Summer Activities To Avoid

Summer activities are a part of your overall extracurricular experience in high school. On college applications in the United States, you will have to fill out a list of your activities which will include both school year and summer activities. As you are making summer plans, keep your future application activities list in mind. Participating in summer experiences not only can be very rewarding to you personally but also, can make you a more interesting applicant. You will have a more in-depth activities list and you will have more to say in your college applications. Also, you have more time on your hands during the summer, so you can plan activities that you normally are not able to do during the school year. Colleges appreciate consistency and depth in extracurricular activities, so think about ways you can take existing activities and participate in them in new and more comprehensive ways.
Avoid experiences that are a one-time opportunity.
Activities such as leadership conferences that last one-week typically carry little to no weight in the admissions process. Many of these leadership conferences are expensive and are focused on a particular career theme. Consider finding a job shadow or internship locally in a field that you want to learn more about. This shows your personal initiative and utilization of your local community.
Group travel experiences, such as trips abroad, that are a one-time experience are often seen in the same way as leadership conferences. Colleges want to see depth, consistency, and contribution. These trips provide a small service experience with no or little opportunities for consistency and depth. If you participate in an experience like this, consider bringing the experience back to your community by creating fundraisers or making more trips back to the same place to do even more service work.
Summer pre-college programs offer you the opportunity to take college-level classes. These programs reflect the same perspective of summer leadership and group travel experiences. They are typically viewed as opportunities that lack depth and consistency. If you are building your exposure to a particular academic interest, then attending a pre-college program within that specific area can help to show direct experience within that college major and this can help to enhance your application.
It is important to start planning out your summer experiences over the winter, so you have time to meet deadlines and plan out what you want to do.
  1. A thank you for considering your application and taking the time to get to know you in the EA/ED/REA round
  2. Sharing again why that school is your top choice (you applied early so it is probably your top choice) and that you would be excited to attend, and anything else you have learned about the school that makes your eager to be a part of their community to show a depth of knowledge about the school
  3. And finally an update on all accomplishments since your application so they learn what you have been up to since the deadline. That includes good grades this fall, new activities or continued activities that took up your time, new awards/positions, new endeavors, anything of consequence that can add to their understanding of you. Anything you did this fall that was important and visible. This is a chance to add to your application with even more compelling material that has occurred in senior year.
STEP #2: Confirm, if they asked you to, that you will stay in the pool for RD. At most schools this is automatic, so you may not have to do anything. The decision notification you received will tell you about that.
You final decision will arrive in March or on April 1.
ED Acceptances
Just a few important steps you need to take now that you have been admitted ED…
STEP #1: Once you have written confirmation that your deposit was accepted, you are welcome to email the admissions offices of the other schools to which you applied to let them know you have been enrolled elsewhere and are withdrawing your application. This would let them know you are not considering attending so your spot can be given to another deserving student who would attend. Apart of the ED agreement is to withdraw your applications from all other schools.
STEP #2: Your acceptance is always conditional. It is dependent on you maintaining your same level of academic engagement and achievement. That means, they expect your grades and classes to stay the same as they have been all along with no significant decline, and that you will finish the classes you are currently in with no significant disciplinary events or drop in the rigor of your classes. Keep up the hard work in school and don’t drop any classes – this can put your acceptance in jeopardy.
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