What should I do this summer?
Alright everyone, here's the deal. I'm a junior, and I need to figure out what to do this summer for college apps. For reference, I do a lot of political science/civic discourse stuff, so most of my potential summer programs are according to that (I also love astrophysics which is kind of niche but got rejected from RSI lol).
1) NSLI-Y State Department full-ride scholarship to spend a summer in Taiwan learning Mandarin Chinese. Pretty prestigious, with a 15% acceptance rate, and everyone I know that's done it went to Stanford or another great school. The problem is, it's basically the ONLY thing I can do this summer if I accept it.
2) Stanford Political Science Lab Research Assistant. Just got accepted! Would probably help write reports, which will hopefully be published. I think it will be really fun, and I get to stay local.
3) Job at McDonald's or a hotel. Nuff said. I think it will build character, and hopefully not a huge time commitment.
4) Rowing. I just started and am almost good enough to go D3, so I think if I grinded like crazy this summer I could possibly get recruited for D1 in October (it's not unprecedented), which is the ideal situation. The problem is, what if I forgo NSLI-Y to row and end up not being recruited?? High risk, high return.
I also am waiting to hear back from the Senate Page Program and the UCSC Science Internship Program. The former I would take in a heartbeat over anything else, but only two people from each state get in, so I'm pretty screwed. The latter is an 8-week commitment so I probably won't do it...but maybe if I had a good reason? (that's your job!)
Anyways, I know that was a bit long, but I would like your advice on which of these things I should do this summer. Some of these activities I can do simultaneously (could probably do Stanford Research, Rowing, and McDonalds at the same time), but some I can't (Rowing and NSLI-Y can't both happen). I think that I would have fun and benefit greatly from any of these activities. So what summer plan would you recommend for me (transparently, what would look the best for college apps)?
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2 answers
Definitely a summer study program and a job. If you can find a way to do both, I definitely recommend it. However, if you want to play sports in college, I think rowing could be a benefit as long as you’re able to do something academic as well.
As a rower myself, I say that you should do a summer study program or a job. Many colleges that have rowing teams are walk-on teams. That doesn't mean that you can't/won't get recruited but I'd say focus on academics and then if you want, you could walk on.
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