Love knowing the who, what, when, where, why, and how? Then we bet you probably really enjoy history and think you might want to study it in college. History is a great degree that can lead to a bunch of different careers, from teaching to curation to even law or politics. Whether you want to help preserve the past or use it to improve the future, if you think you might want to study history in college, you’re in the right place.
History is a super competitive major across the board, especially in the Ivy League. But! Don’t let that dissuade you. It just means you need to have an application that helps you stand out. It’s not too late to start making plans for college as a junior. In fact, we believe junior year is your last big opportunity to make any major changes to your portfolio before you have to start sending out applications.
So, if you’re a junior and you think you want to study history, let’s talk about how you can make your application stand out and prepare for college applications (which aren’t that far away!).
Niches And Why They Matter
When we first meet with students, we often refer to their “niche” when discussing college goals. A niche is that topic within a topic within a topic that gets you really excited. It’s more narrow than just “history” which literally includes everything that’s ever happened, like, ever. Think more like “one very specific battle during the War of 1812.”
When we start working with students one-on-one, our first goal it to start narrowing down what their niche is. If the student tells us that they’re interested in history, for example, we’ll help them narrow what they want to do down to a particular specialization, a locale, or a time period. If they really enjoy APUSH, then we’d help zoom in on American History until we found the era that connected with them the most. Then we might land on something more specific, like the history of how women were involved with the Civil War. Now that’s a niche.
Doing The Homework
While having decided on your niche is great, we won’t have our students just sitting on that knowledge until they graduate. You have to put it into action. We want our kids to not only know what they’re getting into, but we also want them to become experts in their niche. That’s where the next step comes in: online classes and books.
We make sure to help our students find ways to learn about their niche in the way that works best for them with an individualized curriculum that suits their needs. If you know you hated learning about WW2, we wouldn’t assign you WW2 classes or books – instead we’d focus on what you did enjoy. From there, we’d narrow it down further. If you really enjoyed the intro World History class we gave you, especially the stuff about the Middle Ages, then we’d find you more books and classes to send you down that path.
Extracurriculars
Now that you’ve got some book learnin’ in ya, it’s time to put that knowledge to work. Getting some real-life experience in your niche before you go to college is a big goal for us, and we help students do just that. By getting to know our students one-on-one, we’re able to help match you with extracurriculars that really help build your profile out.. Whether it’s finding a relevant club at your school to join or finding ways to get involved with opportunities in your community like working at museums, doing research with a local professor, or getting an internship, you want to have extracurriculars that add value to your applications.
And let’s talk about value for a sec. We want to make sure our students are using their extracurricular time wisely. While being in the band and competing in sports is great, we do recommend setting aside plenty of time to do stuff related to your niche. We don’t necessarily want you to quit the soccer team, but we do want you to be aware of what will look best on your college applications.
Summer Activities
We don’t want to take away our students’ well-earned summer break, but having over 60 days off without interruptions is really useful for developing niches. And, juniors, this is your last summer to make a tangible difference on those applications. So, we recommend that students spend at least part of their summer developing their niche, whether it’s by doing research, attending a summer program, getting a job, or a combo of all of these things.
Summer programs are a great way for students to learn about their niches and develop relevant skills in the field. These programs can take several different forms, whether by offering classes over the summer, getting students involved with professionals in their field, or setting up projects for students to contribute to themselves.
However, summer programs shouldn’t be your entire summer – you want stuff that shows more depth. Whether you do it by getting a summer job, doing some research, or taking time to get a certification over your break, making the most of your free time is really important. Not only will you build skills to make your college life easier, but having that experience on your college applications looks really impressive to admissions counselors and may be exactly what you need to get into your target college.
Application Time
We have our juniors start their Common App essay around June and start working on their Early Decision applications soon afterward. From there, they’ll send out applications to colleges on their list according to upcoming deadlines. We do this because we want our students to get ahead of the curve by sending in everything they need for the application process before senior year starts. This helps relieve some stress for our students by reducing their workload during the craziness of senior year, and getting everything done early is never a bad idea.
You’re in the home stretch of high school, but that doesn’t mean you can slow down. Put in good work, get your applications sent out, and really master your niche. Make the most of your time!
Getting into college can feel overwhelming. Send us an email. We can help.