<p>What's the best (from an admissions standpoint) way for a high school student to spend their summers? Please rank the following and discuss! :)</p>
<p>Internship
Volunteering
Program/Camp
Winning Award
Job
Research
Taking a class
Relaxing
Other</p>
<p>There is no “best” way as long as you’re active. Any of your top 7 categories is fine provided that you benefit from your experiences during those activities.</p>
<p>What DowneasterDad said is correct. The first thing you want to do is make sure you’d be able to benefit from what you are doing in some way. For example, growth in certain areas.</p>
<p>However, assuming you’d be able to benefit from everything in the same way, I would think that colleges would like to see research. That is just my opinion though.</p>
<p>Research is nothing special. Do something you care about, do it well, and spend some time thinking about how you can get the most out of it. If you have to work in order to support your family or save for college, that’s fine too. One of the saddest things on CC are all the kids doing stuff because they think it ‘looks good’ for college instead of things they genuinely care about. Don’t be one of those kids.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, I already have my summer well under way. Personally I’m ‘relaxing,’ with the possibility of an award (depends on how well I do that thing I care about). I was just curious because it seems like most kids on here have their summers bursting at the seams.</p>