Q&A with Ibrahim: How Command Education Helps Students Make Summer Plans that Will Impress Ivy League Admissions Officers

Ibrahim: It is never too early to start planning. I advise students to start in September because some competitive summer programs have deadlines in early-to mid-October, although the majority of programs close their applications in January and February. In any case, the fall is the time to start mapping out the coming summer. Starting early will allow you to craft standout applications for more prestigious programs.

Ibrahim: Starting the summer before ninth grade, what you do during the summer will be included on your college applications, so that is the time that students should start considering more competitive summer activities. However, this doesn’t mean that students should sit at home on the couch during their summers in middle school—going to summer camp, volunteering, or participating in sports camps can be enriching opportunities for students to develop teamwork, communication and leadership skills.

When it comes to the summers before freshman and sophomore years, students have a few options. Depending on their interests and local resources, students can volunteer or intern with a local business or nonprofit in their community. However, given that there are often limited internship opportunities for younger students, students who hope to intern should take initiative and leverage their connections to arrange an opportunity with someone in their network. Additionally, while we typically discourage rising juniors and seniors from attending summer pre-college programs (these are typically pay-to-play and communicate more about a student’s affluence than their academic skill set), they can be beneficial for younger students. Attending a pre-college program can give rising freshmen and sophomores a first taste of life on a college campus and offer an opportunity to begin articulating their core passions.

Ibrahim: Research programs and competitive academic programs are some of the most selective and the most well-regarded by top colleges. For instance, the average unweighted GPA for students accepted to COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) is 3.8. The Telluride Association Summer Seminar (TASS) has an acceptance rate of 3–5%. Students who are accepted to these competitive programs go through an intense evaluation process, and top colleges appreciate that students’ credentials have been validated by a third-party committee. Acceptance into these programs can be as difficult as getting into the Ivy League—and they can therefore be a strong indicator of a student’s Ivy League odds.

Reaching out to a professor to request an informal research internship can be a good second choice as well. Even though this option is not as structured (and thus requires students to take more initiative to structure their own learning), it can result in students developing hands-on skills in their field, building relationships with reputable scholars, and potentially gaining an important recommendation for their college applications.

Ibrahim: Not at all. If approached with thoughtfulness and intentionality, a simple activity like working in a garden, volunteering at a shelter, or serving as a lifeguard can go a long way to show a student’s community-mindedness and leadership. I typically advise students to pursue these non-academic activities earlier in their high school careers (between 8th and 10th grade), before pursuing more rigorous, academically-focused programs in the years that follow.

Ibrahim: Yes—but they care insofar as you learned and grew from the experience. It is not so much about what you do—whether academic or non-academic—and more about how you convey what you contributed and developed in that role on your applications. If you worked at an ice cream shop, you should articulate what you got out of the experience beyond “I needed the money.” Consider what you learned about others, yourself, your interests, and the workforce, and how you might communicate those unique lessons in your essays.

For instance, I mentored a student who worked at the MoMath in New York City during the summer. His role was primarily crowd control—it was the seemingly menial task of directing visitors to the bathrooms and galleries and checking their tickets at the entry. Through our work together, I helped him see this experience through a new lens. Though it felt as though he wasn’t doing anything particularly important, he realized that it was far more than just a job at a museum. He wrote his supplemental essay about engaging with people from a variety of different backgrounds, sharing his own culture with them, and serving as an ambassador for his city. He’s now pursuing a mechanical engineering degree at Harvard. On a personal note, I wrote about my own summer job on my Harvard application—as a high school student, I worked at the dog shelter, where I was employed alongside a number of formerly incarcerated people. The experience deepened my compassion and curiosity for others’ circumstances and backgrounds, and I shared some of those lessons in my essays.

While every student will approach this differently, the keys to making the most of your summer job are open-mindedness, creativity, and authenticity. Parents should note that this type of reflection doesn’t come naturally to most students—this is a critical area in which a college consultant can help a student develop a profound and engaging perspective on something that they assume is unimportant.

Ibrahim: There are three primary avenues for students to look: first, students can obviously Google opportunities. This tends to work best for finding pre-college or merit-based academic programs to apply to in your field of interest. If a student is unsure of what they are interested in or overwhelmed by their search results, they can always talk to their school counselor or teachers to receive feedback on narrowing their search. Finally, students should embrace cold-calling and reach out to places to see if they need volunteers, interns, apprentices, researchers, etc.

All of these options may seem simple, but I want to emphasize that this process is not as easy as it may seem. Not only are many of these programs highly competitive, but knowing where to start and how to tailor searches to a student’s skills, interests, and goals can be challenging in itself. Whether a private college admissions consultant or a guidance counselor, I strongly advise families to seek support from an expert to eliminate some of the stress of the process.

Ibrahim: We work with countless students throughout the year to source, create, or apply to standout summer activities. As such, we know which summer plans will fit their profile best.

Additionally, we don’t just help students identify the right program—we help them make the most of it, every step of the way. We coach students through ideating and building passion projects, help them apply to competitive programs and continue their learning after the program ends, cold call professors to request research assistantships and maintain their relationships through the college admissions process, find a meaningful job or internship and thoughtfully reflect on their experience to craft standout essays. The benefits of your summer activities don’t end with the start of school in the fall—and many students struggle most with reaping the long-term benefits of their summer involvements. We help them make the most of those summer activities to build eye-catching college applications and to set themselves up for success in college and beyond.