Turn Your Summer College Program into a Powerful Application Asset
by David H. N., PhD
Summer programs on college campuses are not just for filling a slot in the activities section of your college application, they can be a life-changing experience that alters the trajectory of your life.
Benefit 1: Gain Great Experiences to Write About in College Essays
Great college essays tell great stories, and great stories are based on life-changing experiences. Summer programs at colleges are a prequel to what you will experience in college: new friends, shared missions, and the freedom to choose your identity. These moments are exhilarating and often motivate your future dreams. They help make sense of why you want to go to college and what mark you want to make in the world.
Benefit 2: Affirm That This Area of Study is Your Calling
Summer programs help students go deeper in a subject than what high school courses can offer, so they often provide experiences that affirm why you are interested in an academic subject. Hearing lectures from professors and interacting with passionate college students has a way of helping you realize, “Yes. This is why I want to study ________.” There is so much more to each academic subject than what is taught in high school courses.
Benefit 3: Discover Subfields of a Major Where Your Interests Truly Lie
College majors explore topics that are way beyond the boundaries of AP courses, so summer college programs can be eye-opening regarding what majors actually interest you most.
Many college majors are interdisciplinary and sound nothing like the name of an AP course, such as AP US History or AP Chemistry. Someone interested in Computer Science might realize that their interest in the future of artificial intelligence is more in line with a major called Cognitive Science, or maybe Human-Computer Interactions.
Summer college programs provide an immersive experience with live people in addition to deeper knowledge. They do what no high school course can.
