9.16 What summer activities really impress colleges?

9.16 Summer is about to begin! Are you a teenager still wondering, "What am I going to do this summer?" Or are you a parent, thinking, "My child had better find something truly extraordinary to do, to knock the socks off those admissions committees"?

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Athena Advises

I have some advice for you in one word: COMPETE!Go to your computer right now and search for "competitions for teenagers," or "international competitions for high school students," or anything like that! You will immediately find thousands of competitions in every conceivable area of interest.If you're thinking, "Wait. I'm a rising senior. I need to win those competitions! Why should I spend all that time competing, if I can't be sure I'll win?"Well, face it right now: you won't win everything. There's no winning without losing. I would still say: go ahead. Enter 20 competitions! That way, you won't be obsessing about just one.You will not win every competition you enter. But at the end of the summer, you will have a whole collection of material: creative writing, history research, math or science projects. . .You will also have the experience of going through the announcements for hundreds of competitions and deciding, "That sounds like me," or "I have no interest in this topic." This selection process, and digging in for the competition, is a great way to develop a sense of who you are and what you really care about.Perhaps most importantly, you will have developed competitive spirit. That's going to be so important to you in the near future, when you're competing for a place at college!Dr. Marlena CorcoranFounder and CEOAuthor of Year by Year to College, on amazon.com, amazon.de and many national amazon sites