<p>Can those who were admitted to Princeton within the last five years share what you did during your summers after your sophomore and/or junior years of high school?</p>
<p>In the past 2 years four kids have gotten into Princeton from my school.
For junior year:
Student 1 did RSI.
Student 2 did biology research at a local prestigious private university in my area.
Student 3 played beer pong all summer… Just kidding: she interned at a musuem for the summer.
Student 4 organized a LGBT protest.</p>
<p>I hope this is enough to convince you that what you do isn’t important, it’s why you do it.</p>
<p>I joined a music group each year. After sophomore year it was each weekend, and after Junior year it was the whole summer.</p>
<p>I relaxed after sophomore year. After junior year, I did a summer research internship.</p>
<p>jersey: don’t search for a formula. Do what interests you. that’s what future admittees to Princeton are doing.</p>
<p>Get a job. Go volunteer. Be a museum docent. Clean cages at the animal shelter. Read Shakespeare’s works. Organize free lawn care for elderly in your neighborhood. Whatever.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the contributions so far.</p>
<p>I can see how passion in the math/sciences/arts can lead to productive summer. But it’s less clear to me how one productively spends a summer if one’s passion is in the Humanities/Liberal Arts.</p>
<p>Would certainly appreciate those with more Liberal Arts/Humanities leanings sharing their summer experiences during high school.</p>
<p>Also, please know that I <em>FULLY</em> understand that it is important to “do what interests one” and that “there is no formula”. At this point I am just interested in facts.</p>
<p>Your summer activities do not need to be connected to your intended area of concentration. This probably doesn’t fit with most people’s paradigm of what Princeton is looking for, but T26E4 gave the best possible advice. They are looking for people who are academically strong but who are confident enough to do what they really enjoy. My son spent all his high school summers doing fitness activities for his sport, relaxing and travelling with friends and family, and studying for SAT’s. During the year his schedule was packed with all kinds of extra-curriculars and he needed a break when summer rolled around. He’s starting his sophomore year at Princeton next week. </p>
<p>Be confident enough to do what you love. Don’t try to over-tailor your resume to what you think admissions wants. Yes you will need a strong academic background to handle the rigors of Princeton courses. But also consider that being a confident and authentically caring person stands out. My son has met many, many of these kinds of people on campus so it leads me to believe that somehow their presence there is not an accident.</p>
<p>^^ Cantiger was your son a recruited athlete?</p>
<p>^Lol why does it matter? The guy did what he loved thats why he got in. Not everyone who gets into Princeton is a math wizz that spent all their summers at museums and math camps…</p>
<p>@Falcon1 - yes he was recruited as an athlete. I suppose some people might feel that gives the student carte blanche to cruise to admission but we/he never felt that for a moment. I think he was well qualified academically and certainly had an excellent EC resume apart from his sport.</p>
<p>@grover12 So the “math whiz” that spends their summers at museums and math camps is not doing what they love?</p>
<p>@Cantiger Thanks, just wondering.</p>
<p>doing hedge fund research and building a private lending library lounge</p>
<p>reading, hiking, spending time with friends</p>
<p>don’t feel like you have to do something remarkable over the summer-if your academics are strong enough, i think they just wanna see that you’re a normal person who has a life/personality</p>
<p>ps i’m not a recruited athlete</p>
<p>^^ What did you do for your summer(s)?</p>
<p>me? …reading, hiking, spending time with friends haha. but the summer before my junior year i did an internship.
i feel like the op is trying to get an idea of what people wrote about in that “summers” essay, but i didn’t mention any resume-building activities in that one cause i already included info about them on the common app. i just wrote about things i did in my free time.</p>
<p>I worked (minimum wage jobs, nothing glamorous), went to summer camp, hung out with friends, read books, went to an anime convention.</p>
<p>There’s no formula, and certainly don’t plan your summer just to be able to answer the essay question.</p>
<p>^^ My reasons for starting this thread is quite simple. Want to have a productive summer to fuel a passion in the humanities (my favorite subject is English. I love writing and have always been a voracious writer).</p>
<p>Problem is most of the summer activites on this thread were spent around science, music, or sports, none of which would work here.</p>
<p>S - recruited athlete - focused on training for his sport, showcased for his sport, worked part time. </p>
<p>D - non athlete chem engineering - found a job (on her own) in a lab, continued working on yearbook, her sport (began when she was 7), her community service (local food bank, one afternoon a week), and moved forward on her science project (totally unrelated to the lab referenced above).</p>
<p>Both had plenty of free time for beach, family, themselves, friends. Both resumed HS ready to roll. Neither spent time preparing for standardized testing.</p>
<p>As many people mentioned above, if you are doing something do it because you are truly passionate about it and not just to list it on your application. Believe me, passion bleeds through to other people that read it.</p>
<p>My parents enroll me at a military boot camp during my junior summer.And that is not because I was brat or going astray, they just thought it is a mandatory experience for a girl who was living a relatively comfortable life (my sister did it too). So during my alumni interview I told the guy how I had to wake up at 4am and sprint carrying a 50 pound backpack. He was so surprised provided that I was a 90 pound female hehe. So it was a great conversation starter and I suppose made me stand out during the admission process.</p>
<p>So yeah, you don’t have to do a military workout to get into a selective college but just find something that you LOVE and would also make you stand out as an individual. It can be recreational, volunteer, or academic but most importantly make sure to enjoy doing it!</p>
<p>I worked/volunteered with special needs kids and I can easily say I am very in love with that job</p>