How to Have a Great Summer and Build a Stronger College Application While You’re At It

Why the best extracurricular strategy this summer has nothing to do with resume building

Every spring, I talk to families who are trying to figure out what their student should “do” over the summer. The subtext is usually the same: what will look good? What will colleges want to see?

I understand the impulse. The admissions process can make everything feel high-stakes, and summer feels like time that could be wasted. But here’s what I’ve seen in working with thousands of students: the ones who approach summer as a resume-building exercise often end up with a list of activities that looks fine on paper but means very little to anyone, including them.

The students who tend to craft the best applications and who go on to thrive in college have often spent at least one summer doing something they actually cared about.

What admissions officers are really looking for

Admissions officers are good at spotting the difference between genuine engagement and resume building. A student who spent a summer working at a local animal shelter because they love animals, returned the following summer, and eventually took on a coordinating role can tell a far more compelling story about their experience than a student who attended three different prestigious programs in three different subjects because they thought the brand names would look good on their resume.

What colleges value isn’t the activity itself. Rather, it’s the evidence of real curiosity, sustained interest, and the capacity to grow within something over time. Summer is one of the best opportunities to build exactly that kind of story, but only if the activity actually means something to the student.

The gift of unstructured time

As the college admissions arms race intensifies, it’s clear that students have less and less free time during the school year to explore activities they are genuinely curious about. Between academics, sports, clubs, family and friends, downtime is rare. Summer is one of the few moments when students can slow down enough to notice what they actually enjoy.

That’s not a small thing. Some students arrive at their college essays struggling to answer a basic question: what do you care about? Those who can answer that question clearly and specifically have typically had space to explore. And that space? It’s hard to find in October, but much easier to find in July.

So if your student wants to spend part of the summer reading, cooking, learning to code, building something, or getting seriously into a hobby they’ve never had time for… let them. Those experiences have a way of turning into the most interesting and authentic parts of an application.

What “spending summer wisely” looks like

Spending summer wisely doesn’t mean your summer should be completely unplanned. For students in their sophomore or junior years, summer is a natural time to deepen an existing interest, take on more responsibility in something they’ve already been doing, or try something new in a lower-stakes environment than the school year allows. Here are a few ideas to consider:

• If your student has an interest they’ve never had time to pursue seriously, this is the moment. Depth developed over a summer, through a research project, creative pursuit, or sustained volunteer commitment, is far more valuable than a padded list of short-term programs. This same principle applies to building a strong extracurricular profile throughout high school: depth over breadth, always.
• Summer is also a good time to try something and decide it’s not for you. Students who quit an activity in July lose nothing. Students who stick with the wrong thing through junior year lose time and energy they can’t get back. That trial-and-error process  (especially valuable in the earlier high school years) is much easier to accomplish when there’s room in the calendar for it.
• There are some genuinely excellent summer programs for students who would benefit from the structure of something more formal. The key is choosing a program or course because it connects to a real interest, not because the name looks impressive. An obscure program in a field your student loves will serve as a better personal statement essay topic, for example, than a less engaging program they attended because of its pedigree.

A note to families

I know how hard it is to resist the pressure to fill every hour of summer with something “productive.” The admissions landscape has become intense, and the anxiety is real.

Thankfully, the Spark team has supported thousands of college applicants, so we can promise you this: the applications that truly stand out are almost never built around the longest extracurricular lists or the most prestigious activities. They’re the ones where a student clearly knows their own interests, values, sense of humor, and passions worth getting up early for.

Summer is a rare chance for your student to discover or deepen that self-knowledge. And it’s important to remember that that endeavor is not a distraction from college preparation. It is college preparation.

About The Author

Dr. Rachel Rubin

Dr. Rachel Rubin is the co-founder of Spark Admissions and holds a doctorate from Harvard University, where she was a Presidential Scholar. A former university faculty member and high school teacher, she understands the needs of adolescents and excels in guiding them through the admissions process, from identifying best-fit colleges to refining application essays. A U.S. Presidential Scholar and member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, Dr. Rubin has helped thousands of students gain acceptance to their top-choice schools.

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