Hey y’all! Today’s post is everything you should try to do the summer before your junior year!
If you saw my earlier post, I talked about the summer before sophomore year and everything you need to know about sophomore year. It’s super easy to burn out if you’re the kind of person to procrastinate and start homework at night and you’re taking extremely difficult classes or a ton of APs. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. I used to start my homework late because I would take a nap as soon as I got home or I’d be watching Netflix. Well, the summer before your junior year is when you should fix this! If you’re not a morning person, force yourself to wake up every morning as early as possible. For example, if you usually wake up on the weekends at 9 am, the next day, force yourself to get up at 8 am, then the next day try 7:30 am, then 7 am. It’s hard, I know, but I promise it’s worth it when you feel like you did something that day. If you’re not sure what you should do as soon as you wake up, plan the night before what you should do the following day. If you wake up around 6:30 am, go to the gym, have a light breakfast, read a book or magazine, and then study for 2 hours, by the time it’s 10 am, you’ll feel proud of yourself and continue the productiveness! Moving on, you should start studying for the SAT or the ACT the summer before junior year because once the school year starts, you won’t have as much time as you think to study for these national exams. Try knocking it out before the school year starts, but if not, make a study plan that you can stick to, and get in at least a couple of hours weekly dedicated to these exams. There are so many resources online that can help you study for these national exams, plus intensive summer camps/boot camps that will allow you to excel. I’d also recommend looking at the curriculums of the courses you’re taking for the upcoming school to get an idea of what you should be preparing yourself for. For example, I know AP Biology is one of the hardest AP science courses, especially being that it’s vocabulary-heavy and dense content, so familiarize yourself with some of its terms and definitions as well as difficult concepts so that by the time the school year starts, you’ll have some idea of a certain topic or unit. This applies to any courses that you’ve either heard are difficult, or you’re not sure how well you’re going to do in that course. Studying ahead will always always always help you in any subject because you’ll feel prepared and you’ll have a basic understanding of it! Moving forward, if there were any internships or summer programs that you got accepted into, first of all, CONGRATULATIONS!! Of course, attend those, and build relationships with professors, program directors, faculty, staff, and other participants, because trust me, building connections with others is always vital if you want a strong network. If you ever need to ask someone for shadowing, internships, programs, scholarships, etc, the people you build connections with might be able to help you 🙂 If you don’t have any internships or summer programs, no worries! Apply for volunteer opportunities or other summer programs that still accept applications. It’s completely okay if you cannot find one that aligns with your interests or already has a closed application. A super helpful tip regarding these programs/internships is to make a list of them and when their applications open on a note or Google doc so that you have easy access to it for the following year! Another thing you can start the summer before junior year is RESEARCH. Depending on your major, research can be an amazing way to show colleges that you’re interested and experienced in college-level research and writing, especially if you can get your research paper published in prestigious academic journals! Even if you can’t, it’s completely okay, because it matters more that you did research as a high school student, showing that you took the initiative to get hands-on experience to learn more about a certain topic, and displaying your passion for that topic using critical thinking skills, which stand out to admissions officers. Well, that’s all for today’s post, and if you have any questions, please let me know!! I hope y’all have an awesome school year!