What is the best summer activity?

Applying to College
1

Let’s assume you were applying to one of the following programs to do this summer. If got into more than one of them (very unlikely, I know) and had to choose one, which would you think is the best option?

  1. Paid internship at a major corporation(AT&T, Coca-cola, etc)
  2. Research program at a major university, working with a professor or researcher.
  3. RSI/TASP/Other selective residential learning programs
2

They would all be perfectly fine. It is what you do with the opportunity that is more important.

3

@happy1 would they all be viewed equally by schools like HYPSM?

4

The best summer activity is whatever you want to do and that you’re passionate about!

5

I’ll bite. In this order: 3, 2, 1. Because high school student “internships” aren’t really much. You don’t have any skills yet to add to the corporation. And colleges kind of know that.

But honestly the best thing of all (over all these) is something that YOU figure out and do yourself that no one else is doing. Every one of those things is following the crowd. If you want to get noticed, take some kind of initiative and do something that no one else set up for you or directed you to do. I know this is not easy – if it were easy, everyone would do it. But colleges want people who are interested and interesting. The onus for proving both of those qualities is on you.