Three Ways to a Standout Summer: A Parent’s Blueprint for College Application Success

A few weeks ago, I sat down with a new advising student (let’s call him Zach) to plan his post junior-year summer. It didn’t take too long for him to utter the phrase I most commonly hear around activities: “I’m worried I haven’t done enough.”

Zach’s certainly not alone; because we hear so many stories about valedictorians with every activity under the sun getting rejected from all top 20 schools, applying to college these days has a simmering underlying question for every student. Will I be good enough?

As a college advisor, my immediate goal is to remove that question from my students’ minds. Take Zach: a brilliant student with a deep interest in coding projects. He was concerned that he stopped playing soccer on his high school team as a freshman and asked me what he should do to bring that back.

“Won’t it look bad to give something up?” He asked.

Looking at Zach’s Testive Resume Builder, it was obvious that his time on the soccer team was replaced by something better. He had about 10 different activities around tech and coding. When I asked him to tell me about that, his energy changed immediately. He mused about his work on different gaming platforms (5000+ hours!), and an idea for an app that he’d started fleshing out. 

Looking at his summer, I gave him one challenge. Make the app. Instead of putting so much pressure on his summer to jam a ton of different projects in and pad his resume, Zach’s time will be much better spent investing time into this project, which has a clear, personal “why” for him, and will push his skillset further into mastery of his intended major. Five mediocre efforts will never outweigh one sustained, ambitious project. 

Now, not everyone is a Zach. In other words, it’s quite reasonable for a 16 or 17-year old not to have found that Capital T-Thing that drives them. Wherever your student falls on the spectrum, there’s an art to planning a student’s summer that, above all, requires a deep, comprehensive look into a student’s profile and an approach that speaks to the student’s latent values and interests.

All of this to say that perhaps the title of this blog is misleading. There is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for summer planning. In fact, competitive students end up struggling most admissions-wise when their activities come off as perfunctory, checking off a box for prestigious admissions buzzwords like “passion projects and “research.” However, there are some key pieces of information that will save you time, money, and a potentially disappointing admissions season for your student. 

Not All Research is Created Equal
Some (smart) entrepreneurs have launched “pay-to-play” research programs that match students with a mentor to conduct and publish a research project. However, not all research is created equal! When you’re looking for research opportunities, be sure to be very clear on where papers are guaranteed to be published. Colleges will not find publication in an internal journal created by the organization impressive. There are publications and conferences for high schoolers that are lower cost and a good way to cut your teeth, but they won’t be as impactful in your students profile. Aim to find a mentor who is a current PHD or professor publishing at the post-graduate level. This gains you access to reputable conferences and journals like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Sometimes, this takes cold outreach, which can have varying degrees of success. Alternatively, there are reputable research programs that match students to a mentor for a price and do guarantee publication in post-graduate, internationally recognized journals–like us! This is a pricier option, but it’s actually on par with programs like Lumiere financially, only with a much, much better return on investment. 

Avoid Top 20 Summer Programs Lists
I beg you! I know… the first thing you’re going to be tempted to do is enter “top 20 business programs for high schoolers” into your search engine. You can do it, but all I ask is that you take these lists with the largest grain of salt you can find. Why? Well…just as US News has their own specific (and rarely student-centered) metrics for the top US Colleges, these list creators may have a different motivation than placing students into a program that is the best fit for them. Often they’re simply marketing affiliate lists promoting a for-profit Pre-College Program. Keep in mind that the majority of  Pre-College Programs have value in helping students try out college life, but won’t move the needle regarding admissions. Yes, that is even if you are going to the pre-college program for the school you plan to apply to. When helping my students aiming for a selective college find a summer program, I am most occupied with acceptance rate, fit in terms of interests, and return on investment. Some of the cheapest summer programs are also the most selective, like the Research Summer Institute or the Anson L. Clark Scholars Program at Texas Tech. 

Find Opportunities in 3 Categories: Academic Enrichment, Community Contribution, and Personal Development
Personal Development is last on this list, but it is possibly the most important. During the summer, most students have more time. Tempting as it is to overbook your student, don’t forget to encourage them to invest time into themselves! Do they want to write a short book? Awesome! Teach themselves the stock market? Great. Take up a new hobby like weight lifting? I hear it’s all the rage– go forth! Remember that colleges, especially at the most selective level, are looking to accept human teenagers, not robots. Of course excellent grades and scores are a prerequisite, but what sets students apart from the competition are often those things you can’t just summon out of thin air. This includes hobbies, personality, a sense of humor– essentially, a sense of identity. In the summer, empower your students to chase the things that make them happiest as a person. In fact, don’t just relegate that to summer. Otherwise, if your student can think of a college-level course that really interests them, or a project they want to take on (like Zach’s app), they can often knock out academic enrichment and community contribution in one activity. A former student of mine used his writing prowess as a jumping off point to start a literacy non-profit, creating his own children’ s books while serving a need in his community. 
There are many, many ways for your student to have an impactful summer. The issue is,  there’s so much misinformation about summer programs that often people end up shelling out for an activity that has little return on investment. This is where having an advisor who is aware of these nuances can actually save you money while amping up your students’ profile, but during the summer and the school year. Interested in a short profile assessment and our free resume builder? Book time with our Director of College Advising, Kate Manire, who will provide you targeted, no-nonsense advice on how to make your students summer their best one yet! 

Reading List: 
Show Them You’re Good: Four Boys and Their Quest for College, Jeff Hobbs
Who Gets in and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, Jeff Selingo
The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children Along the Path to Higher Education, Eric J. Furda & Jacques Steinberg