What Should High School Students Do Over the Summer? Focus on Growth, Not Resume Building

The thermometer may be below freezing, but families are already thinking ahead to summer. I’m having more and more conversations about how students should spend that time—and my advice is always the same: I will never suggest an activity simply for the sake of a college application.

What you do in the summer should reflect who you are and how you’re growing. Whether you volunteer, work, take classes, or learn a new skill, summer offers unstructured time and space to choose what you want to pursue. Colleges are less interested in the activity itself and more interested in how your choices evolve from year to year.

In fact, what you pursue matters far less than how you demonstrate growth. It is far more compelling to develop a genuine interest and follow it with intention than to collect unrelated experiences. Over time, a thoughtful “summer sequence” can show curiosity, initiative, involvement, and impact.

In the early years of high school, summer should be about exploration. Try different environments, roles, and interests. That curiosity will help you find direction.

As you move forward, begin to go deeper. Return to a job, continue a volunteer commitment, or build on a skill you’ve started developing. This shows follow-through and sustained effort, qualities that matter in the admissions process admissions.

In the later years of high school, take initiative to shape your own opportunities. Start something new. Mentor younger students. Organize a project. Take on more responsibility at work. These experiences show readiness for independence and leadership.

And throughout it all, consider your impact. Impact doesn’t have to be large-scale. Most meaningful change is small, local, and personal. Learn to articulate what changed because of your involvement, what challenges you navigated, and what you learned along the way.

Summer isn’t about staying busy. It’s about using unstructured time to build independence, maturity, and direction to take ownership of how you spend your time and what interests you choose to nurture.

When approached intentionally, summers naturally create a cohesive story on a college application. The real benefit goes far beyond admissions. Thoughtful summer experiences help students discover what excites them, clarify their academic interests, and begin shaping their future goals.