Summer Plans
Information courtesy of AES (www.AESmentor.org)

The summer months between your junior and senior years of high school are a good time to do some fine tuning on your college plans or gain valuable employment experience. Since you don’t have the responsibilities associated with school, use your free time to do something that will positively impact your higher education plans.

If you have an idea of what college(s) you are interested in attending, the summer is a good time to schedule interviews and visits to those campuses. This will give you an idea of the campus layout and the surrounding area. These visits can also provide you with information about the best travel routes and times between campus and home. You may want to narrow your college choices to your top two or three and schedule to revisit those campuses once classes are back in session in the fall. Fall visits will give you a better sense of the student population on campus. Consider scheduling an overnight or weekend visit. 

Explore college and financial aid Web sites and gather any additional information you are interested in. You may want to pay particular attention to the financial aid component of your college plans, as it can be one of the more time consuming elements of your higher education package and one of the last pieces to fall into place.

Take the time to do some online scholarship searches. If you find scholarships that you believe you’d qualify for, save the information and start a file to help track deadlines and requirements. Networking with family, friends, and other contacts can help you to identify scholarships you may not be aware of. Another idea is to contact your local Chamber of Commerce for scholarship information.

If you know what career you are interested in, contact local businesses and inquire about any job shadowing or summer internship opportunities that may be available. Working side by side with someone established in your potential career can provide valuable insight to the responsibilities associated with the job. Your interest in that particular career could be strengthened or you may discover things that you did not realize about the career that makes it less appealing.

There are numerous summer programs that can meet a wide variety of interests. Information on summer camps, academic programs, sports clinics, arts workshops, and internships is available from your school counselor.

It’s always a good idea to try to save some money, so a summer job may be something you’re interested in. Summer jobs can also give you some direction to potential career paths.

College admission officials are interested in students who demonstrate community involvement. Look into summer volunteer opportunities that you can include on your college applications.

However you decide to spend your summer vacation is up to you, but researching your college and financial aid options, being productive in a community volunteer project, job shadowing, or internship program or simply earning money from a summer job will help you during your upcoming senior year decision-making “crunch-time.”