Basically for the entire junior year I’ve been freaking out about what to do over the summer, and it seems like I’m overwhelmed with options now…a blessing, perhaps?
These are my current options:
- European tour for about two weeks, mid-June
- Well-recognized summer writing camp with scholarship from late June to early July
- New York internship in famous NGO from mid-July to late July, will be able to be given to establish a regional charter
My school starts on August 13th, so I’d only have about a week left of break when I come home.
Obviously I can’t afford (time and money-wise) to enjoy all three of these options, maybe one or two, although I would love to attend all of them. Since there are opportunity costs involved, and this IS the summer that I should be spending a lot of time working on college essays, what do you think is a good combination of options for me? I need honest advice.
My parents fear that I might be wasting time on any of these options, and think that I should stay at home working on my college app instead. So there’s my second question: how much work does it take to write college essays?
Thanks!
Your college apps can definitely wait – one of your options is only two weeks long. Maybe that’s your parents way of saying they don’t really want to spend the money on these options. In any case, what you should do depends in part on what your interests are and possible long-term plans.
Do you plan on majoring in writing? That’s the only reason I could see choosing the writing camp, plus the financial benefit of the scholarship. Another reason may be if the program is exceptionally prestigious and competitive, and you think it may open more doors for you to go there. But you can always participate in the nanowrimo.org annual novel writing event, and write year-round.
Internships are hard to come by, and many people want to spend time in NYC (unless of course you live there already, and then the internship is still great). Real-world work experience will always go a long way on a resume throughout college and beyond.
As for the trip abroad, if you have never been out of the country, it can change your perspective and essentially change you to travel abroad, but a two-week European tour would not be something to put on a resume or write about, unless specifically asked about travel abroad. I strongly recommend you spend some time abroad at some point. If you’ve already traveled abroad quite a bit, and/or know you will be able to do so on another occasion in the next year or so, then you may consider the internship more appealing. However, if this trip has particularly special features (who you will travel with, what the focus will be during the travels, where you will go, etc.), then you might choose it.
Since you may be able to choose more than one option, you might want to make a list of the pros and cons and how you feel about each option, and start to prioritize them in order, and at least remove one option and see if it is possible to do two. Your parents may be more willing to finance two of them if you also go ahead and write a draft of your common app essay – then they can’t use essay-writing as an excuse not to support you in these endeavors.
It seems like one of your main goals this summer is to give your app a boost, in which case I would not go on the European tour. Like what was said before, traveling is great and can lead to a lot of personal development, but if you want to put something on your resume it is not a great option. It seems like you’d be able to go to both the writing camp and have an internship, and personally that is what I would do. I can’t comment on how time consuming writing college essays is, but what better place to write than at a writing camp? I also find it interesting that you could establish your own local branch of the NGO after the internship, which I think would be impressive because it shows commitment to that cause. I would do both, but if you are really nervous about starting college app do the program that is most relevant to your interests.