Ahhh, what a feeling: that last exam completed, that final paper in the bag, that June SAT or ACT finished. And after your sophomore or junior year in high school, you probably can’t wait for the moment when you get to sleep in, go to the movies with your friends, and hit the beach.
I tell even my most go-getter test and college prep clients that it’s essential to spend some of their summer relaxing—not just because it feels good, but also because restoring your mental and emotional reserves will help you hit the ground running once September comes. But at the same time, using some of your summer strategically can set you up for success in the academic year to come (and letting the whole summer go to waste can really slow down your college process momentum). So let’s help you figure out how to optimize your summer break…while still building in enough time for R&R.
Use the summer between sophomore and junior year to…
1) Explore your passions
Sure, more concrete prep for standardized tests and college apps also has a place here. But don't let these overshadow cultivating your interests and finding yourself. After all, how can you know which college is a good match for you if you don't know who you actually are?
Make a list of all the activities that appeal to you. Then, pursue use the summer to embrace some of them. Obsessed with music? Make it a point to jam with your friends, join an a cappella group, or take a DJing class. Mesmerized by fashion? Start up a blog reporting on fashion trends in your hometown, or take a sewing class, or see if you’re old enough to do an externship at a fashion house. Or maybe design a line of headbands for your friends! Find yourself fascinated by outer space? Sign up for space camp or join a local star-watching club.
The ideal is to sample each of your interests to see if you want it to be a bigger part of your life or not. If you find that the answer is “no,” that’s ok—just move on to the next one!
2) Start thinking about your college list
You don't need to have an exact list yet of where you want to apply to college, but by the summer between sophomore and junior years, you should start thinking about it if you haven’t already. Your college list will shape which standardized tests you have to take (if any), how high you need to score, and your overall test-prep strategy—so you need to give yourself at least a rough sense of what that list looks like. Some questions to mull over during this time:
What region of the U.S. (or elsewhere!) do I want to live in?
How big of a school do I want to attend?
What area of study might I want to concentrate in?
Do I have a deep passion that I already know my college needs to be able to foster? A competitive golf team, say, or an architecture department, or excellent music facilities?
These are just a few ways to jump-start your thinking! If you’d like more ideas for how to develop your list, check out my post on the subject here. Remember, putting together your college list is all about you: who you are and what you want to do with and during your college education.
3) Decide between the SAT or the ACT
The first rule of the test-prep process? Work smart: don't do more work or spend any more time than you have to. If you do, you’ll drive yourself nuts and risk burning out before you get the score you need. But here’s the good news: you can cut your prep time in half simply by deciding whether to take the ACT or the SAT first, creating a plan while you’re still feeling chill, and sticking to the plan even when you’re not feeling chill. (An Ace the Test: Game Plan™ makes this decision easy!) And making that choice before junior year begins will let you make it with a clear head and give you a jump-start on the busy year ahead.
During the summer between junior and senior year...
1) Re-evaluate where you are in the test-prep process
Let’s celebrate your progress a bit: by the end of your junior year, you’ve moved from deciding whether to take the ACT or SAT to actually taking a standardized test or two! Woo-hoo! Now it’s time to get strategic about your next steps.
When your school finals and your last attempts at the SAT or the ACT are done in June, give yourself a breather while you await your scores, and then course-correct your test-prep plan from a year ago. Do you have the scores you need in the bag? Do you need another attempt at the ACT? Figure out which tasks you can now cross off your list and where you need to concentrate your efforts anew.
2) Finalize your college list
After spending all of your junior year working on the SAT and ACT and thinking about the college process, you now need to lock down your list of where you'll actually apply. Hopefully, you’ve taken several tours, done lots of research, and have a pretty good idea of what your SAT and ACT scores will be. But before you can start filling out the Common App and writing all those supplemental essays, you need to have an idea of how many schools you’re applying to and what type they are. Make sure your list includes a combination of test score-appropriate schools, “reach” schools, and “safety” schools. If you plan on applying Early Decision to a college, you need to start thinking about that as well, since you’ll need to have that application done first.
3) Get a head start on the Common App
This is the single best piece of advice I can give to a rising senior: write your Common App essay (or “personal statement”, which can be repurposed for non-Common App applications as well) before school starts! If you want to reduce the number of hairs you pull out of your head during the senior year fall application hellscape, this is the move.
In fact, in a perfect world, you’d spend the whole month of August creating a Common App account, filling out the App’s basic information, creating an excellent activities list, AND finishing a final draft of your main 650-word essay. Your college counselor and/or private tutor will probably want to make some edits to your essay—so it won’t be completely “finished” per se—but it should be interesting, error-free, and representative of your overall vibe, perspective, and passions.
4) Oh, yeah…and keep exploring your passions
Last but not least! While you’re busy planning the rest of your life, you need to continue to HAVE a life. Keep going with the activities that excite you: take another class, jam, work, intern, volunteer, create. You get the idea. BE the fascinating, excited, intellectually curious student you’re trying to present yourself as on your apps. It’s these passions—the sheer fun of doing them, and the desire to keep pursuing them—that will keep you motivated through the slog of test prep and college admissions, and ultimately, they’re also what will get you into the right school for you.
You don't need to hit the test-prep books so hard you develop a vitamin D deficiency during these summers! But using them to keep your momentum rolling towards the test score you want and the school you want it for will help keep those crucial, busy junior and senior years sane. Good luck, and know you can always reach out if you need help making a plan that makes you feel comfortable and confident!
