Summer Plans for Incoming High School Juniors and Seniors

In the last article, we covered freshman and sophomore summer plans and today we’ll be diving into incoming junior and senior year summers. There will be a lot of hyperlinks to various programs that students should feel free to explore!

As an incoming junior, my biggest tip is to:

• Prepare for the SAT (and book an August test date!). Why should you take the SAT at least once before junior year? First, you have the whole summer to study (we’ll give you all SAT study tips later on). Second, if you get your desired score, you can rest easy knowing that a crucial part of your college application process is done!

• Taking the SAT test before my junior year summer was the most important thing I did - I was able to devote 4 hours+ a day to studying and taking practice tests while continuously working towards that test date.
  

Besides just studying, you can also consider the following:

• Getting a job

• Working at a local summer camp for middle school students can help demonstrate your commitment to community and learning a specific field! For example as a STEM kid, helping run the middle school summer Science Olympiad camp can be a great experience and as a newly 16 year old, may be something you want to do!

• Taking part in summer programs! Incoming junior year students can find a wealth of opportunities at their disposal. The following programs are some of the most renowned but there are so many summer programs that I recommend students explore through on their own (perhaps with the database links I’ve linked below!)

• Yale Young Global Scholars (government/economics)

• Iowa Young Writers' Studio (writing)

• Young Writers Summer Online Workshops - The Kenyon Review (writing)

• NSLI-Y (linguistics/languages)

• Research Science Institute | Center for Excellence in Education (science/STEM)

• Summer Science Program (science/STEM)

• Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (medicine/STEM)

• High School Honors Science, Math and Engineering Program (medicine/STEM)

• High School Summer Internship Program (HS-SIP) | Office of Intramural Training & Education at the National Institutes of Health (medicine/STEM)

• Database links:

  • https://www.njsca.org/summer-enrichment

  • https://app.scholarahead.com/

  • https://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/summer/ 

Now, pivoting to incoming seniors. The most important thing I recommend for incoming seniors is:

• Write your college essays (!!). Getting started early is the biggest piece of advice I received from upperclassmen and is one I now pass on to you. Having the time and space to outline the colleges you want to apply to (next week’s newsletter topic) and looking at college past/current essay topics is really crucial and having enough time to do this will ease your fears!

• Here at RRA, we have top students at universities that were in your shoes not too long ago. We can help identify various essay prompts and the overlaps between them, effectively narrowing down how many essays you need to write.

• Likewise, getting started early gives you ample time to brainstorm topics to write about. It also just gives you more time to work through your writing and make it the best it can be (in topic, grammar/flow etc.)

• Take part of another program, especially for those open specifically to rising seniors, such as:

• For those interested in business, check out the Bank of America Student Leaders Program

• The Anson L. Clark Scholars Program | Affiliated & High School | Academics & Enrichment | Honors College | TTU (STEM)

• As well as all the programs from above for current rising juniors.

• Research with Professors! Coming into senior year can also be a great time to potentially do research with professors. Contact universities at all levels – ie state institutions, Ivy Leagues – by cold emailing professors. Don’t be afraid to go down rabbit holes of research! Make sure to introduce yourself and express your genuine interest in their topic/field.
  

Once again, summer should be a time of balance, as well as working towards your goals. Especially for upperclassmen, RRA is here to help you map out your college application journey. Consider sharing this newsletter with a friend if you found it helpful!