We recently received an email from a blog reader asking for advice on how to become a member of a political campaign this upcoming summer. We love to hear from our readers when they have specific questions, and we commend anyone who is committed to solidifying summer plans during these uncertain times. Keep reading for our tips:
Touring Colleges in Summer 2021
In the past, we’ve written blog posts about both the positives and negatives of touring colleges during the summer. If you’re too lazy to click the links, here’s a short version: Benefits include a more laid-back time table and opportunities to do non-college activities during the trip, and the deficits are related to the fact that a lot of students won’t be on campus when you’re there.
What to Do the Summer Before Your Freshman Year of High School
While we know the pandemic has changed a lot for students, this is sure to be an exciting time in life. A lot of parents ask us if freshman year is too early to start thinking about college. After all, nobody wants to put undue pressure on young people who are just getting their footing in this next phase of life. That said, the college application process is a long journey. It can be challenging and there’s a lot to accomplish. Our strategy is to have kids spread out the workload across four years, not only to build a more robust application, but also to make it all more manageable. Here are some ideas on how to spend the summer before your freshman year.
Best Virtual Internships for High School Students Interested in Politics
If you’re planning on majoring in Political Science, or want to see if you’re genuinely interested in the field, trying to find a remote internship or opportunity for this upcoming summer is a good place to start. There are a lot of offerings on the internet, which is why it’s important to be thorough in your research. Everyone is still working through the transition to virtual opportunities and work, so it’s unlikely that you’ll secure a job that has you knocking on doors and shaking hands with the big wigs. Even still, internships are great ways to get your foot in the door and test out a potential career path.
Best Virtual Internships for High School Students Interested in Economics
Best Virtual Internships for High School Students Interested in Computer Science
Computer Science is a field that lends itself nicely to virtual work. This isn’t to say that finding an opportunity will be completely seamless, but it’s definitely a plus that coding and developing has always been done almost exclusively on a desktop or laptop. In an effort to start your research process, we poked around the internet and found a few links that are worth considering. We haven’t vetted every single opportunity, but click , , , and to get a feel for what’s out there. You can also look into programs by clicking on .
How to Balance Fun and Function the Summer Before Your Senior Year
Summers are for relaxing, right? That’s what just about every movie or book tells us. Summers are when young people get to relax, let loose, and forget about the stresses that follow them around the other nine months of the year. The problem is, this isn’t really the case anymore. As colleges have become more selective, what they expect of applicants has grown. Nine months isn’t enough time to squeeze it all it, so summer break has become less about letting loose and more about getting something to throw on your resume.
A Guide to Planning Summer 2021 for Rising Seniors
2020 has been no normal year. And while we’re all ready to be done with it, it’s proving challenging to plan a different future. A lot of kids might be wondering what their options are for summer 2021. We always encourage students to plan well in advance, to get a leg up on competitive summer programs, and secure good jobs and internships. Our advice for summer 2021 is as unusual as the year itself: while we do recommend getting a head start (more on that below) you’ve got to be a little flexible, too.
Summer Job Ideas for High Schooler Juniors
Camp Cancelled: What Do I Do with My Summer?
With the short-term in question, many kids are wondering what they should expect for their future. The reality is, no one (not even Dr. Fauci) knows what exactly is going to happen, so we recommend taking this one day at a time. And today, we should focus on the summer. Camps everywhere are cancelled. While that’s devastating to the businesses that run them and while you may miss your friends, it’s going to be okay. Here are some ideas on how you can be productive this summer.
Best Online Summer Programs for High School Students during Coronavirus/COVID-19
You’re certainly not alone if the plans that you made for this upcoming summer (before Covid-19) have been canceled or are in flux. Pretty much everyone is dealing with rescheduling, shuffling things around, and an impending sense of panic regarding how to move forward. But fear not! While it’s obviously true that this summer is going to look different than we all had hoped, that doesn’t mean that it’s a total bust. The very last thing that you should do is throw in the towel.
Best Online Summer Computer Science Classes 2020
In addition to extracurricular activities and applying to jobs and internships, we have always encouraged our 91Ě˝»¨ clients to enroll in online courses in their areas of academic interests. A lot of high school students overlook them because they feel that they don’t get “credit” for taking them, when it reality taking an online course is an excellent way to further your passions. When you’re interested in a broad discipline, at some point you’re going to need to define your niche. Online classes help to do that, while introducing students to new topics they might not have heard of before. They’re also free, and are an especially great tool for anyone who is curious about basically anything.
Best Online Summer Courses 2020 for High School Students Interested in Biology
We’ve written about the benefit of enrolling in online courses in the past. We’ve always known that colleges care about how you spend your free time, and that is especially true in the age of Coronavirus. If you take a look at how you’re spending your days during this new normal, we’re willing to bet that you could allocate a few of those hours you spend learning Tik Tok dances to advancing your skillset. Start by thinking about what you enjoy learning about when no one is forcing you to do so. If the answer to that question is biology, this blog post is for you. Below you’ll find a few of our favorite biology courses that are being offered online right now, meaning that you can sign up today.
Summer Internships During the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic
Our students have had some pretty spectacular internships. We’ve had students work in labs conducting scientific research, join the engineering team at ground-breaking start-ups, and serve at nonprofits. They’ve spent their summers contributing to published papers and working alongside well-known artists. These activities and opportunities grew their interests and augmented their applications. As usual, we helped our clients line up some pretty awesome internships for the summer of 2020.
Does Being a Camp Counselor Look Good on a College Resume?
Camp is super fun. We get it. We used to be big camp people too. Camp represents nostalgia, fun, independence, and is often a formative time for many. When you’re a camper, all you do is look up to the counselors and wish that you could be them. Tap your heels together and *poof* you’re 14-16 years old and you’re faced with the question: do I become a camp counselor? And of course, because you’re so incredibly conscientious and forward-thinking, your next thought is: but how does it look to colleges who are reviewing my application and resume? Spooky, right? How did we read your internal monologue so accurately?
Well, even if we were a bit off (or you’re a parent), we still want to guide your thinking on this a bit. How does being a counselor look on a college resume--good or bad? The TL;DR answer is: neither. Guess you’re going to have to read on.
Here is a brisk breakdown of the Pros and Cons of Being a Camp Counselor (written through the lens of a college admissions counselor):
Pros
Often, it’s paid work.
Colleges love students who work hard, and hard-earned cash fits the bill, particularly if you’re dedicated. Colleges know that working for money connotes a different set of circumstances and expectations than do internships. Paid work = good. If you’re considering doing volunteer work for camp, we’re going to move this to the “Con” category.
It’s proven responsibility.
If you’re putting it on your resume, we’re assuming that nothing horrible happened while you were a counselor, which means that you can handle and thrive in situations where others are relying on you.
Camp is exhausting.
We think it’s a good thing when students truly and fully commit to a job that is known to be physically and emotionally exhausting. It means they're all in. Let’s put it this way: you don’t have much to scroll through Instagram at camp (lest you risk your camper(s) running off into the woods), whereas there is lots of time for that at a desk job or internship.
Cons
Colleges know that camp is fun.
Unfortunately, the cat is out of the bag on this one. This isn’t quite “out of your comfort zone, pushing your academic and mental boundaries,” type of work. It’s fun. You’re probably hanging out with friends all day, playing sports, and splashing kids in the pool. While it’s not *all* fun, it’s pretty fun.
It doesn’t have to do with your academic interests.
Going off of the above, but a distinct point to make on its own: camp is likely not directly related to your academic interests (unless, maybe, you’re working at a camp for campers with special needs and you’re interested in special education, developmental psychology, or early education) which means that you’re going to have to work harder to show that you spend your free time effectively. Which might be hard because, leading into our next point...
Camp is exhausting.
Good in many ways, as stated above, camp also means that you’ll be so physically exhausted at the end of the day that you will likely not have time to: read, work on an independent project, write your college essays. We don’t love that, for obvious reasons. Ideally, you’re able to do something for work experience that is aligned with your academic interests, and if not, then you’re able to do something in addition to something academic or college application-related. If you want to take an 8-hour nap (aka a sleep) at 5pm upon return from camp each day, this might not be the best choice for your junior summer. It might be more acceptable for freshman or sophomore summer. Or the summer after your senior year before everything starts to matter for jobs (and adult life begins…dun dun dun).
As you can read, we’re pretty neutral on how a position as a camp counselor might play out for your college applications. Ultimately, we think that colleges agree with us that: it’s better than nothing, but not better than some things.
if you need help sorting out your internal monologue about camp.
Summer Jobs That Look Good on College Applications
Ah, summer. Sunny days. No school. Time to see your friends and live the good life. Sure, you can do all of that stuff, but we also strongly recommend you take seriously the opportunity to develop your resume this summer. While you can’t be lazy, you can still have fun. During the year you may have to take classes you don’t want to or study for exams you dread. During the summer, you should explore your passions and maybe even get paid for them.
Summer Ideas for High School Juniors
If you’re a junior and just starting to think about summer, we’re not going to lie: you’re a little bit late to the game. That said, it’s not too late (nor is it ever too early) to begin visualizing this upcoming summer. It’s an important one. Not only is it important what you do professionally and academically (ideally, pursuing either paid work or something related to a specific area of interest), but it’s also important that you allot a significant amount of time to your college applications. We’ll say a few quick words about that right now before we spill our suggestions for what you should do this summer.
How to use the Summer to Boost Your Application
We love summer as much as you do, but maybe for a different reason. Yes, sun is great. Yes, time off from school is sort of awesome. The real reason we love summer, though, is that it is a stellar time to boost your application. Whether you will be a rising freshman, sophomore, junior, or newly-minted senior, there is a lot you can do to make your summers fun and relaxing while still giving yourself a leg up come application seasons. And even though we are now in this dystopia due to the Coronavirus, all of this advice holds true.
How to Make “Camp Counselor” Sound Good on College Applications
We’ve written about the pros and cons of becoming a camp counselor in the past, but this post is more to focus on how to take something that’s bland (in this case, a job as a camp counselor) and make it stellar. Okay, “bland” might be a bit harsh, but let’s be honest here--colleges love students who pursue their academic interests in full, and being a camp counselor probably wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating time of your life. Are we right? Lots of funny and *deep* moments were had, we’re sure. But it’s not like you had the time or energy to debate the three key bills that need to pass in order to influence lasting criminal justice reform while you were making sure that 18 six-year-olds showed up to nature arts & crafts on time.
What If My Summer Program is Canceled because of Coronavirus/COVID19?
Now that we are in the second (or third, depending on where you live) week of self-quarantine and social distancing, people are starting to settle into the idea that things aren’t just going to go back to normal tomorrow. We’re looking at weeks, if not months, of things not being normal. In much of America, it is unlikely that students will go back to school until it starts back up again in the fall. A foreseeable side effect of these massive shifts to our usually predictable calendar is a similar re-scheduling frenzy around summer programs. The summer programs that are most likely to be canceled are those on high school and college campuses.