It’s finally over. The last ten months have been a whirlwind of new responsibilities and experiences, but now, you’re officially in high school now. With your freshman year behind you, you might think you have two months of rest and relaxation before classes start back up again. Wrong! Kinda! Like, you can relax, but you also need to explore some of your academic interests! It might seem early to think about college, but colleges care about what you’ve been doing since day 1 of freshman year.
We aren’t saying that you should spend all your summer taking more classes instead of taking some time to chill and hang out with friends, buuuuut there are some really interesting opportunities for high school students to learn new things. The summer before sophomore year is a great time to kick off exploring your academic interests. It’s your largest block of uninterrupted time, and if you’re just wasting it, schools will take note! It’s also important to start exploring these interests early, because you might realize it’s not the topic for you.
The other easiest way for you to start is: summer programs! We love summer programs for rising sophomores because they give you a really in-depth look at what you might want to study, and you get to do it with other students who like the same stuff. We’ve put together a list of some summer programs for various potential majors, but you should also check out the pre-college programs at places like Harvard, Columbia, UChicago, UCLA, Duke, and so many more.
If you don’t know where to start, think about what your favorite classes in school are. If you like history, what about history appeals to you? Do you like the modern stuff? The old stuff? The foreign stuff? That can help you narrow down into topics like politics, sociology, or international relations.
Math
Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC) (Redwood City, Online)
Boston University’s PROMYS Program (Boston)
MathILy Program (Bryn Mawr)
STEM and Engineering
Science Camps of America Summer Camp (Hawai’i Island, O’ahu)
Bluestamp Engineering Summer Program (San Jose, Online)
An Introductory coding course at trusted providers like NextGen Bootcamp, The Coding Space, or General Assembly
Medicine
Rady Children’s Medical Academy (San Diego)
Medical Immersion Summer Academy (Oakland)
Biomedical Research Academy (UPenn)
English and Creative Writing
Georgetown Creative Writing Academy (Washington D.C.)
Sarah Lawrence Writer’s Week for Teens (Bronxville)
Psychology
NSLC Psychology and Neuroscience Summer Program (American University, Duke, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan)
Cornell’s Precollege Psychology Program (Online)
Law and Government
Georgetown Law Academy (Washington D.C.)
Duke’s Mock Trial: Practicing the Tools of Justice Program (Durham)
Summer Discovery Law and Government Courses (Throughout the U.S.)
Film and the Arts
NYU Tisch Online High School Filmmakers Workshop (Online)
Wake Forest University Summer Immersion Program’s Filmmaking Institute (Winston-Salem)
Interlochen Center for the Arts Visual Arts Programs (Interlochen, MI)
Outside of summer programs, you should try to explore some of your interest areas on your own. While you’re on that beach vacation with your family, read some books. Choose things that actually spark your interest and can help you explore the topics you like further. You can also take online classes! Websites like Coursera, Open Yale Courses, and The Great Courses all have free or relatively low-cost college-level classes you can take (without pressure!) to keep learning about your topic of choice.
If you’re torn between a few topics, we really recommend this route. By reading books and taking classes, you’ll get a better feel for what you actually might want to invest four years of college studying. And also what topics actually spark interest for you!
Again, summer is one of the most important parts of your high school career. You’ll need to know what you want to do when you apply to college, so why not start searching for that topic now?
Need help planning your summer? Let us know. We’d love to help you the right plan for your interests.