Internship at local university
ACT/SAT in July/August
Camp counselor job
Sports camp

Study abroad immersion program through school, summer job, precollege music program, and driving lessons.

* as long as you have had Algebra 2. This is according to our school CCO and 2 prep companies.

Anonymous wrote:Q about SAT prep? Is the conventional wisdom still to take SAT beginning of jr. year if they've already had pre-calc? Or has that changed with digital SAT?

You only need Algebra 2/Trig for the SAT or ACT. So summer after 10th is a great time to prep as long as you

Here’s a calendar for you: https://www.deliberatelydesignedllc.com/collegeplanningcalendar

Mine will try to form a basic college list- I will give him about 25 schools on a list and he’ll spend time looking through it and delete/add, etc.
SAT prep. Work. Some camp

Anonymous wrote:Mine finalized his college list. Ideally he should’ve started on the essay prompts as some were released in the summer but of course he didn’t do that. So the fall was a bit stressful in terms of his regular courseload, his sports, and applying to colleges.

That's the summer before Senior year. OP was asking about the summer before that.

Mine is doing medical shadowing (wants to go to nursing school), working part time and enjoying the rest of her time with friends. Nice balance for her.

Basic skills like laundry, cooking and cleaning was a one week instruction period before going to college for my kid, OP. It's not rocket science! I didn't even have that, but had no trouble once I left my parents' house.

DS had two pandemic years, then had driving lessons, jobs and practice ACTs in the summer.
He had done his SSL hours by the end of middle school.

Mine finalized his college list. Ideally he should’ve started on the essay prompts as some were released in the summer but of course he didn’t do that. So the fall was a bit stressful in terms of his regular courseload, his sports, and applying to colleges.

Knock out a bunch of service hours for junior year now. Anything to make jr year easier.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Q about SAT prep? Is the conventional wisdom still to take SAT beginning of jr. year if they've already had pre-calc? Or has that changed with digital SAT?

We were advised to take the August one (junior year), so that’s what we’re doing.

That's exactly what we did, because Junior year was full of AP classes anyway and we didn't want even more pressure. One kid took in August and was done, the other retook in November, got 200 pts more than his Aug test and was then also, done. Both going into 12th now and I'm very glad they don't have the digital SAT looming over them on top of everything else.

Anonymous wrote:Q about SAT prep? Is the conventional wisdom still to take SAT beginning of jr. year if they've already had pre-calc? Or has that changed with digital SAT?

We were advised to take the August one (junior year), so that’s what we’re doing.

Anonymous wrote:Do we do some college visits? Or is it pointless because many campuses are empty?

NP, Not that we had the "correct" approach but we took our empty campus tours freshmen and sophomore years. Had a pretty good list and were doing formal tours fall of junior year.

Mine is also doing SAT prep, a couple small vacations, and a week long pre-college program. She has been looking for a job, but no luck.

It's not a bad idea to ramp up training in independence skills like laundry, basic food prep and cleaning, calendar management, making their own appointments, writing emails to teachers/employers, getting themselves up and out to go to a job etc., and of course driving.