<p>Enrichment programs are cool as well as Community Service and tons of it. The more the better. Summer jobs are cool too but there is nothing like those community service hours to help an application. </p>
<p>Also apply early (not necessarily ED) and start working on those essays as early as possible. You'll find that the essays and the EC's will set you apart because everyone will have 4.0 GPA's and almost perfect SAT/ACT's.</p>
<p>My summer banked on two ridiculous reaches (worlds team for debate or TASP) and after not getting to try out for the team due to some good ol' corruption and getting waitlisted + presumably rejected from TASP, I'm kind of left scrambling.</p>
<p>I'm probably going to end up working and volunteering. Just do what's feasible and what you think will benefit you personally (as opposed to benefiting you during the application process)</p>
<p>Really, just do something productive. Even flipping burgers is just fine.</p>
<p>Stay active but don't focus too much on how "impressive" it is what you choose. Anything you do will be a great learning experience. The earlier you start (and stay) working the better chances you'll have of getting competitve internships in the future and furthermore being successful in those jobs. </p>
<p>I went to a summer semester at a top 50 liberal arts college and received 6 hours of credit with two A's in political science classes. My university, Wake Forest, didn't even accept them as transfer credit because there wasn't a research paper component of the class...even though I was in class with sophomore college students while a rising senior in high school.</p>
<p>Get a job and hang out with friends before the hell that is senior year.</p>
<p>I'd say go and do something that's fun. I mean, that's what 'summer' is really all about. </p>
<p>A lot may disagree, but it's not really the time to pad your college application. Just enjoy the few months where you don't have to worry about reading textbooks, writing papers, and taking tests! </p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with going to the beach, movies, museums (seriously, this one is really good), even a bit of volunteering.</p>
<p>It depends on what kind of colleges you're looking into and how competitive they are...honestly it's probably too late to do any of those prestigious programs now, but see if you can find an internship or a summer job, preferably in a field you want to go into.</p>
<p>Or if you want to focus on swimming, there's lots of things you can do - two-a-day practices show dedication, you can lifeguard, try to get an assistant coaching position with the little kids. A bunch of kids I grew up swimming with have started to give private swim lessons. Even helping out working meets timing for/coaching the little kids could be good. And of course you can swim in local short course meets as well as on the long course circuit.</p>
<p>And like someone else said - there are always places looking for volunteers. You could see if there's a rehabilitation facility or something for physically disabled people to swim - people on my team can volunteer at a local facility helping paraplegic and quadraplegic kids learn to swim.</p>
<p>Yes, you could do that, but if you don't like doing that, you know what you could do during the summer?</p>
<p>HAVE FUN!!!!!</p>
<p>do something that caters to your interests, strengthening your hook. if you like to swim, see if you can be an assistant swim coach to a kid's swim team. lifeguard. see if the local community center needs help teaching swim classes.
if you like photography, inquire at your local newspaper if they take intern photographers. ask a professional photographer if they'll take an intern (you might have to do it for free).</p>
<p>Go to Beijing for the Olympics.</p>
<p>err, the olympics start on august 8th, and i'm pretty sure the tickets are sold out</p>
<p>^ so? OP can wait.</p>
<p>I think the people before me who mentioned life-guarding/swim lessons had a great idea. If you have a community center/pool around, that might be possible. As for internships/jobs, it might be a little late unless you're looking for a job that you can keep during your senior year as well. But if you don't need the money, or have time to spare, volunteering is a really commendable option. I don't know what kind of setting you're in (city, small town, etc) but places like food banks and the red cross are always looking for people to help. And it's a great summer to do join a political campaign as well, if that's something you might be interested in.</p>
<p>Also, just looking at your schedule for next year, don't burn out!!! I know right now, given your current gpa, you don't think it will be too much of a struggle. But you will be doing a whole pile of college apps on top of your classes. So give yourself about a week or so of the beginning of the school year to test the waters. If you think the homework load might be too much on top of your 2 hours for swimming, drop a class! Take another art class instead perhaps? If you can do it, though, props. It's much more important to show you know how to balance your workload than wind up burning out trying to impress them.</p>
<p>Good luck finding something for the summer. I'm still looking, too.</p>
<p>oh boy...it might be a little late for the olympics.</p>
<p>does an internship with someplace local look good? Hopefully it does-not just those internships reasearching at awesome science institutions or TASP.</p>