Are You Being Productive?

I'm curious to know how productive you have been this summer? Personally, I find that I need to structure my time or else I can waste a day away and not have any idea where the time went. I am particularly anxious to hear (and see) how productive all of the seniors have been this summer. Last spring when we met for your individual meetings as well as in the large junior student & parent meeting we talked about some of the things you could (and ideally should) be working on this summer to prepare yourself for the college application process.

We talked about researchng colleges, making college visits, asking teachers for recommendation letters, organizing your list of high school activities and awards (into resume format or at least a list), narrowing down your college list so that you have a pretty solidified list about where you plan to apply when we start school next month, organizing all of your intended colleges so that you know their deadline dates and what materials you will need for applying, reading, doing any prep-work for the ACT/ SAT that you still wanted/ needed to do, working on your essay questions, volunteer, look for scholarships, and, if applicable, complete all of your summer coursework for AP or Honors classes. It is a pretty demanding list and a lot of times students think they'll have "more time" to work on it "later" when it isn't summer and they are back in a school mindset. Please remember, that once you start your classes you will have teachers demanding homework, over 7 hours of your day spent in school, plus athletics and other activities occupying your time.

Summer is also a great time to be able to ask questions of your friends who are home from college about what their experience has been like. Types of questions you might want to consider asking include:

- What did they like best about college? Least?
- What best prepared them for college?
- Did their college search give them an accurate picture of what college would really be like?
- Are there particular things they would recommend that you look at or consider when researching schools?
- How large are the majority of their classes? Biggest class? Smallest?
- What activities did they get involved in on campus?
- Was it easy to make friends at school?
- If they could go back and repeat their senior year over again, would they have done anything different? Would they still have made the same choice about where to apply and attend?

Those are just a few ideas to get you started. In my experience, students are always more than happy to spend some time talking about their first year (or two) of college. Take full advantage of the opportunity - it really might help guide you in your own college search, or, at the very least, hopefully it will motivate you to get started. :-)

And, just in case you think I am crazy for wanting you to be working on your college application process now, check out all of these articles/ blog posts pushing students to do just that.

Summertime Opportunities
Summer Task for Seniors: The College List
Summer Task for Seniors: Get Organized
Summer Task for Seniors: Complete your Essay
Summer Task for Seniors: Prepare Additional Materials
5 Things High School Seniors Should be Doing Now

In all sincerity, I also hope that this summer you are finding some time to do things you enjoy, to relax and de-stress, and to spend time with your family and friends! Enjoy the rest of your summer break and if you are a senior who hasn't started thinking about your college application process yet, please get started!