What Top Colleges Actually Want to See You Do This Summer
Key Points:
AOs want to see who you are, what you care about, and whether you've shown initiative.
Getting into a selective summer program won't get you into college on its own.
The right summer strategy looks different depending on where you are in high school.
Having multiple passions isn't a problem. Students who can connect them often have the most compelling applications.
Summer might feel far away, but if you're thinking about college admissions, now is exactly the right time to start planning. Recently, we sat down with Zak Harris, a Former Admissions Officer at Johns Hopkins University, to talk through what top universities are really looking for when it comes to how students spend their summers, and how families can approach planning strategically.
What Admissions Officers Actually Look For
Admissions officers are not looking for a single impressive credential. They're reading your entire application to understand who you are, what you care about, and whether you've been taking initiative throughout high school. When it comes to summer specifically, AOs care about three things above all else.
Academic connection. Your summer should reflect, in some way, the academic direction you're heading. This doesn't mean taking extra classes. It means showing that you're actively developing knowledge, skills, or experience connected to your intended major or field of interest. Research, internships, shadowing opportunities, and self-directed projects can all serve this purpose.
Passion and curiosity. Choosing to spend your free time pursuing something academic signals genuine interest, not just resume-building. AOs want to see that you love what you're doing, and your essays will give you the space to make that case.
Initiative and impact. Colleges are looking for students who create things, not just participate in them. Starting a club, launching a personal project, contributing to a research effort, or building something in your community all demonstrate the kind of self-motivation that colleges value.
A Common Misconception: The Summer Program "Golden Ticket"
Getting into a highly selective summer program is not a golden ticket to college admission. These programs can be valuable for exploration, campus exposure, and connecting with like-minded peers. But because so many students attend them, they've become somewhat generic in the eyes of AOs. As Zak puts it, in nearly a decade in admissions, he never once read an application and admitted a student solely because of a summer program on their list.
The bigger opportunity, and often the more impressive one, is a self-directed project. When a student identifies something they care about and builds something around it independently, that tends to stand out far more than a structured program. It shows ownership, depth, and real commitment.
Planning Tips for Students at Every Stage
Not every student should be doing the same things. Here's a general framework for thinking about summer by grade:
8th and 9th grade: explore widely. At this stage, the goal is self-awareness more than portfolio-building. Try things. Volunteer, take an online course, start a small project, and see what sticks. You don't need to have it figured out yet.
10th grade and beyond: get specific. Students should be moving toward more focused, tangible experiences. Internships, research projects, and academic writing become more relevant here because students have a clearer sense of direction and more time to build on what they start.
The summer before 12th grade: make it count. This is the most critical summer. Whatever you do should be something you can speak to compellingly on your activities list and in your essays. The connection to your academic interests needs to be clear and well-developed.
Tips for Students with Diverse or Interdisciplinary Interests
Extracurriculars don't all need to connect to your intended major, and AOs understand that. But be thoughtful about time. If an activity isn't moving your profile forward and is taking significant hours each week, it's worth asking whether that time could be better spent.
For students with genuine interests across multiple fields, the summer is a great opportunity to find the throughline. Students who can connect seemingly different passions, like combining writing with biology, or filmmaking with sociology, often end up with the most compelling and distinctive applications. The goal isn't to pick one passion and abandon the others. It's to show how they connect.
Build Your Summer with Scholar Launch
Scholar Launch offers research and project-based programs designed to help students do exactly what Zak describes: go deep on something they genuinely care about, produce something tangible, and walk away with experiences that strengthen their application and their academic foundation.
Whatever direction a student is heading, there's a program built for them. Our summer 2026 catalog spans STEM, humanities, social science, business, and art and architecture, with faculty advisors from institutions including Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Yale, Duke, and more. A few highlights:
Fundamentals of Cancer Biology — Work with a faculty advisor from the UC Davis School of Medicine to explore one of the most consequential fields in modern science.
AI and Exoplanets: Exploring New Worlds with Artificial Intelligence — Combine astrophysics and machine learning in a program led by a Harvard-trained postdoctoral researcher in astronomy and astrophysics.
Human-Machine Teaming: Applications, Issues, and Case Studies — Examine the relationship between humans and AI systems with a Distinguished Professor from the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.
Social Justice in Modern America — Explore the historical, cultural, economic, and legal dimensions of social justice with a professor specializing in African American and Francophone studies.
Architecture and the City: Sustainable Urban Design That Inspires — Investigate how cities are designed and reimagined, guided by a faculty advisor with experience at both Virginia Tech and Columbia University.
Music Production in Film and Television — Dive into the art and technology of film scoring with an Emmy Award-winning New York-based composer and producer.
Marketing and Product Management: The Secrets Behind Highly Successful Products — Explore the business of bringing products to market, led by a lecturer in management from Yale University.
These are just a few of the ~30 programs available this summer. Early bird enrollment is open now, and students who enroll receive two free TA sessions valued at $1,000.
Ready to plan your summer? Browse the full list of programs and apply at: https://www.scholarlaunch.org/summer-2026
