few. Any college in your area would likely offer summer courses for high school students – just look them up online. Some may even offer remote/virtual sessions. The on-campus choices would add room and board to the cost of tuition for the course.
My younger son did the CS61A (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) course at the University of California in Berkeley the summer after 11th grade, and I believe him getting an A- in the challenging college-level course was definitely a factor in him getting admitted to UC Berkeley.
Internships
Internships are rare for incoming 10th graders but some companies do recruit so you should look it up. I recommend www.indeed.com to search for “summer internships for high school students”. Internship spots for high school students are very limited and extremely competitive, so apply early, apply through a referral, and apply to as many places as you can.
COSMOS
COSMOS (https://cosmos-ucop.ucdavis.edu/app/main) – this is a program only offered to California High School students at one of 4 campuses – UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Davis.
My older son attended the COSMOS program at the UC Santa Cruz campus the summer after 9th grade. It was an amazing experience for him, interacting with a diverse set of students and enjoying off-campus trips in addition to an immersive curriculum in Cluster 8 (Wonders of the Ocean).
Research programs
If you are interested in research, or want to try it out to see if you like it, here are a few select options available to pursue research in the high school summers:
1. SIMR – Stanford’s 8-week summer research internship program
https://simr.stanford.edu/program-information.html
Hands-on research opportunity guided by top faculty. Very competitive.
2. University of Santa Barbara’s Research Mentorship program
https://summer.ucsb.edu/programs/research-mentorship-program/overview
3. UT Austin’s HSRA program
https://fri.cns.utexas.edu/community-outreach/high-school-research-academy
Volunteering activities
Most schools have volunteer hour requirements for high school graduation. My sons’ school required them to complete 40 hours of volunteering, 10 in each year of high school. Volunteering hours send a message of community involvement, selflessness, and passion to colleges. So it is better to volunteer as many hours as you can, over and above the requirement.
As I have mentioned in another blog, stitching together a cohesive narrative is important for your college application. So try to find a volunteering opportunity that matches your interests. If you are planning to study Biology as a pre-med, volunteering at a hospital is a logical choice. If you are planning to study Computer Science or Math, volunteering at an academic center or coding class paints a cohesive picture.
If you would prefer to volunteer at a food bank or at the nearby park, that’s okay too. Any volunteering activity, as long as it was a substantial number of hours, can make for a strong essay based on what you derived from the experience.
Other Options
If, for some reason, none of the above pans out in a particular year – summer academies and summer coursework were not affordable, or you were too late to apply for any program or internship, and volunteering cannot cover the entire summer, there are a few other things you can do to showcase a productive summer in your application:
1. Travel – maybe you went to your parents homeland for a few weeks in the summer or went on a great vacation? Keep notes of the sites you saw, the people you met, the history you were told by guides, what you liked and why. Any one interaction or experience could trigger an essay topic especially if it was a personal learning or growth experience.
2. Reading and Video Games – perhaps you spent the summer reading a large number of books or playing video games for hours with your friends. Perhaps there was one book that was really memorable and made you reflect deeply. Write it down for later reference.
3. Perhaps there was a family event – a close relative falling ill – that forced you to cancel plans. Or maybe you needed to look after your siblings and take up a part-time job to help your family. Any experience in the summer that adds to your growth is a story to tell.
How Goal Admit can help
I only listed a few examples for each category in this blog. For a personalized, in-depth report on all the summer options available for you, based on your own interests and goals, please click below to contact me. Our goal is to get you admitted to the college of your choice.