By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Child of a single working mom, Daniel has just moved from New Jersey to California where he lives in the only ramshackle apartment complex in Reseda that his mother can afford. Daniel initially hates California, but the moment he meets Ally, things start to look up… or at first they seem to, until Daniel learns the hard way that Ally’s jealous ex-boyfriend is a violent karate champion. So what does Daniel do? Well, he gets an internship with Yoda-like karate-savant cum repairman Mr. Miyagi and spends his summer developing career skills that will help him defeat his rival, get the girl, and (if you’ve seen the more recent spinoff, Cobra Kai) eventually become the wealthy and successful owner of a car dealership.
Ok, so I took some creative liberties with the plot here, but if you haven’t seen the original The Karate Kid starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita (the 2010 remake simply won’t do, much as I love Jackie Chan), then please stop what you are doing. Stop now. Go watch the movie. You’re reading the writing of a child of the eighties, and every time one of our cinematic references goes over your head, a David Bowie fan puts on a tie and becomes an accountant.
Like Daniel, many high school students today realize that the best time for them to pursue serious extracurricular exploits is the summer, blessed as it is with ample hours of sunlight, time to spare, and generally speaking, few academic responsibilities. And while I certainly hope you do not face the threat of a beating from a gang of leather-clad karate bullies, your motivation to use your summer wisely should be as high as Daniel’s. But maybe you didn’t realize that. Or maybe it’s April and all the deadlines for summer programs have passed. Or maybe you applied to selective programs and they rejected you. That’s ok: we are here to help. Now close your eyes, grab those pruning shears, and imagine the contours of your bonsai tree… er, summer… before you.
Let’s start by dissecting what’s most valuable about a summer program when it comes to thinking about college admissions. Getting into college is all about standing out, and so your choice of summer activity should help set you apart by being one (or ideally both) of two things: impressive and unique. Highly selective academic summer programs can certainly tick the first box, and to an extent, they tick the second because only a limited number of students are chosen to participate. That being said, it’s important to remember that absolutely anyone can apply and every year there will be twenty (or 100) students who have participated, so its uniqueness has limits. Summer academic programs certainly have their appeal: they wrap everything up into a nice, easy package. But there are other ways to spend the summer that can be even more valuable, and I always recommend to my students and their families that they explore them regardless of their success (or lack thereof) with summer applications.
Internship and Shadowing Opportunities (and how to find them)
For another approach, see also Victoria’s post on internships.
The first place to look is at the people around you. Who do you know and what do they do? Who do your parents know? What do your friends’ parents do? Look for people in your first- and second-degree social circles who do work interesting to you and with some relation to your future academic major. Let’s say, for example, that you are a true crime podcast junkie like me and want to study Forensic Science. Great! Go back to your favorite podcast and review the people involved—that is, who does work in which forensics is involved directly or indirectly. Here are a few examples that I came up with:
- Forensic Scientists. Ok, this is the most obvious. You may know some forensic scientists, but I’m guessing most of us do not.
- Police Detectives. Police detectives are responsible for gathering and analyzing evidence, and forensic evidence is among the first gathered in a crime. They may not work directly with it, but they will work with people who do.
- Private Detectives. Private detectives are often brought into cases when police investigations peter out, and indeed they are often called upon to re-examine forensic evidence that hasn’t been thoroughly analyzed.
- Criminal Attorneys. Criminal attorneys must have intimate knowledge of the forensic evidence in a case, whether it works in favor of their clients’ interests or against them.
- Victim Advocates.
- Social Workers.
Great, you have a list—now what? Well, if you have someone in your circle of contacts with a career in one of the careers on your list, you’re in good shape. If no one in your circle of contacts is in such a career, you’ll want to head to your second degree contacts by asking your contacts to put you in touch with someone in one of those careers. It’s near impossible that you don’t know someone who knows someone in one of the careers in question.
The next step is to reach out to this person and ask them to participate in an informational interview, in which you ask someone in a career of interest about the details of their work. Informational interviews allow you to expand your awareness of the work by giving you information about the people who do the work (in order to add to the list above), what is involved in the work (which may confirm that you like it, or help you realize that you don’t), and what steps one must take in order to embark in a career in it. Indeed, this process and the college applications process in general will represent most students’ first steps in pre-professionalization. Most importantly, though, by making your interest in the work known, you are priming people to help you find related opportunities. Informational interviews are easy asks, because you are simply asking for someone to let you talk to them, not for any elaborate favors. Yet they often lead to offers of employment, shadowing, or internships—and that’s what this article is about, right?
Of course we cannot bank on the idea that an informational interview will lead to an offer like this. Even Mr. Miyagi initially refused to train Daniel-san until he saw what Daniel was up against. That’s ok. If no offer is forthcoming, never forget to ask the most important informational interview question: “Who else in your field could you put me in touch with that would be willing to help me learn more?”
Write down the names, rinse, and repeat. Before long, you will have numerous contacts in your field of interest; precious, firsthand information on the work; and with any luck, an offer to let you shadow or intern. And even if you do not get an offer, you will still have developed an inestimably valuable network of professionals to help you understand how to achieve your goals.
Incidentally, opportunities achieved in this way will also help make you a more competitive applicant to college. On the one hand, they are unique: other students cannot just Google the shadowing experience you had with your friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend criminal lawyer and apply. It’s an achievement that only you can boast. On the other hand, it can also demonstrate your initiative, a leadership quality that matters to admissions officers.
Passion Projects
The summer is also the perfect time to develop a passion project, like opening a bonsai store (I apologize, but once I start with The Karate Kid references I simply cannot stop). Now we admit that this isn’t easy—but the best things never are, are they? Just look at all the cars Daniel-san had to wax. Seriously, it took him days! Oops, there I go again. Here, you should start by identifying something that you care deeply about. Drawing a blank? Think about some of the times you’ve felt moved, saddened, or angry about something you or someone you cared about experienced. Has someone you loved been affected by discrimination? Mental illness? Karate gangs? If so, that’s an area for exploration, and here, your informational interviewing can also serve you well. Speak with your network and ask them questions related to your interest. What work is being done in advocacy? What niches have yet to be filled? How can a high school student make a difference? Asking these questions—not only of your network, but of yourself—is the first step in developing a passion project, and for those interested in more detailed information, we recommend checking out Victoria’s post here.
Once you have the answers, you must proceed to imagine ways to solve the problem. Here, think big—REALLY BIG. The accomplishments that impress admissions officers are the kinds of things that leave everyone scratching their heads wondering how on Earth a 17-year-old managed to do them. Start small, but think big. Start local, but think global. Start with $50 in donations, but think about how to get $50,000. And never underestimate yourself—youth is powerful. An unknown peasant girl with no battle experience, Joan of Arc, led the French army to victory over the English at 17. Greta Thunberg began her first school strike for the climate at 15. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at 18. Alexander the Great, by the time he was 23, had conquered all of Persia. Passion projects are all about just that: passion. And the more you bring, the more you accomplish.
Non-Selective Summer Programs
Of course if nothing else works out, there are plenty of summer academic programs in just about every discipline out there worth considering. And while these will not help you get into college directly, if they feed your soul and your curiosity, they are certainly worth your consideration because they will eventually lead you down the path to accomplish things that will, in fact, make you more competitive. And sometimes, as a student and a person, that’s where you are. And that’s ok—we all grow at different paces.
Summer Jobs
Finally, never underestimate the value of a summer job. Colleges hold in high esteem applicants’ commitment to paid work, which demonstrates character. Of course the positions available to high school students may not be the most glorious (waiting on or bussing tables, for instance), but that’s ok. I would always recommend, however, that you start by looking for positions in businesses that do work that, if not directly related to your interest, is adjacent to it. Are you an aspiring mechanical engineer? Consider looking into work helping out a car mechanic or… I don’t know… a repairman. Remember, of course, that he need not be a karate master, though clearly it’s cooler if he is.
The bottom line is that if you want to get ahead in the college admissions race (and in life!) then you need to spend your summers doing something productive and fulfilling. The options are endless, and the summer may seem that way—but it’s not. Get to work now and, by the end, you too could be the All-Valley Karate Champion. Today the valley, tomorrow the world.
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