<p>So it's time to plan my summer and I really don't know what I should do...My goal is to visit prospective colleges, writing essays, searching for scholarships, getting a head start on my college application, SAT prepping, etc. It will take a lot of time for me to finish all those things because my parents don't know English so I can't enlist their help. Basically, I'm on my own, and college planning by yourself without any help can be overwhelming so I want to leave as much time for myself as possible.
On the other hand, I consider applying to a research internship that runs for 6 weeks at a local university. It's not prestigious or anything, so is it going to raise my admission chances??? I'm applying to Yale and other liberal arts colleges in the New England area with very low acceptance rates, will the application help my application in anyway? Even if it doesn't, it may be worth while because I want to get a feel of biomedical research.
At this point I'll just apply. If I get accepted, I have the chance to withdraw, if deemed necessary. What do you guys think? Is it possible to do both? Thank you!</p>
<p>An internship in your proposed field of study is never a bad thing…on the other hand, leaving all of your college visits and interviews til the fall will make for a really stressful first half of your senior year. With my son, we made a compromise. He looked for volunteer opportunities with pretty flexible hours and made it clear from the onset that he was only available for the second half of June (he’s in private school so they get out early) and all of July. We squeezed a few visits in during the first half of the summer on weekends and did the remainder in August. Can you do any visits right now? I know alot of Juniors in my son’s school are hitting the early Junior Days right now.</p>
<p>JoBenny, I’m afraid I’m unable to visit any campus right now. I’ve been busy filling out my application for QuestBridge and looking at summer internships. Once this is over I need to start studying for my SAT, which is in 2 weeks (I’ve started since December, but lately I haven’t been able to practice a lot). Then after that I need to study for SAT II in May and I a plan to use my April vacation to study for the AP exams…I have about 5 colleges on my visiting list and they’re all within an hour drive. My parents don’t want me to go too far LOL</p>
<p>Go for it! You have nothing to lose, especially if it develops your interest in that area!</p>
<p>Do the internship. It’s better to visit colleges when they are in session because the campuses are rather quiet in the summer. If you are visiting colleges that are 1 hr away or less, you can do 1 on a week end during the school year. Many colleges offer tours and info sessions on Sat and some schools do it on Sun also. Consider May after AP exams, Aug - Dec. If timing is tight, then just send out your college apps and then plan on visiting only the ones that you are accepted to. Some private schools track your level of “demonstrated interest” by recording whether you are on their email list, mailing list, have made phone calls to admissions or have visited. This usually does not apply to uber elite lottery schools or public schools. So it you think that the school might track “demonstrated interest,” but you can’t visit until after acceptance, then call the school to show your interest.</p>