<p>I'm planning on applying to the Ivies next year, and I know that summer activities are important. For the past two years of HS, I primarily volunteered and played select softball. My mom has RA, so I've helped her, too. This year, I was accepted into a leadership conference at a local university and I plan on attending (it's free, if accepted.) I applied to WashU's Summer Scholar's Program, and was accepted. Unfortunately, my family is borderline low income, and the cost was too much. Over the summer, I'm planning on working (I work during the school year, too), playing select softball, volunteering at a hospital and library, helping my mom,and attending the leadership conference. I tried to find a research opportunity at a lab, but most were full. I'm worried that my activities aren't good enough for an ivy league school applicant. Any suggestions as to what I can do?</p>
<p>Any ideas? bump</p>
<p>enjoy the summer? lol</p>
<p>Do what you like. I doubt some kind of standard-fare summer “scholars” camp is going to be any (if even) better than pursuing the passions you truly enjoy- if that means being a real person, working a part time job… so be it.</p>
<p>All I did during all of my HS summers was work two jobs, Dunkin’ Donuts and a day camp where I played four square and handed out giant pixie sticks all day. I got into three Ivies.</p>
<p>Just enjoy your summer.</p>
<p>If you have any nearby museums look up some summer programson their website as almost all of them have some interesting program and humanitarian organizations have intern options as well. Also there is this online organization called “Thank Intern” that matches your interests with cool internships in your area. Try that out!</p>
<p>Life is too short to tailor it to others’ requirements. Enjoy yourself, explore the world around you and take advantage of its opportunities - and trust me, you will be appreciated for it.</p>
<p>What makes me sad is when I come on CC and see all of these posts asking how one should spend their summer, what ECs they should participate in, etc (this isn’t just aimed at you, OP). Is this really how you want to live your life? Because what will happen is after you tailor your life to college admissions officers, you will tailor it to graduate school admissions officers, and then your boss. And I personally think that is depressing.</p>
<p>I am not encouraging irresponsibility. I certainly encourage studying hard, but I also encourage living life. By this I don’t mean that you should stay at home all day and play video games. You should definitely go out and participate in extracurricular activities - but because you WANT to. You should be doing lab research because YOU find it interesting, not because school XYZ finds it interesting. You are never going to get that time back, ever. At the end of your life, the fact that you got accepted into Harvard won’t mean much. You don’t want to be regretful.</p>
<p>Sorry if I went really off-topic or sounded holier-than-thou, that isn’t my intention at all. I just spent a lot of time at the nursing home this year and really got to think about what matters in life.</p>