Summer Between Sophomore and Junior Year
It’s the end of sophomore year, which means you’re already halfway through high school! You might’ve finished a tougher year compared to 9th grade, and you’re probably tempted to just sit back and relax for the whole summer. While you absolutely should have fun this upcoming summer, there are some things you can also do to help you prepare for your future college applications.
These will also make your life easier throughout junior & senior year, which means Future You gets to stress and worry less. Win-win!🫸 🫷
Since you only have 3 summers in high school before senior year (and college app season) rolls around, it’s worth it to make each one count. Here’s what to consider for summer #2:
Summer Programs
This might be the first activity that pops to mind. If you’ve already researched, applied for, and gotten into a summer program, great! There are tons of awesome options here, including university Pre-College Summer Programs and specialized programs like the STEM-focused COSMOS (at UC colleges in California).
If it’s the end of sophomore year and you haven’t started looking into these yet, most programs at this point will have already finished enrollment. Usually, summer applications start around winter and decisions wrap up by spring. You may be able to still find some open pre-college courses (either residential or online) at select universities still accepting applications, usually for classes held later on this summer (late July to August).
If you didn’t find anything, don’t worry! A summer program is only one of several types of activities you can explore this summer. Let’s take a look at some extracurriculars.
Extracurricular Activities
At Eritus, we talk a LOT about extracurriculars (ECs). Here’s why:
1️⃣ Your grades, GPA, and test scores tell college admissions officers where you fall on the wide academic spectrum.
2️⃣ Your ECs help them understand who you are. Through your ECs, colleges see what you care about and what you commit to.
So, what ECs can you do over summer?
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As a volunteer, you’re helping and serving someone (or something) else. This might be your community, certain groups of people, animals, or the environment.
It makes sense then, that volunteering is a great way to show colleges what you care about. You’re literally dedicating your time and energy to something bigger than yourself! 🌎
When looking for a volunteering opportunity, don’t choose it because you think “it’ll look good for college”. It should be for a cause you either already care about, or think you might care about if you explore it more. Most, if not all, volunteering opportunities out there will give you great experience and help you learn, but for college apps, think about what you want to commit to (and why).
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Internships are short-term work or research experiences that can either be paid or unpaid. As an intern, you gain industry experience and/or academic credit.
With internships, you get to explore a potential career path and build administrative/professional skills. Whether you’re shadowing a professional or doing a hands-on project directly, you’ll start to figure out what type of major, work, or job you might want to pursue in your future. 🤔
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If you’re curious about how things work and/or you want to dive into research, here are some ways to explore this!
There are plenty of research-focused summer programs that universities offer for high school students. If you’re at the end of sophomore year, these programs are likely full by now, but you can still take a look and consider them for the summer after junior year.
If you like science, you can intern or shadow at a lab or institution. Your parents or teachers may already have some connections in this field, or you can reach out to local professors or researchers to see if they have any open opportunities.
For guided research, you can apply for mentorship-based research opportunities offered through programs like Polygence and Pioneer Academics.
You can always start your own research project independently, in an area(s) that excites you. Whether you’re interested solely in one subject or you want to combine different interests together, there really is no limit. All you need is curiosity, a willingness to explore, and a desire to learn. You can analyze existing data, conduct surveys, or write a research paper. You can even submit your findings to research competitions specifically for high schoolers, like ISEF or NCF-Envirothon.
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If you’re looking for real-world experience and/or you’d like to start earning your own money, getting a job is a great option. An entry-level job in the corporate world helps teach you how companies work and what it’s like to work in an office/store or interact with customers all day.
Depending on your hobbies, you might even be able to dabble in paid “freelance work”. For example, you can put on small community events or performances, teach a musical instrument, or sell art commissions.
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If you’d just rather do your own thing than join a pre-determined activity, summer is a great time to build your personal portfolio. Your portfolio, which you’ll share on college applications, is a compilation of personal projects that you accomplished on your own accord.
If you do art, these can be your proudest works of art. If you play music, these can be personal compositions or recordings of your toughest pieces. If you code, these can be games or interactive apps that you’ve developed. Or maybe you do all three, and found a way to combine your interests together into one project!
Your personal portfolio is what you make of it. Remember to keep learning, challenge yourself, and (most importantly) have fun!
Get Ahead in Academics
In sophomore year, you may already have started taking a couple more advanced or AP classes. Depending on your goals, you’ll have even more advanced classes waiting for you in junior year.
📣 FYI: Academically, junior and senior year will be your hardest years in high school. You’ve got this!
If you want to better prepare for the tougher classes coming in Fall, you can study ahead for them during summer. There are many resources you can explore, like reading through your junior year textbooks, watching YouTube videos, or doing practice exercises through educational platforms (e.g. Khan Academy, IXL, Brilliant). You can even use AI to help come up with your own customized study plan!
If your school offers the option, you can also take summer courses (usually at a local community college) that will let you skip ahead in classes. For example, you may be able to skip ahead one level in math, say from Math 1 to Math 3 if you take the equivalent of Math 2 over the summer. This allows you to have an even more rigorous class schedule, and is one way to tell colleges that you’re not afraid to challenge yourself academically. Check with your school counselor if you have specific questions here.
SAT/ACT Test Prep
Depending on a student’s goals, we’ll usually recommend starting standardized test prep this summer. Some students may want to wait until they get through half/most/all of junior year before taking the SAT/ACT for the first time. This is a valid path if you want to advance your math and English skills at school. But if you’re up for it, we find that starting this process earlier and taking your first SAT/ACT test this upcoming Fall will help you feel more prepared (and less stressed!).
It’s common for students to take the SAT/ACT more than once, if they aren’t satisfied with their first (or second) score. If you take your first test in the first half of junior year, you’ll have about an entire year to take it a second or third time, and have it count for college apps.
💡 TIP: We don’t recommend taking either the SAT or ACT more than 3 times max, ideally 1-2 times total. If you were going to improve your score, you would have done so by the third test. Speaking honestly, you’ve either 1) tried your best and gotten your best score, or 2) not prepared enough for the tests you’ve taken. Either way, it does more harm than good to take the test yet another time.
We offer specialized 1-on-1 teaching, guidance, and practice for the SAT. If you want to learn more, just shoot us a quick message!
Exploring Colleges
Lastly, if you haven’t yet, this summer is a great time to start thinking about what colleges (or types of colleges) you might want to apply to in senior year. It’s totally fine not to have a detailed A-Z list of colleges at this point, but start to think about what you’re looking for from your future college experience.
Consider. . .
Specific majors or programs you’re interested in
College location (rural or urban? East Coast or West Coast or somewhere in between? domestic or international?)
College size and student population
Even things like what type of food you enjoy! (If you just can’t live without sushi, for example, you may not enjoy going to college in a rural, landlocked location.)
If you have a growing list of colleges you’re considering applying to, this summer is a good opportunity to actually visit some of those colleges. Many colleges offer guided campus tours, and you and your family can make a trip out of it. Depending on where you go, you can even visit multiple colleges within a few days. For example, if you’re headed to the San Francisco Bay Area, you can visit Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara University, San Jose State, or University of San Francisco—just to name a few!
Touring colleges helps you understand which campuses or schools resonate with you, what you’re looking for out of a college, and where you’d feel excited to call home for those 4 years. 🌟