What summer activities did your rising college freshman do and how it affected Year 1 of college.

Mine took placement tests (at least 4) and traveled. There was an online math preparation class (Transition to Proof-Based Math) his college provided that he found quite valuable. He also cleaned up the documentation of some of the code he had written for a research lab during HS. And, we scheduled some medical appointments, though we had gotten his wisdom teeth out over the prior winter break.

We also tried to have some fun experiences with him, since he will likely be doing research or internships all of his college summers. So, we did some escape rooms as a family and he took a ceramics course with us.

He doesn’t spend much on extra food or other things at college, so his ~5 hour a week job there is covering things.

My son did a PG year. After high school graduation, IIRC he had some sort of a part time job, but that was secondary to lacrosse camps and tournaments and the seemingly endless “going-away” parties for each of the friends as they left for college. He was the last to leave as his PG boarding school started well after Labor Day. Between graduation from PG year and college he had a great summer job as a bank teller and was in a serious physical conditioning program for his new lacrosse team. Summer after high school was horrid, summer after PG was great (Mom’s view).

PG? IIRC?

Let me see if my guesses are right.

PG= Post Graduate
IIRC= If I remember correctly

@ChangeTheGame That’s how I would read those abbreviations, too.

D (rising freshman) will be working and volunteering. She had hoped to fit in a mission trip, but it isn’t going to work out with her schedule. She also hopes to take a couple of CLEP tests.

Ha, never associated PG with after high school, only college. But since high school was mentioned I thought PG might mean Pre-Gap year, lol, at a university that went by IIRC. No wonder I couldn’t make sense of it.

Summer before college: job at retail store

Impact on college: enough money in bank account to cover textbooks & other incidentals for fall semester.

My D2 had a college relationship break-up towards the end of the 2nd semester. She refused to attend the internship she had lined up and stayed back at home during the summer hols. She attended to an Alzheimer’s patient (she is a Mech Eng student) during this summer break part of the time, as her sister and most of her close friends were busy with their activities. Lots of “life’s lessons” learnt!

She has recovered extremely well and completed 2 other internships (third one in progress) during the other summer breaks. She is graduating in Dec and has a plum job lined up starting in Jan 2019.

Yes – PG is post-graduate year. It’s probably one of those New England things, but the good prep schools take a handful of PGs – extra year seniors He graduated public high school at 17 and did a post-graduate year at a boarding school. Gave him a chance to grow up physically as well as have some excellent academic growth in very small classes and one-on-one teaching. He was able to take some advanced coursework that set him up nicely for his college program and worked with a top notch coach in his sport that also prepared him well for his collegiate sport.