Summer Activities for High School Juniors to Prepare for College Admission

Summer Activities for High School Students

Summer Activities for High School Juniors

Rising Juniors

Is your high school student headed into their Junior year of high school after this summer? Are you looking for some activities that will help build their resume for college? Then read on.

This article is an excerpt from a recent email I sent out to my private tutoring clients with a similar email going out to our free college timeline list. It not only includes some great activity ideas for your rising Junior, but also some important considerations with regards to the PSAT, learning disabilities, recruited athletes, and recommended books. If you have any questions, please be sure to post a comment here or feel free to contact me.

Thought I’d give you a mid-summer check-in! You made it through your sophomore spring of tough classes, papers, tests, & finals and (for some of you) an SAT Subject Test perhaps. You also hopefully selected a challenging junior year course load. Please check in with me if you have questions about which classes to take next fall.

How should I keep busy this summer?

As I’ve told you, make sure to keep your schedule busy over the summer after your sophomore year. Many students try to “bulk their resume” the summer after their junior year. Colleges realize this and see right through it.
Most of you have started your summer plans that I advised you to take: a job, summer school, travel, a special summer program, community service, internships, sports/art/science/math camps, immersion trips, shadowing someone at a job in an industry you like, etc. Good luck and truly enjoy your adventures!
Create a college prep file: save transcripts/report cards, standardized test results, lists of awards or honors (academic, athletic, fine arts, etc). Create lists of school and community service activities, lists of volunteer/paid jobs, your employers, and any recommendation letters they wrote for you.
Take notes for each activity you’ve done/are doing. You’ll need to know hours/week and weeks/year for every activity…as well as any honors/positions held. Update your activity resume often.

The PSAT: When is it? What is it? Is it important?

The next PSAT is administered Wed, Oct 12^th (private high schools) or Sat, Oct 15^th (public high schools).
This test is important for 2 reasons: It’s good practice for the actual SAT and you could receive a National Merit Scholarship.
Your school should register you, but just in case, in September make sure you’re registered.

Do you have a learning disability?

If you have a learning disability, you should look into the requirements for getting tested/finding out more about getting extended time on the PSAT and/or SAT/ACT/AP exams.
Learning disabilities like ADHD, dyslexia, and processing disorder may affect your progress in school work and/or your standardized tests.
The testing process for a learning disability can be lengthy and expensive, so talk to your counselor/teachers first. Or do you need to be re-tested?

Recruited Athletes…

Early recruiting process: Some coaches will start looking at athletes as early as 2^nd semester 10^th grade. Most, however, will do the serious recruiting around Jan/Feb of junior year.
If you think you will play college sports/you are being recruited, between now and Jan of junior year is a good time to write to the coach at the schools where you have interest. You’ll need to write a cover letter and attach a sports resume. Talk to Danielle about more details about registering with the NCAA.

Recommended book to buy for PSAT/SAT studying:

“CollegeBoard’s The Official SAT Study Guide (2^nd edition)

This book is written by The College Board, so it is the best book to buy. You can study for the PSAT using this book as College Board doesn’t write a PSAT book.

There are 8 practice tests. It is best to get through 4 before your first SAT. By this point, most students can predict types of questions and start to feel more comfortable with the SAT test as a whole.

Recommended book to buy for ACT studying:

“The Real ACT Prep Guide”

Should I check in with Danielle? YES!

I’ve met with or Skyped with most of you already, but for those of you who haven’t checked in yet this summer, let’s schedule a time discuss your summer and next steps for the PSAT.