Sensible Summers

There is a new buzzword circulating among college admissions officials lately and, if you are a high school student, it is a word that you should embrace and take full advantage of when planning your summer activities. The word is “authenticity” and it is intended to be applied broadly to the entire scope of your high school life. It does not mean leaving a few errors in your college essay so it looks like you did not get any help. It means living your teenage years in a purposeful way, following and expanding upon your interests, finding out what you are good at and what you like best. It means finding the personal insight and motivation that will enable you, in the end, to move beyond the ridiculous thought of having to “package” yourself for colleges, but instead, very naturally, to put together an application, essays, recommendations and a resume which will weave the real-life story of how you have been true to yourself and attempted to be the best you could be.

            With this as your mindset towards summer (not to mention the rest of your life), you will not waste time worrying whether classes, a job or community service look better on a college application. You will realize there is no universal answer or direct summertime path to college acceptance; the answer lies, rather, in recognizing who, precisely, you are. The idea is to pick academic or travel programs, internships or jobs that allow you to gain experience in fields you might eventually want to pursue. You do not want to be the person who just checks a box on a college application that says you want to major in business, history or science. You want to be the one who has already taken the time to expose yourself to those areas so colleges see your choice as a reasoned, informed and deliberate decision. In addition, and far more important than having done things simply to impress someone else, you want to have used your time in high school to help facilitate decisions about college and a career. You want summer plans that make sense for you, not ones that an “expert” says will look good on a college application. Choose activities that expand your existing talents, teach you new things, allow you to make new contacts and perhaps even play a meaningful role in someone else’s life.

            Putting these theories into practice is not as difficult as it may seem. If you want to spend the summer months in an academic setting, look for programs that involve fields in which you think you may want to major or at some point find a job. Colleges, prep schools and private educational companies have summer classes in such wide-ranging areas as broadcasting, science, engineering, architecture, writing and the performing arts. While taking a summer class at a particular college will not, in and of itself, make you a more attractive freshman candidate to their admissions staff, it might give them a sense of the seriousness of your interest in the school. Of greater interest to them, however, will be the effort you have made to cultivate an interest, develop a skill, and become more knowledgeable about a subject beyond the requirements of your high school curriculum. Similarly, though admissions officials admit to being tired of hearing about exotic community service trips paid for by parents, taking such a trip becomes meaningful if it is done as part of your ongoing involvement in your community or in leadership roles at school. It makes sense, if you intend to apply to an undergraduate business program, to actually spend some time at one or more paying jobs, or, if you see your future in international relations, to spend a summer living with a family in a foreign country where you are forced to speak their language and become accustomed to life in another culture. Alternatively, it will be seen as a sign of both your maturity and accomplishment if your skills are put to use helping someone else. Consider the varsity lacrosse player who teaches the game to eight year olds at a summer camp or the computer whiz who unravels the mystery of the Internet at the local senior citizens center.

 In short, it is not the activity, its location or how much it costs your family that is important or impressive, but the purpose it serves in enriching your life. You do not want to be that person who collects activities just to fit the profile of some imaginary school. You want to have used your time to immerse yourself in experiences, chosen jobs or academic programs that will allow you to identify and eventually reach your goals, or devoted the uncluttered weeks of summer to become better at something you already love. You also want to have reserved time to relax and renew your energy for the coming school year. The notion of “authenticity” means that there is no rulebook for summertime, no magical plan. It is the long-overdue idea that the way to success, fulfillment and that “perfect” college is to work hard at finding and improving upon the innermost and real you.

By Doretta Katzter Goldberg, Esq.

President, College Directions

Copyright 2008    College Directions, LLC