Maximizing Your Summer Break in High School: Building Your Resume

Webinar Transcription

2023-02-27 – Maximizing Your Summer Break in High School: Building Your Resume

Anesha: Hi, everyone, and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha grant. I am a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and I will be your moderator today. Today’s session is, “Maximizing Your Summer Break in High School by Building Your Resume.” Before we get started. I just want to orient everyone with the timing.

We’ll start off with a presentation and then we will answer your questions in a live Q and a on the sidebar. You can download our session. slides whenever you get a chance under the Q and a tab and you can start submitting questions in the Q and a tab. Please only submit your questions in the Q and a tab.

Now let’s meet our presenter, Jamie. Hey Jamie, how are you?

Jamie: I’m doing great. How are you?

Anesha: I’m good. I’m good. Thanks for asking. So let’s have a little bit about yourself and your background.

Jamie: Sure, so I’ve been with CollegeAdvisor since August of this year, but before that, I did 12 years of student advising in my own consultancy.

Um, I, I came to that work through. My work at Stanford University is a staff member where I also earned my undergraduate degree. Um, and I just, I was the marketing director and also responsible for business support for a number of units there. And I found over time, I just loved working with students and it kind of changed my career path from one more focused on marketing to one focused on business.

On education and on student advising, and so I’m so glad to be here to share what I know, and I hope that everybody enjoys the presentation and finds it useful.

Anesha: Yeah, I think the background of marketing would definitely be valuable to make sense why you’re the one speaking with us today of how the students can best.

Market themselves, present themselves, um, in the best light during the college application process. Before I hand it over to you, we do want to do a quick poll. So, please take a few minutes for those in our audience and let us know what grade level you are in. It’ll help us get some context to the conversation that we want to have over the next few minutes.

Uh, someone just text, someone just sent me a question in the chat. Please do not say question in the chat, but I will answer this question. Yes. The session will be recorded and will be sent out to you via the email that you read used to register. Please only send questions in the Q and a. it. All right.

Jamie, whi some questions to come in is the biggest like energy students? Do you have like story or something that k your, in your mind?

Jamie: You like working with students because So much hope that they, they see, they look into the future and they see all this potential for themselves. And you know, I, I tend to look at the world that way myself and I love helping students kind of figure out what their vision is for their future and then lay out the steps to get there incrementally.

Um, it’s really rewarding to, you know, see a student take themselves to somewhere that. helps them get a step closer to fulfilling their dreams.

Anesha: That’s awesome. That’s very sweet. Um, and that’s, uh, yeah, that’s part of the energy that I get from students too, like seeing them go through this process and really learn a little bit more about themselves and, and see all the hopes and dreams come to fruition, um, at some point in March, April, May of senior year.

So, uh, all right. Thanks so much, Jamie. Thanks to those folks for joining us. for submitting the poll. I’ll go ahead and close it out. And just for your FYI, Jamie, the majority of folks in the room with us are actually in the 10th grade, so about 39 percent are in the 10th grade, 32 percent are in the 11th grade, 22 percent are in 9th grade, and then the rest of the folks are 8th grade, 12th grade, or other.

Um, so we can focus in on what are the best strategies for post 9th grade, post 11th grade, rising seniors, and so on. Um, as you move forward, and I’ll be back from the next poll, let me know if you have any questions. And again, folks, continue submitting your questions in the Q and a tab.

Jamie: Great. Thanks, Anesha.

Well, hi, everyone. It’s great to be here today to talk about how to spend your summers wisely and build your resume for a successful. Application process to college before we launch into that. I thought it would be useful to talk a little bit about the admissions criteria that colleges. Use to determine who they want to admit.

Um, I think that’ll really help to inform our discussion. So obviously academics are a big part of it. Uh, your class rank GPA and Not just having a GPA that’s high, but having a high GPA with a rigorous curriculum. Most colleges go out of their way to understand the different high schools that students have attended, and the rigor of the courses there, so that they can make the comparisons between students from different schools.

Uh, it’s not always as easy as, you know, one English class compares to another English class at the same grade. There are nuances and, and fine points going school to school. Another important piece is extracurricular activities. And. Especially these days when there are so many students with strong academics.

Extracurricular activities really help to set students apart in the minds of admissions officers and those activities should demonstrate One’s values, one’s passion, talent, leadership skill, commitment, collaboration, initiative, and impact. So it’s not merely showing up for an activity, it’s using that activity as a pathway to demonstrate these character traits that are desirable to colleges.

Another aspect of what schools evaluate are standardized test scores, uh, SAT or ACT, advanced placement, uh, and it’s true, there are schools these days, more and more of them, that do, uh, uh, test blind admissions, uh, they still look at your advanced placement scores, but, Students have the option now to apply without the SAT or ACT, but what many families don’t understand is that when you take that standardized test score out of the equation, the schools need to weight the other elements of your, your profile more heavily, so there’s more emphasis put on grades, on the rigor of your curriculum, on your extracurriculars, and your letters of recommendation.

So, for some school, for some students, that’s a great strategy. For others, it might not be. Put a spotlight on areas where they don’t feel as strong. So be aware that standardized test scores can actually work in your favor. Another area is letters of recommendation. You want to have recommenders who know you, who can say wonderful things about you, give details in the form of anecdotes and their recommendations, and uh, maybe a topic for another A webinar at some point is how you get those top quality letters of recommendation.

I have some strategies for that. Finally, colleges are interested in how you spent your time during high school. They’re not too interested in what happened before. And they want to understand in high school, were you engaged in purposeful pursuits? Did you have a vision and, and work towards that? Are you sustaining your engagement in different activities?

You know, did you start volunteering your freshman year and then stopped until you realized that you’re missing some volunteer hours to graduate? Or is it truly an activity that you find rewarding and, and, you know, enjoy engaging in? Um, they want to see that. That your activities are increasingly difficult, complex, and that you’re focused over time in one area.

Now, that’s not to say there isn’t some leeway for exploring different things. High school is definitely the time to explore, particularly in your freshman, sophomore years. But as you move through your junior and senior years, Your record should demonstrate an increasing focus in an area of interest That will be a natural jumping off point to a college major.

That’s the ideal Uh community mindedness is another thing that that schools look for Are you interested in helping others? Are you contributing to your community in some way? And then of course continuous learning and this is a big opportunity. I think uh that students have in the summer is to not just relax after the academic year is done, but to continue to stretch yourself over summer vacation to challenge yourself with different activities with more rigorous coursework or explore new, new pathways, new avenues of interests.

And we’ll talk more about that as we go on. So I’ve divided. Summer activities into four major categories, uh, academic activities, uh, coursework, uh, academically focused camps, uh, their exploratory activities, uh, things like, uh, You know, job shadowing or, or new extracurricular activities, trying out different sports, uh, maybe leadership activities where there wasn’t a strong record of that before.

Summer’s a great time to try on different hats and test yourself when maybe the, uh, there’s a little bit. More freedom, a little less responsibility for your regular curriculum, and you can really try different things. Uh, college preparatory activities are another category. So these are things like SAT prep, uh, maybe taking some advanced courses.

Uh, preparatory classes, uh, previewing coursework, uh, that you may be doing in greater detail in college. And then career development, uh, things like jobs, internships, uh, job shadowing kind of falls in that category as well. And then of course there are other activities. Those might include sports or, uh, Or other things that students do, but for me, these are the big four that feed into building a strong resume for college applications.

So, the next section I’ve organized. As a number of possibilities for how you’ll spend your summer. So the first one is to participate in a specialized high school program. So these are often held on college campuses and they’re available all around the country. I, I, Can’t think of a single university that doesn’t host some sort of high school focused program, uh, over the summer Uh, some examples are MIT launch where students actually get the experience of starting a real company in this summer program, uh UCLA has the Mock Trial Summer Institute, which helps students gain confidence and skills in public speaking.

And they learn a little bit about the law and how attorneys prepare for a trial, organize their notes, approach their argumentation. Another example is the National Student Leadership Conference, which hosts programs on different campuses, like Harvard Medical School, Georgia Tech. It allows students to explore a future career, sometimes develop leadership skills, and I think most importantly, get a taste of what college life is going to be like.

That can be incredibly motivating for students to have a little bit of taste of independence, uh, going to classes and having those intellectual discussions with their fellow students after hours.

Another opportunity is to take a college class. So there are many summer programs that high school students, uh, can enroll in. Some of them are on campus. You can live in the dorms. The benefit to these is that, again, they’re taught by college professors, they tend to be very competitive, and applications require essays, letters of recommendation, transcript, uh, but they can also be very rewarding, and again, they give students a taste of the college experience.

Now, the downside to, uh, To some of these residential programs is that they can be kind of expensive. Oftentimes, you’re traveling from one place in the country to attend a university in another spot. If you’re looking for the same or similar value, but lower cost, consider a summer program at a local school or community college, or take an online class.

In terms of instruction, you know, those options are still pretty good, uh, and you can do it from home, so it gives you a little bit more flexibility. There are sites like edX and Coursera where there are some courses that are offered for free, uh, or you can access material that is, uh, taped at universities and, and you can stream it, uh, and work at your own pace.

Uh, and those courses cover topics that, you know, really range through everything these days. Robotics, creative writing, engineering, uh, pre med, and the option to do it real time or through recorded lectures, uh, gives you access to professors who are, are top in their field at universities or colleges.

Like Stanford or Harvard where you might not otherwise have a chance to experience that until you’re actually in college

Another great option Is to find a job or if you’re not so fond of working for somebody else, try your hand at becoming an entrepreneur, starting your own enterprise. So colleges, they like when students have jobs. Um, it shows, it shows initiative, it shows a desire to take responsibility for yourself, to contribute.

Now depending on your age group, you may need a work permit, and I believe that varies from state to state. I think here in California, uh, where I’m from, the, the age is 16, I think, above that, You no longer need a work permit, but, uh, check on this, you know, uh, make sure that you have the right information for your location.

Uh, you can often collaborate with friends who are also looking for summer activities to start a business. It can be something simple that you can do to provide a service in your community. Dog walking, tutoring, pet care, uh, teaching. The elderly or friends and family to use technology. Um, I have one student this year who’s starting his own chemistry summer camp.

He’s passionate about chemistry. He’s starting his own chemistry summer camp for middle school students. So both bolstering his organizing skills. Engaging in his passion for chemistry and helping students come up along the way behind him and sparking their passion for chemistry as well. Great, great options.

Uh, the limits are really just your level of creativity. Volunteering in your community is another great way to, to make a mark during your, your summer break. Colleges do prefer continuity and commitment in the community service though, as opposed to more of an intermittent or, uh, or varied kind of involvement.

So my recommendation is try a number of things early on, you know, freshman or sophomore year, and then find the one that you find most rewarding or that you enjoy, and then commit to a regular amount of time. Maybe, you know, An hour a week or two hours a week and sustain that through your senior year That’s how you get the most benefit out of those kind of volunteering activities um, and those can run the gamut it can be visiting residents at nursing homes or feeding animals at the humane society I had one student, uh who was passionate about history and he actually went out and spoke to the curator of a local historical museum in his community and Uh, received an opportunity to become the assistant to the curator.

So he got a lot of contact and he learned a lot about, about how to run a museum, how to write in a historical context, how to analyze things historically. So, uh, don’t feel like volunteer activities are, are preformed and that’s the limit of what’s available. You can really create your own. But it takes a little bit of legwork.

It takes knowing what you want to do, what you enjoy doing, and then finding resources and contacts who can help you achieve that.

Applying for internships and participating in research. This is another great way to spend a summer. Uh, an internship, usually they’re unpaid, but there are some that do offer some compensation. It’s a structured work opportunity, but it’s focused in a particular area. Uh, it could be at a company, a government agency, in a lab, at a non profit.

Uh, really desirable internships can be very competitive. But there are a lot of opportunities and if you can’t find something that is published, don’t be afraid to, to work through family connections or friends of the family and, you know, create something that satisfies your interest and gives you some experience in a work context.

Another opportunity is research. Research has become really important in differentiating good, good candidates from great candidates. Uh, you know, a lot of the focus in college is getting research experience as an undergraduate now, whereas that used to be more of a function of graduate students. Uh, and, uh, Being able to, to show that you’ve learned how to conduct research, you’ve participated in a lab as a high school student, that really stands out.

Now, again, these opportunities can be difficult to come by, but, you know, leveraging those family connections, talking to your parents, who do they work with, uh, who are their circle of friends, you’ll be surprised what, what you can find. And in that research and internship context. Even jobs that might seem kind of menial, uh, you know, like cleaning slides or, or, uh, you know, washing down glassware in a lab, can have some real applicable significance to what you might do in college, um, and give you an edge potentially on getting that sort of work done.

In a college environment where there’s, you know, more focused competition.

Another great way, a great activity to engage in in summer is to find an opportunity to job shadow. So job shadowing is when you you find someone who’s, uh, established professional in an area and you ask for permission to Speak with them and kind of follow them around and see how they spend their day.

Uh, a lot of pre med students are savvy to the job shadowing, uh, activity, uh, being able to go beyond what you’re your preconceptions are about being a doctor and connect with what a doctor actually is doing throughout the day. Visiting patients, writing reports, reviewing tests. It gives you a better insight into what a career in that field would be like.

And some of, some of the, the best professionals, um, when they agree to allow someone to Shadow them will make opportunities for those job shadowers to discuss and participate in the activity as well. So, again, a lot of opportunity there and once again, family connections are a great way to find these opportunities, but they’re also, they’re also organizations that focus on pairing up, uh, willing mentors with interested, uh, students.

So be on the lookout for opportunities like that, uh, if that’s something that you want to engage in.

Next, there’s SAT or ACT test prep, uh, and college visits. So kind of that college preparatory function. Uh, If you are a, a sophomore preparing for your PSAT so that you can do great on the National Merit Scholarship qualifying test in October of your junior year, that’s a good use of time. That that test by itself can qualify you for scholarship money and also give you potentially some distinction if you score high enough on it, uh, as a junior working on SAT or ACT test prep.

and ramping up your test prep schedule if you’re still, uh, taking, uh, standardized tests, if you haven’t achieved the score that you’re targeting, that can be a good use of time. I would caution about, about dedicating all of your time to test prep though. I think it’s important to have kind of a variety of activities during the summer, not just to keep you engaged, but also to make the best use of that time.

Um, If you are going to engage in test prep, get a test prep book, take an online course, uh, find a tutor who can help you be efficient in that process. Um, I love Khan Academy for this. I think it’s self paced and it’s free. Um, if you’re with CollegeAdvisor as a student and you’re in the Platinum or the the Ivy Plus plans, we also offer method test prep to help prepare you for SAT or ACT.

So those are great ways. To spend a summer. Summer is also a great time to plan a college visit road trip, so not always the best time to actually visit the schools. I think there’s value in going during the academic year when you can attend a class, see, uh, you know, see students on campus, talk to them about their experience in the summer.

Oftentimes you have you have other groups that are That take over the campus and you don’t have those undergraduates there to really give you a lot of insight, but it is the perfect time to plan. So which schools do you want to hit, uh, you know, which schools from your, from your school list? Are you really interested in engaging with further?

And when you do take those Those college visits, make sure that you sign up for tours and get your name recorded that you were there. You, you showed an interest because sometimes admissions departments check on things like that. Um, I know when I was doing college visits. I tended to be more of a drop in and explore my own kind of student.

Um, so I, I know there are others like me, but there is value in making sure that it’s all documented, uh, at the school.

Another important, uh, option is designing a custom project. So turning your passions and your talents into a summer long project and here again, the possibilities are limitless. So form a band if you’re musically inclined, uh, go out into the community, try to play local gigs. You can even connect some volunteerism to it.

Maybe you’re, you’re going to perform and raise money for a particular cause. Uh, maybe, You want to engage with young musicians and help help mentor them into starting their own bands Um, there’s really a lot of opportunity if you’re creative You can learn to to code and collaborate on a project and colleges do love to see collaboration So I know coding can be a somewhat individualized activity Uh, but if you can find a way to partner with other people it adds value to that experience Uh You can beautify the community, pick up trash every Sunday.

Okay, so the next question is, where do you find out about all these opportunities? So CollegeAdvisor has a searchable extracurricular opportunities database, uh, that’s available through the student portal. That’s a good place to start. Uh, Teen Life is another great place where you can learn about, uh, summer learning opportunities and internships.

Uh, Volunteer Match is a good source for volunteering. I, I mentioned for online classes, edX and Coursera, but there are many others, um, including many universities and colleges who offer an online program, um, year round or, or, uh, You know, specifically to high school students often during the summer, leadership development, like the National Student Leadership Conference or, or other opportunities to delve more deeply into, into, uh, leadership opportunities that hopefully you can then take back to your high school with you and implement, you know, in, in your time there.

So what materials do you need? to apply for these opportunities. It really runs the gamut. And oftentimes it depends on the level of competition for the, the spots in the program, the most competitive ones, they look for a personal statement, an essay, a resume, transcripts, uh, recommendations, sometimes, sometimes samples of previous work and, uh, some even require interviews.

In fact, the really rigorous ones, the ones that are super competitive, they can feel like mini college application cycles, um, which in some ways is a good thing. It gives you a taste of what that college application process is going to be like. It gives you an opportunity to develop, to develop some of the materials that you might use in the college application process early, uh, a prototype of your personal statement, uh, an updated resume, uh, Preparing for the interviews.

So these processes are are not wasted time by any means there. They serve a continued purpose. Um, other summer opportunities like paid introductory experiences, usually they accept as many students as are as are interested until they fill their, their, their Roster of available spots and they’re often a great introduction to a particular area of focus And usually they’re supplemented with some sort of project work.

Now, I like to recommend those kind of experiences for students, maybe middle school and early high school. I think once you get into your junior and senior years. You want to be focused more on internship, research, maybe job, things that, that show a greater, uh, complexity, a greater, uh, time commitment, and maybe move you forward with more intention toward a college major.

Okay, that brings us So

Anesha: we do want to give you a bit of a break um in providing some great information there’s been some positive questions and Great feedback in the q a thus far. So Uh, we want to give Jamie a little bit of a break and ask you all to take another poll for us So the question is where are you in the application process?

We’re assuming that some of you are in your process of researching um Some of you might be asking, so let us know where you are as we continue and move forward with giving you some more context and guidance on this process and on building your resumes. So, I did also, JV referenced a few organizations, and I did drop the links to those in the public chat.

So, if you are interested in them, they should be linked to the handouts as well. But if you want to go ahead and grab those from the chat. While we are waiting or in the downtime, please be sure to do so. Another question came out. Yes, we will be recording the session. Yes, it will be sent to you via the email that you use to register.

So, thanks. I’m glad that you’re so much information is happening that folks want to be sure that they can reference it again later on. And it looks like we got some pretty good responses from our whole Jamie. So you take a big swig of water. So, okay, we can go ahead and and and close our poll and I’ll just let, you know, that the majority of folks about 55 percent have shared that they are in the process of.

Or sorry, 60 percent have shared that they are currently researching schools. 32 percent haven’t started for those 8th and 10th graders, 8th, 9th graders, it’s okay if you haven’t started, totally fine. Um, and the remaining 48 percent are getting application materials together or working on essays. And so again, 60 percent are currently researching schools and trying to think about the best ways to set themselves up to be competitive for those schools.

Um, so that’s our poll, that’s our break, um, and I’ll hand it back over to you, Jamie.

Jamie: Great. Thanks, Lisa. 60%. That’s, that’s excellent. I’m really glad to hear that. Um, I think in deciding how to bolster your, your resume for college, it’s important to plan ahead. In fact, I really recommend that, that students sit down at the beginning of high school and make a, a rough plan for what they want to do, uh, for all four summers.

Um, You know, it’s probably going to evolve and change, but if you have a vision for what you want to accomplish, it’s much easier to, to reach out for opportunities that are going to support that goal. So, brings us to the topic of how to use your summers to boost those college applications. So, Advanced academic interests, uh, summer’s a great time to engage in some of those, whether through a course or, uh, you know, an internship, really, those kind of advanced, those advanced activities help to differentiate you from the other applications, uh, from students with great grades and test scores and similar interests.

So particularly things that you’ve been able to put together yourself or that reflect your creativity and your initiative in this process, you know, finding the resources you need to start your own thing, particularly You know as a as a junior or a senior in high school Can really set you apart from the pack um summer activities Can highlight your personal characteristics?

Uh the things that colleges like to see passion initiative commitment leadership impact collaboration Talent all of those things uh Really shine through I think in your activities And if you’re not finding that you’re demonstrating some of those characteristics and the activities you’re engaging in Maybe you want to think a little bit about how you’re engaging with those or if it’s the right activity for you Um, you know, I I would never recommend anybody that they they do something They really don’t enjoy because enjoyment is going to be the fuel that carries you forward and keeps you engaged over the longer term Seek out new experiences that can help give you a better focus in college and in the future.

Uh, you know, if, if you started high school thinking, you know, I am so excited about becoming an engineer. And then somewhere along the way you find, ah, maybe, maybe that’s not your passion. You might not figure that out until you get into college, if you haven’t had an opportunity to explore. So don’t be afraid of trying different things.

Consider summer activities that translate into a well rounded college application. So in addition to pursuing your, your passion and following your joy, think about. How the activities that you’re, you’re reaching out for are going to, to look when you’re considering your overall candidacy, your, your profile as a potential student, uh, do they make sense in that context, you know, or is it something that maybe seems like a, a divergence or a digression from, from your focus?

Um, it’s not a problem to explore, as I said, but you definitely want. Your profile to show an increasing level of focus over time And then definitely start searching for your summer activities early In the fall, many of the applications are due early in the new year. Um, January through, through the end of March and a couple in April.

Uh, but the earlier you start to prepare, the better off you’ll be in the application process, because you can be organized and on top of it. Uh,

so let’s talk a little bit about. About how to plan for the summers following freshman, sophomore, and junior year. Um, so following freshman year, you’re in that exploratory phase, most likely. So, take enrichment summer courses to make some progress on your, your courses during, uh, excuse me, outside the academic year.

So, if you’re interested in, in math or science, you’re not alone. On target with the the math courses that you need to take summer’s a great time to to Sync up and get back into the the main cohort Or even get ahead Students who who show the initiative to seek out opportunities to advance their academic skills stand out.

So if you know you’re going to finish high school at Algebra 2, but you want to go into a technical field, put in the extra effort so that you can at least get through Calculus in high school. Um, seek out introductory experiences in your areas of interest that can give you better insight into those academic or career interests.

So, um, If you’re passionate about history find history related experiences, uh, summer camps, uh, exploratory activities, volunteer activities, show that, that your initiative to better yourself doesn’t just end, uh, you know, it’s not easily satisfied. You look for multiple channels to satisfy those interests, to, to delve more deeply than is available through any one of them.

The students who do engage in that kind of exploration stand out. It’s clear and they’re also better prepared for college. Uh, explore broadly to find new interests and passions. We talked about that, but I think especially the summer following freshman year. If you don’t have a focus yet, this is the time to, to really engage in that exploration so that you can start to narrow in on the things that, that interest you and that you want to pursue further.

Continue or, or start your community service and volunteer activities. Uh, students today, I think, are much more tuned into these than I was when I was in high school. But, There’s competition for the best roles. There, there’s competition to, to do community service and volunteering that relates to an academic path, like, Uh, hospital volunteering if you’re interested in pre med or, um, you know, working at, uh, working at a company that relates to what you want to do ultimately as a career.

And then finally, if, if you have the space in your schedule, it’s always, I think, an enlightening experience at early in high school to get a summer job. So. It may not be something that you know, you feel passionate about maybe it’s it’s working at a fast food joint But I guarantee you it’ll give you an appreciation For being able to choose a job that you enjoy so muddle through for a couple months put away a little bit of money and uh And let that be motivation To find a better job next summer.

So for sophomores You want to start your SAT, ACT prep and prepare for the PSAT, National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which as I mentioned is in October of your junior year. Take enrichment summer courses to make progress outside of the academic year or advance beyond limitations of your school’s curriculum.

Um, uh, I have a student now who, uh, another one who’s passionate about chemistry. And for some reason, his high school is more focused on humanities and they don’t have a laboratory based chemistry course. So he’s gone out and he’s searched for opportunities in his community to take a laboratory focused chemistry course to get that experience he needs.

to take the next step in that field. So this is a good time to focus on those kind of courses. Seek more intermediate level experiences in your area of interest that that show your focus on a particular academic or career interest. So freshman summer is really about exploration and introductory experiences.

Make sophomore summer about intermediate level experiences. Continue any community service and volunteer activities that you started. Again, these have the greatest impact and value when you’re able to commit to them over the long term and show a pattern of engagement. Uh, participate in summer internship or research experiences that relate to your area of interest.

This is kind of folding in those more advanced experiences. Uh, and then get a summer job or continue work for a former employer. Uh, you know, if you like what you were doing, keep at it.

Summer following your junior year,

if you haven’t achieved your target score for ACT, SAT, continue with the test prep. Maybe intensify the practice sessions. Commit to a schedule. I’m going to do a section a day, and I’m going to do one complete practice test every week, and then review it. Don’t forget that piece. You’re going to get the most out of it when you review.

Uh, Again, take enrichment summer courses or make progress outside the academic year. Move beyond the limitations of your school’s curriculum. By, by junior year, you’re probably hitting, at many schools, you’re probably hitting the limit of what your school has to offer in certain areas. So, um, Don’t be stymied by that.

Find opportunities at community colleges, online, at a residential summer program, at an online summer program. Um, seek advanced experiences that show your focus on a particular area, a career interest. By the time you get to your junior year summer, this is, this has become pretty important. Like you don’t want to seem diffuse in your, In your interest at this point, you definitely want to be narrowing down and focusing in and and finding your niche even with within a particular domain again, continue your community service and volunteer activities and at this point, you should be looking for ways to enhance the impact of what you’re doing.

So it’s not just about Thank you. Visiting the senior home and reading to blind seniors once a week. Try to find ways to engage your peers. In that activity as well so you can multiply the impact you’re having there Schools are looking for how you evolve these activities over time and with with community service and volunteerism Where you should be planning to engage over a longer term You’re going to have more opportunities to enhance your impact So look for those be watchful for them and then don’t hesitate to engage To engage with them and explore them and find a way to not necessarily work harder, but to work smarter and have a greater impact, uh, participate in summer internship or research experience.

Uh, if you weren’t able to do it the previous summer, this is your opportunity. This, the summer following your junior year, it’s really an opportunity to, to bring together. The different things you’ve been doing and crystallize them into a meaningful, a meaningful package of, of activities that’s going to translate well into your candidate profile on your applications.

Um, and then finally, If you have time get a summer job or continue work for a previous, uh, former employer uh Again, just like volunteerism Continued engagement with a particular employer looks great. It shows commitment. It shows uh You know engagement with that employer and it also probably will open up opportunities for you to be doing more advanced work at an earlier age So if you’ve been interning or working at a particular Work site for a few years a few summers in a row There’s probably a level of trust with you that will allow that employer to Invest greater responsibility in you if you’re interested in taking up the mantle of that.

Okay, so now you’ve done all these great activities. You got a plan. You have your focus. How do you showcase this on your applications? So, first of all, you want to make sure that these summer activities. Particularly the, the, the really impressive ones are captured in your activities and awards lists. So, schools look at those and they compare them to your essays.

So, make sure that anything that you’ve written about in terms of these activities is reflected on those lists. Um, sometimes, you know, you have limited number, a limited number of spaces. You’ve got to get creative about how you group things in order to get everything onto that list. But, Remember, it’s a document that is communicating how you spend the time that you’re not in class.

So try to be as comprehensive as you can, you know, cut the activities that are are not meaningful to you, that don’t fit into the profile you’re creating, or that are, are so intermittent or, or short in duration that they don’t really have any significance. But the other ones, you want to bring those to life.

Um, invest the time in writing standout descriptions of those activities. Um, Use your college essays to highlight your important summer activities and to provide additional context that maybe you can’t fit into the activities and awards list because of the character constraints. Um, and make sure you speak to how these These extracurriculars are preparing you for your academic college and career goals.

If you can help connect the dots for admissions officers, those activities can have a lot more impact. Next, add the summer activities that you’re engaged in to your resume and brag sheet. You know, make sure that they don’t get left off. And then finally, prepare, be prepared to discuss them, uh, during any interviews, alumni interviews or otherwise.

Your enthusiasm and your ability to articulate the nuances of those experiences will really set you apart. It’s, it’s one thing to have them show up on your activities list, to talk about them in essays, but when you can, when you can speak about them in an interview context, you have an opportunity to really bring them to life.

And, and. In the moment, show your engagement and your passion and student passion is contagious.

Anesha: Right? So we did get a little bit over on our presentation, but no worries. We hope you answered a few of your questions before we jump in just so an FYI. That is the end of the presentation part of our webinar. We are going to take the last few minutes. Terrence, any questions? Well, before we do that, I just want to do a quick PSA for those in the room who aren’t currently working with us.

We know that you have a ton of questions. The process is overwhelming. There’s a lot of guidance that Jamie gave about how to navigate just your resume in the summer. So we do have a team of over 300 admissions officers and experts who are ready to help you and your families navigate the process through one on one advising sessions.

You can take the next step and sign up for a free 45 to 60 minute session with us. Um, by using the QR code that’s on the screen during that conversation. We’ll talk about your curricular list, talk about application strategy and discuss how all of that should line up with your college list and outline some tools you need to stand out.

Now we will jump into our Q& A. And the first question that I have for you. for you, Jamie is. So you talked a bit about the college prep programs and being able to take some classes on college campuses. So there are a few questions here, so I’ll read through them. But essentially, it’s does the college where the summer activity where you do the activity matter?

Does the prestige matter? Will colleges care if you go to their school? Will they want to hurt you if you go to a less competitive school for those college prep programs? How much does the school matter?

Jamie: Okay, those are great questions. And I think many students and families believe that, okay, if I go to the program at Harvard, I, I’m a shoo in for admission to Harvard.

That’s not strictly true. Um, it is true that many of these schools host high school programs in order to engage with high school students so they can, they can, students can be aware of their school. So for the Harvards and Stanfords of the world, People are pretty generally aware of them and the prestige, but there are a whole lot of other schools that do high quality summer programs.

Um, Rose Holman, RPI, um, there are many of them out there and don’t discount those because they are They’re not hosted by a school that you want to target for admissions. The truth is admissions officers are less concerned with where the experience took place and more concerned about the quality of the experience.

So what were you asked to do? Um, you know, what did you learn? How did you, how did you take something from theory To execution. Um, for instance, I’ve had students who have attended rocketry camps where they use, they learn to use AutoCAD and then they build their own rockets by 3D printing the fuselage and creating, you know, Uh, you know, uh, fuel source that they can insert into this and they have a similar camp like that at a number of campuses to make it maximally accessible to interested students.

One campus is not better than the other. So when you’re seeking out opportunities, you want to make sure that it’s respected. College campus. It’s a respected organization. But beyond that, it’s really about the experience more than the school.

Anesha: The next question is more of a process question. So someone was saying, is 10 hours enough of an activity 10 hours per week?

Is that sufficient for activities? So how many hours if students are thinking about either for the summer or during the school year, how many hours should they be committing to an activity?

Jamie: So that’s a good question. It really depends on the activity and on the student. So, for some students, uh, 10 hours a week is a lot.

They have other responsibilities. If you’re fortunate enough to be a student where you can, you can dedicate more time than that to an activity, there are activities that, that engage students for more time than 10 hours a week. Um, You know, some 30 or 40 for a particular internships, and I think the goal is to keep it in balance.

You don’t you want it to be something that inspires the student and the student is is gaining from both on an academic level and in terms of. Of clarifying what they want to do later on, either in college or in their career, if it becomes something that they feel burdened by, it’s hard to have those positive feelings that are going to propel them forward in that area.

So 10 hours a week, I think that’s a that’s a solid commitment to something. Um, it might be part of a number of activities that that student is involved in. Um, and I think looking at the progression over the course of a high school career. I think you want to start out probably with, you know, 10 hours or less early on.

And then build up to a greater commitment, um, one year over the next. But again, it’s really individualized to what the needs and interests of that student are and maybe their ability to dedicate a block of time to an activity.

Anesha: Thank you. The next question or there were a few questions about where can folks look for opportunities.

So there’s a variety. We can’t give you can’t kind of go through and say, this is where you find photography opportunities. It’s where you find, um, internships, things like that. So it definitely encourage you to Google. Definitely check out some of the documents that we dropped into the link, uh, volunteer match team life.

And I know, um, NS, NSLC, I would also say collegians, I’ll drop that in the chat as well. If you Google that, that is an organization that has some interesting stuff. Students self developed, um, internship opportunities, research opportunities, rather, where you get paired with a mentor. Uh, we are not paid for sponsors for any of these organizations.

So they’re just ideas, suggestions, um, that we are putting out there based on our personal experience and connection with students. Um, one student said, and I think she’s comparing it to summer things she does during the school year. But how is, how important is what I do during the summer? For college admissions.

If I’m just doing a curriculum of school years, that’s efficient.

Jamie: It depends on where you want to go to school. So for, for many schools, uh, if you’re, if you’re very engaged in the school year and significantly less engaged in the summer, it probably won’t hurt you that much, but summer is an opportunity.

I think maybe that’s the best way to think of it. If you have the, the free time, And you have the interest, use that time to pursue that interest because your college admissions is about standing out among the many candidates who are well qualified for a position in the incoming class. And if you can show that you don’t, you don’t hang up your learning hat when the school year ends, you continue to be intellectually curious and motivated to explore that curiosity.

In whatever form that takes, you’re gonna stand out more than somebody who’s, you know, whose only distinction for the summer is that they saw every episode of a particular, uh, you know, show that’s binge watchable. So, Find ways to stay engaged over the summer. Definitely don’t let yourself get into that pattern where you kind of turn off your academic interests for three months and then head back to school and then it’s a catch up game.

Keep intellectually engaged, keep sharp, keep exploring over the summer. In whatever form that takes

Anesha: one question that folks had or that came up a little bit repeatedly was around sports. So, if they are very deeply involved in sports, they want to be competitive. Should they pursue their sport during the summer?

Should they try to switch it up, pursue some different interests over the summer? How, especially if they’re trying to be competitive, how much did they try to balance that sports versus, um, Versus, you know, other extracurricular activities.

Jamie: That’s an excellent question. And, you know, sports, especially if you’re performing at a level where you expect to be recruited at a Division I, II, or III school, it does change the equation significantly.

Um, If you’re expecting to be recruited, the likelihood is you’re practicing your sport, you know, year round or close to it, you’re, if you’re not actually playing your training, you’re preparing. So obviously. If you’re wanting to be recruited, there’s going to be some summer engagement involved, but don’t, don’t let your summer activities end there.

Remember, schools are looking for scholar athletes, um, so they’re not just looking for strong athletes. They want you to be a scholar as well. So find ways to, to train, but also feed your mind and, and, And work on both of those and that, you know, I understand that’s a challenge, especially when you’re dedicating many hours a week to your sport.

But remember, they’re looking for the complete package in athletes. So you’ve got to put in the work to be strong academically as well. Yeah,

Anesha: balancing yourself in the off season. Some folks also ask that we’re at time, but some folks also ask questions about cold emails. And so I did drop a link in the chat with some cold email formats.

Um, if you are interested in checking that out, and again, you can work with your CollegeAdvisor advisor in order to draft that. I just did that with a handful of students, helping them to drop some emails. Think of a list of folks. And the one thing I would say about those quote emails is persistence emailing a couple of times.

So just email once, leave it alone, email, check back every couple of weeks and follow up. If you are trying to get some research support, but we thank you all. Thank you so much. Jamie for your time and energy and giving. Um, today and we thank everybody for joining us this evening. I’m going to do my New Yorker fast talking really quickly to wrap us up.

But that is the end of the webinar. We hope you gave some insights on leveraging some of the programs and strengthening your resume. We also hope that you’ll join us for our future webinars coming up next month. On March 2nd, we’re going to get kicked off. off with how to boost your GPA. And so if you’re thinking about that whole well rounded application experience, come join us on March 2nd.

On March 8th, we’ll talk about building your college resume specifically as a pre med slash BSMD candidate. And on March 13th, we’ll share some strategies on essay brainstorming. So for those folks who are just getting started on their essays, come back and join us. Then we hope to see you soon, but until then, take care and have a great evening.

And thanks again. So much Jamie for your thoughtfulness and again, download the slides in the handout slide before we before we end for tonight.

Jamie: Thank you very much.

Anesha: Take care. Jamie. Have a good day.