Without question, the summer is an invaluable season. It’s a chance to spend time with family and friends; students can reflect on the past academic year and prepare accordingly for the next; and yes, while not all students will decide to work, summertime offers great opportunities to pursue interests beyond the classroom. With such a diversity of options, what’s the right one to choose?

From a college perspective, the academic record is the most important aspect of an applicant’s high school career. The summer can therefore be used quite productively by students who need to retake classes, complete graduation requirements, improve their GPA, and/or demonstrate their intellectual commitment to specific fields of study.

However, colleges also look to understand the other ways in which a student might contribute to the campus community. If the academic profile is already firmly established, summer can be an excellent time to add depth and complexity to the extracurricular profile. Whether that means a journalism internship with the local paper, a pre-college program in biotechnology, or extra hours devoted to an ongoing volunteer position, students can take advantage of the summer to expand upon their individual interests and demonstrate their passion.

Here are just a few examples of what’s possible in the summer:

California State Summer School for the Arts
California State Summer School for Math and Science
Brown University Pre-College
Global Routes Community Service
Vision New America Internship Program
The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop

It’s summertime! Make the most of it.

Last week, NPR’s Morning Edition tried to address these questions and more by taking listeners behind-the-scenes at Amherst College, a highly selective institution that traditionally has an admittance rate in the low teens. The insights are honest and heartfelt, and hopefully, families come away with a slightly better understanding of the challenges of selecting students to build an incoming class.

Similarly, MIT has a blog post from 2006 that shares what it feels like to be an admissions officer, making tough and often agonizing decisions.

It’s clear that admissions is not an exact science, much less always fair. It’s a human process, full of emotion and flaws, yet through it all, colleges genuinely care about students and families, doing the best they can within what’s possible. Most importantly, at the end of the day, I believe the individual defines his or her future, not the college. In the words of President Hennessy, “The college you attend does not determine the scope and possibility of your life’s achievements. It will have some influence, no doubt. What is more important is the encouragement and support that we, as parents and friends, offer these prospective students as they explore their own educational trail. In the end, the experiences they encounter and the depth of character they build along the way will mean far more than the name of the institution on their diploma.”

Soliciting advice is certainly a good idea. Excellent writing does not come into existence in the absence of critical feedback or revision. However, there is a delicate line that should not and cannot be crossed. Specifically, the college essay must reflect the individual voice and style of the student, not the editor, and admissions officers have become increasingly sensitive to this distinction.

The New York Times recently blogged about the dangers of parents becoming overly involved in their children’s writing, and schools like MIT and Yale try to help students understand how to approach the essay and do’s/don’ts in that process.

The key is to start early enough to allow ideas to blossom, grow, and evolve, and to write often and embrace the drafting and redrafting process. Only then will students have the freedom and opportunity to produce great essays that truly reflect who they are.