Summer Post 12th Grade

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
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I am currently a senior and I am wondering what I should do this summer? In previous summers I’ve worked in local day camps. I intend on majoring in chemical engineering, but I have no idea where I will end up for college yet. I live in NY in a suburb not far from NYC and I would like to stay relatively local. Any ideas?

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  1. Celebrate with your HS friends! You deserve it, plan some trips to the beach, lake, six flags, etc
  2. Make some money. College has all sorts of unexpected costs, late night pizza runs, club dues…
  3. Fall in love with your college. Look up clubs, look into different majors, classes you might want to take, study abroad programs…
  4. Shop for college - New dorm stuff, clothes, etc
  5. Relax, spend some time with your family. They are going to want to savor all the time they can with you
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Unless you’re planning to dash through college in less than 4 years, the summer before college is the time to work and save money so that you have spending money in your pocket, to hang out with your high school friends, and to try to stay on good terms with your parents. Finally, you don’t need to do anything to buff your resume! If you want to find a job doing some sort of engineering work (local manufacturers may be happy to hire you now part time, to continue on full time through the summer), sure, but you could get any kind of job you want, doesn’t matter if it’s just a grunt job.

Be aware, the summer before you leave for college can be very stressful on the parents and the student. You feel like you’re nearly out the door, and they feel that it is their last opportunity to stuff the last bit of parenting in, to finish the job. This can lead to conflicts over curfews, use of car late at night, where you go, with whom, and to do what, even though after you leave for college, they won’t know where you are, with whom, to do what.

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That is the one summer I let my kids relax and pretty much goof off. It was good for them to have a bit of time to decompress between HS and college. (They both had money for some freshman year college expenses saved from prior summer jobs.) There wasn’t a ton of time as our HS ended late in June and college started in mid to late August.

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