Making the Most of Your Summer in a College Town

Are you one of the many students planning to remain in your college town for the summer? If so, be aware that the activity slows and boredom can rise. Being in a small town for the summer has its benefits. Here are a few tips for making the most of your summer in a college town.

Seize opportunities to meet new people

Whether you’re staying to take summer classes or to work, it can be difficult to find friends who have also stayed in town. There are a collection of people also facing classes, so it’s an excellent opportunity to make friends. Rather than going home, go get lunch with your research lab partner!

Get outside!

Outside of class or work, it is important to be creative. Take time for exploration. During the school year, it may be difficult to find time to really explore the area. Take a drive, or go to a beach. With the summer sun shining, find a lake, river, or beachfront nearby. Summertime brings opportunity for many activities. Find a friend with a car or take a bus for the weekend to actually  Keep a lookout for school events (there might be plenty options), or even host a potluck barbecue.

Get ahead

Finally, spending the summer in a college town provides you the chance to get ahead. Rather than sitting around with nothing to do, use the time to learn skills that may be useful in the upcoming school year. While campus may be quiet, it will be active again in the fall. Use quiet time now to prepare for the future, so more time can be spent having fun in the school year.

With the right people, and new friends, simple activities become a blast. Even a simple trip to the grocery store can be entertaining. With the proper level of creativity and some new friends, empty college towns can become the foundation for an epic summer.

The Ultimate Summer Checklist for High School Students

Once you enter high school, you should spend each summer adding something to your college resume. This means that, instead of lounging around for three months, you need to have something impressive and productive lined up for the summer before it even starts.

In addition to your big summer tasks, each summer brings about different priorities and tasks that you need to complete in order to be ready for your college applications and college itself. For a detailed list of everything you need to accomplish during your high school summers, read on.

The Summer Before Class 9

Realistically, it is unlikely that you are going to be able to do anything too impressive for your college applications at this stage simply because you’re too young. Thus, this summer is all about getting ready for high school and making sure that you start the next four years off on the right foot. Here are the things you should be sure to do:

• Acquaint yourself with your high school, specifically how the classrooms are laid out, so that you won’t be lost on the first day.
• Make sure that you’re ready for high school by buying all your school supplies, figuring out transportation, buying your textbooks, finalizing your class schedule, and working out all other logistics.
• Create a four-year plan of the classes you intend to take throughout high school.  
• Make a list of which clubs and activities you may want to pursue during high school.
• If you can, try and do some community service work or attend an academic program.

Ideally, you should use these few months before starting high school to get your feet wet, so to speak, and bonus points if it is something you can put on your college resume or even use in college applications down the line.

The Summer Before Class 10

You may not be old enough to get a job or a fancy internship just yet, so try and procure a summer activity that will both impress colleges and be feasible at your age. These include:

• Taking on an impactful community service project
• Shadowing someone in a career that interests you. Even if it is just for a week or two, the experience could prove to be invaluable.
• Attending a pre-college summer program at a university you really want to attend in a field you think you may want to pursue.

Now may also be a good time to start thinking about your college list and doing a few college visits. You have some time before you need to finalize the list, though, so don’t make this your first priority.

The Summer Before Class 11

This is a huge transitional summer. Here are a few things you should consider doing:

• Again, working in a lab or hospital that takes high school students/volunteers is a great way to gain real-world business skills while making a difference.
• Taking on a big personal project like starting your own business or writing/publishing a novel.
• Taking on a research project that helps showcase your academic interests in a more tangible and applied way

This is also the time when you should start thinking about taking the SAT and ACT, as you will need one of those exams to apply to college. The earlier you start studying for each, the better off your score will be. So maybe take some time this summer to decide whether the SAT or the ACT is right for you, and start studying!

You should also start doing college visits more frequently and start writing out an official college list. You don’t need to narrow it down just yet, but you do need to start thinking about where you might want to go to college and what you may want to study. 

The Summer Before Class 12 

This is a pivotal summer for your college admissions success. Simply put, this is your last chance to do something impressive and get all of your things ready to apply to college. These are the must-do’s for the summer before senior year:

• Gather all of the information you’ll need for your college applications, including your test scores, your extracurricular profile, your community service work, and you work experience.
• Secure a copy of your latest marks, and class rank so that you can refer to it when you’re filling out your college applications.
• Take on a project that will really set you apart from other applicants on your college applications. This could be an internship at a company that takes high school interns, creating your own business or startup, etc. 
• Finalize your college list. This is an ideal time to figure out which colleges you are going to be applying to and getting everything in order for application season.
• If you’re still trying to take the SAT or ACT to get a higher score, focus on studying for those exams. You’re running out of chances to improve your score!

For More Information

Need some help figuring out your summer activities? Check out our summer sub blog

How Your Summer Plans Factor Into Ivy League Admissions

Preparing to apply to the Ivy League is no joke. You have to consider your marks, class rank, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities. Now more than ever, selective colleges can have their pick of the top students in the country as top acceptance rates stoop well below 10%. To compete with the best, you have to ensure that your application is even more compelling than theirs.

It’s no wonder that when summer rolls around, you might be ready for a break. We don’t blame you, but if you’re sizing up your summer months and their weight on your college application, be sure not to rest too long. Ivy league colleges are definitely interested in how you spend your summer months.

To learn more about how the Ivy League weighs your summer activities and what you can do this summer to impress Ivy League admissions committees, keep reading.

Why Ivy League Admissions Care How You Spend Your Summer Vacation

There’s no doubt that after the hustle and bustle of the school year, you may be feeling weary, but summer is no time to put on the brakes. In fact, many selective colleges view your summer activities as a window into how you choose to spend your free time. What you choose to do with this unstructured time speaks volumes about your dedication, ambition, and academic prowess.

Ivy league admissions are among the most competitive in the country. Being at the top of your class and achieving high test scores combined with national recognition in extracurriculars sometimes isn’t enough to gain admissions anymore. As such, Ivy league admissions committees use your summer activities as a gauge for your independence and ambition.

Furthermore, many students have trouble thinking outside the box when it comes to summer activities. While it’s easy to sign up for college classes online or apply to a selective internship, it takes another level of independence and motivation to seek out and create your own opportunities.

What Qualities Should You Showcase Through Your Summer Activities?

Beyond showcasing your initiative and ambition, you should also think about highlighting more personal qualities. The Ivy league wants to attract students who will be positive contributors to their community. This means exhibiting qualities like leadership, compassion, and morality.

Many students consider spending their summers involved in service work. Service work is a great way to demonstrate that you care about others, but you need to think carefully about the opportunities that you pursue. There are countless programs available abroad that advertise a summer of volunteerism, but your ability to affect actual, lasting change working within these programs can sometimes be limited.

Keep in mind the recommendations from Harvard’s ongoing Making Caring Common (MCC) campaign, which suggest that meaningful service is found not through grandiose high profile service trips but rather through personal connections, sustained participation, and involvement in the community.

If you already know of a service project that’s near and dear to your heart, by all means, take advantage of this time to get involved. If you can sustain your involvement into the school year, so much the better. If possible, try to find a project that is personally relevant to you or to a community that you’re involved in. Think about the issues that matter most to the people who matter most to you, and go from there.

If there are no local service projects that feel personally important to you, you might consider starting your own. Are there local kids who don’t know how to use the Internet because the elementary school doesn’t have a computer lab yet? Is there a retirement home in need of some energizing and outreach with younger people? How about crises like hunger, homelessness, or addiction? Any of these issues can be turned into a service project, and they will be all the more powerful if you can sincerely justify your involvement with a genuine personal connection.

You may want to gather some like-minded people to help, or you can get started on your own and then build support from friends and other connections along the way. Try to quantify your involvement the same way as you would for any other project. Log the hours that you spend and track any potential results, such as funds or resources raised and people reached. Tracking your impact will make it easier to quantify on your college applications.

Consider Your Future Career Ambitions

Finally, be sure to think about your career ambitions while deciding what you will do this summer. Ideally, you will be able to create an opportunity that merges your career interests with causes that are important to you.

For example, if you want to pursue a career in medicine and you live in an area battling an addiction crisis, creating a public health campaign about the resources available to opioid addicts in your community would be a strong option for you

Similarly, if you’re interested in majoring in music, fundraising for and creating a series of community concerts highlighting local performers would showcase your initiative, your passion, and your musical ability.

Summer is an important time and if the Ivy League colleges are your goal, you cannot mess this up! At Edbrand, we constantly mentor our students to perform to their best and spend time wisely. Come learn about bespoke research project program as well our personal branding process! 

How do I get an internship?

Why Should I Get an Internship?

While they may seem like regular jobs, with the addition only of a fancy name, internships offer important insight into the professional world and can lead to valuable connections and contacts. In many cases, having strong connections in the professional world will give you a big leg up after you finish your education, no matter how well you perform in school. You can consider it a foot in the door.

Furthermore, by working and living the life of a professional in the field of your interest, you can decide whether or not a particular line of work is actually the great fit for you that you had always imagined. You may also discover a new line of work within that field that you had not known of before.  You can also add your internship to your resumé to show not only that you have experience, but also that you are seeking exciting and challenging positions to help you grow as a student and as a professional.

Unfortunately, some internships do not pay much – or anything at all – and often require long and demanding hours. While this is difficult in the short-term, if you do a great job, you may be hired back to the company after your internship is over, or receive a bonus at the end. And, at the end of the day, experience now will put you in a great place later when you are applying to long-term jobs and determining your career path.

What Internship is Right for You?

Your first step should be to figure out the area or field of study in which you would like to get an internship because once you know this, you can refine your search to more specific positions. If your interests do not immediately come to mind, consider the classes you enjoy, the extracurricular activities you participate most in, where you meet your friends, and so on.

If you have an idea of a general area – say, food – you should ask yourself how that could be more specific. What do you like about food? Cooking? Baking? Studying the economics of food distribution? Watching cooking shows? Eating and writing about food? If you know where you want to go with a broad subject, narrowing down the options available is easier.

On the other hand, if you don’t know what you might want to do, look around at the types of activities you enjoy doing. What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning? How might this activity translate into the professional world? Perhaps you like writing letters to pen pals. In the work world, this might show that you are interested in writing and sharing ideas and that you have strong communication skills. Or perhaps your interests are a bit more clear cut. Say you really like painting murals. This could be a sign that you want to get into community artwork, and you should check out careers in that area.

The point is: even if your area of interest may not immediately seem like “internship material,” the truth is any interest has the potential to be perfect for finding an internship if you consider it with a new perspective!

How Do I Get an Internship?

Once you have an idea of what your interests are, start looking for internship positions near you. A quick and easy way to start this search is to check online. There may be official intern programs in your area that can help set you up with a position or guides to places near you that usually hire interns.

Additionally, reach out to people you know. Family members and friends can often point you in a good direction and, because of your close connection, can suggest internships based on your personality and interests in a way that the Internet cannot gauge. Teachers and guidance counselors at your high school may also know of positions that suit you, especially because they see you in more of a work type of environment than most of your family and friends.

Finally, you should be sure to reach out to businesses and non profits to see if they would be receptive to take you on as an intern. Often, when you reach out to organizations and show interest, they are more likely to take you on because they see that you are making an effort to connect with them. It’s always worth asking.

Keep in mind that if a non-profit group or local government does not have an official intern program, you may still be able to come on as a volunteer, which will provide you with the opportunity to learn many of the same skills an internship would teach. Unfortunately, for-profit businesses cannot accept volunteers by law, but you can still check to see if there are other part-time positions for which you could apply that might teach you some skills in the industry.

We hope this helps your internship search! Come see us if you have any questions!

How to Spend the Summer as an Aspiring Engineer

Future engineers, we see you. The movers, shakers, thinkers, and game-changers-to-be of the world. And you’ve prepared, too. Science olympiad and math league are old hat, whatever math you’re currently taking is one of your favorite classes, and you’ve probably tinkered with more odds and ends than you can remember.

But then summer rolls around and school ends, and along with it goes all of the science, math, and outreach extracurriculars that operate when school’s in session. You now have this huge amount of free time that you can do practically anything with — while it may not seem like much on the surface, it’s actually a big opportunity in disguise.

There’s nothing more an engineering college loves to see than a curious self-starter who’s not afraid to get his or her vhands dirty, and taking initiative to enrich your own engineering portfolio during the summer is a good way to show the engineering adcoms just that.

Of course, some of you already have things planned out, and that’s great! But for the people who are drawing a blank, who need some inspiration or ideas, this post is for you. Here’s a list of summer plans that we recommend for aspiring engineers — some drawn from our own experiences.

The no-brainer: Summer programs

Let’s get this one out of the way first since this is what usually comes to mind for people when they think about application-boosting summer experiences. This is essentially the better version of summer camp, where you go to a college and take college-level classes, or refine your skills through real-world practice. The point here is that you’ll go somewhere that’s not home for the sole purpose of building your technical repertoire with a group of like-minded people — which is essentially what college is, for an engineer. And it’s immensely fun.

Programs like Carnegie Mellon’s Pre-College and the University of California’s Summer School for Mathematics and Science are designed to train future engineers and scientists that will go on to use their skills in college and even to participate in research beyond that.

Often, gaining admission to these programs is in itself a rigorous process, and can signal to colleges your skill and interest in the STEM subjects. Another good part about participating in these summer programs is that they can help you network and make connections with people in STEM — a good mentor relationship with a summer program’s professor, for instance, can make for a valuable recommendation letter when it comes application time. Other times, some of these program are also geared towards building leaders in the STEM fields, so they  can also double as a leadership extracurricular.

However, most of these programs are expensive especially for international students — some of them may offer scholarships, but not all of them do. That’s the main drawback to this type of summer program; some of these programs may be just as expensive as paying college fees at these colleges. The good news, though, is that price is often inversely proportional to the prestige of the program; the less you pay to get in, the more impressive it looks on an application. In fact, you should be wary of expensive summer programs, as those are perceived as more of a sign of privilege on an application than your engineering capabilities.

The go-getter: Learning a new (programming) language

Coding is an important skill to have as an engineer today. If you’re going into software engineering, then it’s a given. If you’re a mechanical engineer, programs can be helpful in running simulations. If you’re analyzing data, you’ll need something like Matlab. Computers are some of the most powerful engineering tools we have today, and to be able to use them freely is a valuable addition to any skillset. In fact, many engineering colleges now require their undergraduates to take at least one coding class as a graduation requirement.

If you’re already a logical thinker (like many of you are), this shouldn’t be too hard. With the wealth of online tutorials, videos, APIs, forums, and other resources, all the information you need to master a new language is readily available. It might take a bit of practice and lots of trial and error, but it’ll be worth it in the end when you can create your own programs that make your life easier.

Either of these pursuits can show up as a bright spot on any application, especially since your motivation for starting this pursuit (and completing it) was entirely intrinsic. It can also be good material for a personal statement, since honestly — how many people can go into college saying they’ve built their own app from scratch?

The altruist: Teaching and sharing your knowledge

Engineering is what builds the entire infrastructure of our modern society, and engineers can definitely change the world. But what about on a smaller scale? What about helping, mentoring, or inspiring one person at a time?

Colleges like to admit community-builders, people who are willing to help other people out and people who can appreciate diversity. So, if you feel comfortable in your STEM skills and knowledge, why not spend a summer sharing it with others? Many summer educational camps and programs love having tutors work with younger children to try and foster an early interest in science and math. Science museums across the nation always welcome knowledgeable, enthusiastic tour guides who would love to answer questions for curious guests. Or you could even volunteer and start your own mentoring program — outreach is always important for STEM, and if you’re dedicated to making science and math more accessible to people, this might just put your interests in line with those of your ideal college.

Sharing your knowledge for the sake of other people shows your interest in making positive, altruistic change in the world, and may also attest to your mentorship and social skills.

While your intelligence and your academic ability are important to a college in deciding whether or not to admit you, who you are as a person also factors in greatly, as a result of holistic admissions. So in presenting yourself, applications-wise, it’s important to remember not to just show yourself as the student that adcoms want to see in their lecture halls, but the person that they would love to see around campus.

Whether it’s by taking a summer off for a STEM program, teaching yourself a new skill, or by helping others out with the knowledge you have, you won’t just be outstanding in your stats alone — these summer experiences will show these colleges that you are the type of person that they’d want to see as an engineer at their institution.

Still confused? Come have a chat with us!

3 things you should be doing this summer

If there’s one tip about college admissions that we’ve always known, it’s that you shouldn’t spend high school summers imprinting into the couch. As much as we’d all like to spend some quality time on Netflix, colleges won’t be impressed by several three month internships at Couch Potato, LLC. To help you make the most out of the upcoming summer, we’ve included a few interesting and impressive options for you to consider. We’ve organized this list in order of decreasing impressiveness to colleges.

Summer Programs

This is likely the most fun way to spend your summer, and the easiest way to do something without really working too much. In general, colleges prefer to see students attend summer programs that are tuition-free, because the only thing that attending an expensive camp says about an applicant is that he or she can afford to pay. There are many types of summer programs to choose from:

• Prestigious Camps: If you want to go see a new country and see what it would be like to study in some of the world’s greatest universities. MIT and Harvard, both have great tech programs, whereas University of Pennsylvania is great for medicine and biology. Stanford has one of the most popular summer programs with a strong computer science camp and its proximity to Silicon Valley A full list of programs however can be found on the IACAC page.
•  Extracurricular Development: Don’t want to invest into traveling 9,000 miles? That’s totally fine! There are probably a lot of camps in your city that you not even be aware of. Debate camp, band camp, sports camps, and drawing camps are only a few such options. These summer-long excursions will allow you to do something you really enjoy while also learning during the summer, and you’ll be better prepared for the year following. Start with a basic Google search for whatever type of camp you are looking for. If you live in Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore, or Jakarta — contact us and we might have the connections you might need! 

Internships

If you want to intern, you should start looking for a position before winter break of class 11. Because you don’t have a college degree, anticipate receiving a few rejections before you find something you like. Persistence will pay off – even companies that don’t have intern programs may take you on if they are impressed.

As a general rule, the first email you send should already have your resume attached to it. In the body of the email, don’t ask if they have vacant positions. Instead, just ask for the opportunity to interview. It’s best to also include one or two reasons why, even as a high schooler, you will be an asset. If you do get an interview, you should work to really “wow” them. Practice answering interview questions diligently, and make sure that you have researched the institution thoroughly. You probably aren’t the ideal candidate based on academic qualifications, so you have to be the best based on your hard-working character – if there isn’t an internship program already, you have to make them want to create a position for you!

• Lab assistance – if you are science, math, or tech-oriented, labs are the best place to work. Start off by asking your STEM teachers to see if they know of any opportunities. Try emailing professors at nearby universities – a community college and state school would be appropriate. Mention the search to your friends to see if anyone has a parent who needs lab assistance. And finally, if none of these options work, send emails to multiple local labs and nearby graduate school research programs. If you have done any prior research in the same field as the labs you are looking to work in, consider attaching both a letter of recommendation from your first mentor and your resume on the first email. If the research was particularly impressive, be sure to reference it extensively in the body of the email and in a potential interview.
• Humanities internships – if you are looking at law, business, communications, etc., it may be slightly harder to find a position. Any service-oriented companies, such as financial advising agencies, often have a lot of sensitive information about clients that you can’t work with. Try applying for internships that are government sponsored – the public defender’s office or the governor’s office, for example. Send emails to companies that you’d be interested in working for, asking for the opportunity to do any kind of work, whether it be scanning or otherwise. Make it very clear that you don’t have expectations, and that you are looking mostly for the opportunity to learn through observation.

Projects

One of the most important things about college admissions is to showcase how you are different than the sea of other college aspirants. While a lot of students learn through camps, we at EdBrand have found success in helping students create special projects. Through our Bespoke Research Program Research intensive projects that help them learn new skills, reapply skills they already know, and most importantly learn something new about themselves. Inquisitive to know what our students have done? Here’s a list of projects from 2017! If you want to know more, come for a chat and firm up those summer plans! 

Summer is a great time to explore new topics and extracurriculars or to supplement your existing knowledge and interests. Make sure that, even while going to class or work, you take advantage of the time off and really enjoy your time before college. Choose an option that you find fun, and be creative when coming up with other, unique summer plans.

Four Selective Summer Programmes to Apply to

Summer programmes are a great way to indulge your desire to travel, explore and learn. In your last two years before college, when you’re still deciding majors and colleges, it makes sense to use the holidays to acquaint yourself with the challenges ahead.

Selective summer programmes not only offer a chance for you to distinguish yourself but also an opportunity to interact with top faculty members and passionate students from around the world.

Telluride Association Summer Programme (TASP)

Perhaps the most prestigious programme on this list, it boasts of an extremely selective application process, said by some to be more competitive than the Ivy League colleges.
With a dismal acceptance rate floating around five percent, only students with strong standardised test scores and excellent academic records are invited to apply for this programme.

It offers a six week educational experience for high school students offering intellectual stimulations rarely found in secondary school education or even in college. This is done under the aegis of college and university faculty members who conduct regular seminars and organise educational and social activities outside of the classroom.

Notable former ‘TASPers’ or Telluride House members include literary critic Gayatri Spivak, Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman and renowned political economist Francis Fukuyama among many others.

Best time to send in your applications is before January.

Find more information here.

MIT CEE Research Science Institute (RSI)

A highly competitive summer research programme for rising high school seniors around the world, it is a six week camp for which typically, around 80 students are selected (50 from the U.S. and 30 from other countries).
It is notable for the RSI Distinguished Lecture Series which follows an evening lecture format, conducted by noted professors and scientists, a number of whom are Nobel Laureates.

A fully funded initiative, its alumni have found recognition in many international forums such as the Rhodes scholarship and Marshall scholarship and so on.

Best time to send in your applications is before December-January.

Find more information here.

Stanford Mathematics Camp

A highly competitive summer math programme for rising high school seniors and juniors around the world, it focusses on imparting instruction on advanced undergraduate math topics instead of Olympiad math.

Held for four weeks, usually July-August, it consists of two parts – Program 1 and Program 2. Together, they are meant to engage students in problems in abstract algebra, number theory and geometric topology.

With globally renowned mathematicians rounding up as guest lecturers and Stanford graduate and undergraduate math students as teaching assistants. The programme aims to fully nurture young talent in mathematics.

Best to apply before January-February.

Deadline: March 4, 2015

Find more information here.

U Penn Management & Technology Summer Institute (M&TSI)

A for-credit summer programme for 50 rising high school seniors (and a select few rising juniors) interested in the integration of management doctrines and technological concepts, it is held on Penn campus every year.

The programme is composed of three major aspects – the group project, lab work and business instruction. The group project involves a team of five students working over the three week duration to conceive a product idea in consumer electronics.

Deadline: March 1, 2015

It would be advisable to apply before January-February.

Find more information here.