Your Summer To-Do List

With a school year packed full of classes and extracurriculars, summer can be the perfect time to chip away at your college search to-do list. Below, we’ve included some helpful things you can do during your time off to help find your perfect college.

Heading Into Sophomore Year

Explore Possible Careers

With a full year of high school under your belt, now is a good time to begin thinking about possible careers. Which classes have you found most interesting? Which subjects do you naturally gravitate toward inside and outside of the classroom? What are your hobbies? Use this information as a compass to guide your research into possible careers.

Get in the Field

If you have an idea of a particular career, get your feet wet by taking up a volunteer opportunity or job-shadowing someone working in the field.

Heading Into Junior Year

Research Colleges

Now is a good time to begin familiarizing yourself with the college landscape and homing in on ones that might be a good fit. Besides a college's academic offerings, be sure to consider whether it would provide you with the best learning environment.

Create a Deal-Breaker List

What do you need your ideal college to offer you? An urban campus or a more rural atmosphere? A larger or smaller student body? Keep these in mind when looking at schools.

Visit

Once you have a list of colleges that seem like a good fit, it's time to visit them. Look up the schools' websites and see if there are any upcoming on-campus events you can attend.

Connect With Admissions Representatives

Have you struck up a meaningful conversation with a college admissions counselor this past year? Find their contact and reach out to schedule a virtual or on-campus meeting. Trust me, they would love to hear from you!

Heading Into Senior Year

Attend a Summer Program

Available to rising seniors (and often juniors and sophomores), summertime academic programs are a terrific opportunity to experience what being a student at a particular college is like.

Create and Curate Application Materials

Once you know which prompts are available, take the extra time you have this summer to draft possible responses. Feeling inspired? Take this time to free write or create a new piece of media or art. You may just end up creating something portfolio-worthy or finding a nugget of wisdom you can later pull into an essay.

Document Your Accomplishments

Equally as important as your essay and portfolio is updating your record of activities and accomplishments from high school. If you have the time to take on anything extra this summer, be sure to add it to the list!

And, most importantly, please be sure to take care of yourself and pencil in some much-deserved downtime! From all of us in Admissions, we hope you have a wonderful and fun-filled summer.