Be Your Own Interesting, Not Someone Else’s

1/16/2018

Chris Boehm

Snow days, late starts, and periods of cabin fever are a perfect excuse to commence conversations about summer plans. WARNING: Please do not start this discussion with your college counselor like this, “Will a college like to see this summer experience on my application?” If the non-verbal response isn’t an eye rolling, someone has an excellent poker face. You should do things that feed an interest over the summer.

The word interest comes from the Latin interesse, or to be different. Doing something for a college admission reader instead of ourselves is neither wise, nor interesting (I’ll support this statement with a quote from Jeff Bezos later!). Instead of trying to follow the non-existing college acceptance playbook, I recommend taking the advice of some outstanding colleges’ resources and people smarter than you and I as motivation to fill your summer hours doing something different.

Eric Furda, Dean of Admission at the University of Penn is very generous with his knowledge on his blog, Page217. He shares that introspection or self-assessment is an important part of the college search process. Recommending that all students be able to identify their 5 I’s, one being interests. He challenges students to answer these questions: What do I like to do? What do you like to do when someone is not telling you to do it? What are your hobbies? If you could pick up three books or three magazines, what would they be? At Boston College, Father Michael Himes has introduced “The Three Key Questions” to the student body to help the career exploration process. They are: What brings me joy? What am I good at? What does the world need me to be? All these inquiries are a phenomenal starting point for summer planning and can assist students in prioritizing their limited free time.

If after answering Dean Furda’s and Father Himes’ questions you are still at a loss, might I recommend reading chapter 6 of Angela Duckworth’s Grit (and if time is really short, specifically pages 103 – 116). Here’s a quick excerpt:

…interests are triggered by the interaction with the outside world. The process of interest discovery can be messy, serendipitous, and inefficient. This is because you can’t really predict with certainty what will capture your attention and what won’t. You can’t simply will yourself to like things, either. Jeff Bezos (bold for effect!) has observed, “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves.” Without experimenting, you can’t figure out which interest will stick, and which won’t.

So, you know your interest or you’ve decided what you’d like to explore and discover more about. How does this translate into a summer experience? Colleges and venders package wonderful experiences in one or two week programs, for a fee of course. There’s also volunteer opportunities that surround almost any interest (showing the initiative to search for them has enormous value). If your interest pertains to a vocation, you can shadow a family member or friend (bonus points if you set this experience up on your own and don’t ask your parents to do it for you!). Summer jobs provide economic motivation, responsibility, and growth. A summer reading list is extremely academic, informative, and enlightening. If you have a subject matter you wish to further explore, college courses are available for high school students to take if you’re up to the challenge. These are all things you can ask your counseling staff more about.

Whatever you do, follow these guidelines: be productive, commit to something, enjoy yourself, and reflect upon the experience. If you can do these four things, you will experience growth and perhaps be one step closer to your thing(s). And yes, it will look good on your college application even though that’s not the important part. If you need help reflecting, answer some of these simple questions after your summer is over (HINT: these are the same type of questions college admission readers will want you to answer on your applications):

Why did I make the decision to commit to this over the summer?

What did I get out of the experience?

Did the opportunity motivate me to further pursue something?

What is the next step in learning about my interest?

Why wouldn’t I continue to follow through with this interest? Why was this still a positive?

What do my summer decisions say about me?

Did I sacrifice or am I willing to sacrifice to pursue my interest?

Am I excited to share what I have learned with others?

It’s 33 degrees outside and snow is on the way. Think summer!

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