For College Applicants, Pressure to Make Summers Count Has Gotten Even Worse
Teens scramble to specialize their summer pursuits early—to convey a ‘story’ to college admissions officers
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Crafting a clear narrative about their passions can help students stand out in a sea of all-rounders. JOHN G MABANGLO/SHUTTERSTOCK
The country’s most ambitious high-schoolers now have one more thing to fret over: crafting their “summer story.”
Overachieving teenagers have long pursued a smorgasbord of résumé-polishing summer activities. But a range of impressive summer pursuits is no longer enough, some college advisers say. Students now feel pressure to specialize—as early as their freshman summer—in interests they want to pursue in college.
The idea, college advisers say, is to assemble a list of summer pursuits that show increasing mastery in a distinct specialty. That “narrative” can help students stand out in a sea of all-rounders, they say.
So many students now have high GPAs and strong test scores that the competition has extended to the summer, said Lisa Bain Carlton, a college counselor in Austin, Texas.
“A significant differentiator is: What have you done outside the classroom? And what does it tell us about what you’re going to do at our college?” Bain Carlton said. Summer activities have always played a role in college admissions, but now “it’s like a train that’s taken off and gotten faster and faster and faster,” she said.
Stanford freshman Andra Campos. ANDRA CAMPOS
Andra Campos, a freshman at Stanford University planning to major in science and technology, says she never had a free summer after her freshman year of high school. She filled her schedule with a healthcare internship, a research program at New York University, volunteering at a local hospital and running a nonprofit organization—activities that aligned with her interests in biology and computer science.
She advises high-schoolers to choose between science and the humanities early on. By junior year of high school, she says, students should specialize within those fields and plan their extracurriculars around that specialty.
“If the activities you’re doing during your summer aren’t really tying together to this cohesive narrative, or you’re not really planning your summer strategically, it’s really almost the same as not doing much at all,” Campos said.
Parents pay thousands of dollars and enlist college counselors to burnish their high-schoolers’ summer portfolios. The most selective summer programs require college-like applications—and have college-like acceptance rates. There are also a number of so-called pay-to-play programs that don’t necessarily give students a leg up in admissions.
Prestigious programs aren’t a must, college counselors say. Summer jobs and volunteering can boost a student’s portfolio, too. The key is crafting a clear narrative about a student’s passions through their extracurriculars, essays and résumés.
Ben Bousquet, director of college consulting at Sierra Admissions and a former assistant admissions director at Vanderbilt University, said his strategy is to help narrow students’ academic interests down to one or two passions. He then recommends summer programs that authentically align with those interests.
“That’s a lot of the work that we do with ninth, 10th and 11th-graders,” Bousquet said. “And then in 12th grade, their job is to tell that story.”
Extreme efforts to “stage-manage” a student’s narrative can backfire, said Eric Tipler, author of “Write Yourself In: The Definitive Guide to Writing Successful College Admissions Essays.” “Admissions officers are professionals at sniffing that out,” he said.
Tipler advises students to spend their summers on activities they are passionate about—but not all activities are created equal. “I hate having to say, ‘Don’t go to camp.’ But the reality is, going to a sleep-away camp is probably not going to help with your college application,” he said.
Some see a downside in students narrowing their interests early.
A specialized path can be “very strongly” at odds with the self-discovery that is key to teenage years, says Silas Tautz, a high-school junior from Mount Carroll, Ill. While some students have specialized interests from a young age, college-admissions competition can make students feel they have no choice but to narrow themselves early on, he said.
Tautz says he wants to pursue a career in education policy, so he plans to spend this summer conducting academic research, publishing op-eds and networking in the field.
“You have to leave an impression” on admissions officers, he said. “Someone who’s trying to discover themselves and seems a bit all over the place” isn’t as likely to make a strong impression, he adds.
Silas’s mother, Lisa Tautz, graduated from high school in 1995 and runs a family-owned retail business. She said she feels “culture shock” seeing her son navigate the current admissions landscape—especially when it comes to pursuits outside of the classroom.
“I’m like, ‘Honey, I know your LinkedIn is better than mine, and I’m in business,’” she said. “But he keeps me on my toes.”
The best route is a specialized pursuit that teens are genuinely passionate about, students and advisers say.
Bryan Zhu, a high-school senior from Bellevue, Wash., said he has been passionate about science from an early age. After being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in eighth grade, he developed an interest in the role of artificial intelligence and health policy in the biomedical field.
College-prep company founder Tony Le. TONY LE
Zhu has spent the past three summers working with university researchers specializing in those areas. He is hoping his college applications show admissions officers who he is—and land him at a top school for STEM.
“My own narrative is that I want to build a fairer system and a fairer society that’s more inclusive to people with different needs,” Zhu said. “I would just say, show them who you truly are, what you care about and what you do, and let’s hope they like it.”
Tony Le, the Irvine, Calif.-based founder of a college-prep company, said pressure on high-schoolers has skyrocketed in the decade he has worked in education. He reminds his students to get some rest during summer breaks.
“Go hang out with friends, go on that vacation with your family, map that out first,” he said. “And then with the remaining time—which you should probably have a lot of—how do we fill that up to stay competitive?”
