7
2 years ago
Admissions Advice

Summer activities
Answered

Hey! I’m a freshman and I was wondering what summer activities are impressive. I am planning to study abroad in Rome before my junior year, but I don’t have any other plans over the summer- academic wise.

I’m really interested in law, writing, psychology, debating, and mathematics.

My school doesn’t offer any programs or activities I could do.

SummerActivities
extracirriculars
summer
freshman
7
4

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3 answers

1
Accepted Answer
2 years ago

I know you said your school doesn't really offer anything, but if they do offer online classes, I would highly recommend you to take those. Also, there are a few summer programs for high school students that you can look into.

This is an article from the one, the only, CollegeVine: https://blog.collegevine.com/most-prestigious-summer-programs-for-high-school-students/

But here's another site: https://www.collegematchpoint.com/college-matchpoint-blog/springsummer2022opportunities

1
2
2 years ago[edited]

The most impressive activities are the ones you love to do and are proud of. These kind of activities show a strong sense of self and that is what colleges admire. Since you are interested in law, writing, psychology, debating, and mathematics, then do things in law, writing, psychology, debating, and mathematics! You are not limited by what is offered by your school. You can do anything. Google and look for opportunities there. Find and reach out to people who are involved in those things and ask about their experiences and for ideas of what you could do. Some off the top ideas of mine are volunteering for local campaigns or historical societies, taking an extra course for fun, reaching out to local universities and see if you can help professors with their research, writing book reviews and putting them on a website/social media, and even writing your own book (which you can self-publish)! You can do anything you want so just make sure you are doing things you love. Good luck!

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2
2 years ago

Hi, personally I don’t think there is one summer activity that is solely impressive to all colleges but it can be impressive if you have meaning towards your activity. For example, you are interested in math so maybe you should research math programs over the summer. College summer sessions are an option that is very good especially if they are with a top university. It shows colleges that you can handle college rigor and you might be able to get college credit 😉. Unfortunately the summer sessions might only be held for incoming juniors and incoming seniors but fortunately you have time to pick a summer session that you might want to go to. I think you are on a great track right now studying abroad in Rome. I hope you enjoy that, but when you have time, you should definitely research summer programs that you are interested in and not so much on what is impressive to colleges/universities because at the end of the day, a purposeful, passionate activity or experience is very impressive to colleges.

P.S. Make sure to write down your experience of studying abroad in Rome this can also help with your college application.

2
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Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
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800

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