Planning a Meaningful Junior Summer

Buy this book »

Welcome to your junior summer brainstorming workshop - where you're going to come up with the antidote to a long, boring summer in some God-forsaken place, doing some mind-numbing job that has nothing to do with your wants, your hopes, and your dreams of becoming something bigger than you are.

You're an upperclassman in college now, and the world is your oyster. All it takes is a little bit of research, a little creativity, and a sense of adventure.

Come along. Follow the easy steps below for a brainstorming workshop. 

Review Your Goals For Junior Year

The first thing you need to do is take a look at your goals for junior year - you know, the ones that are haunting you right now because life has gotten away from you, and you haven't done enough to achieve them.

What did you identify as the things you hoped to accomplish during your junior year? How many of them have you actually accomplished so far? Which ones might be things you could work on this summer?

Yeah, yeah . . . we know that you're now hopelessly in debt, that you have spent much more money in college than you budgeted for, and that you've hit the wall in terms of what your parents are willing to do to indulge you. We know - we were there too. Yet some of us figured out how to make money and further our academic, social, personal, or career goals (or a combination of these). You really can do both at the same time.

So think about what you had hoped to accomplish during your junior year and about which of those things might be worthwhile summer pursuits.

Explore Your Academic Interests

What have you learned about your academic interests this year? By now you should be well into your career exploration. Are there things you can do to further the depth of that exploration this summer? If you think you're headed to med school, law school, business school, or graduate school directly out of college (and are you sure you want to do this), this is the last summer you will have to explore, define, and confirm those interests. Time to look for career-specific resources that explicitly walk you through the relevant career-choice analysis; read them thoroughly and ask yourself the hard questions. If you're still on course after doing so, choose to do something this summer that will in some way enhance your application process next fall.

By now you should also be well on your way to completing the requirements of your major. Have you chosen a thesis topic yet? If you have, and you are really into your topic or the task of completing the thesis is likely to be monumental (or both), perhaps this is the summer to take an independent study course for credit with the professor you would like to be your thesis adviser. And yes, we know you need to make money, so you should also try to hook up with either the same professor or another professor in the department to help him or her do research. Again, this is a great way to forward your goals and interests while making money at the same time.

Explore Your Interests in Travel, the Outdoors, or Physical Development

Are you abroad? When your semester or year abroad is complete, perhaps you and a friend or two will want to stay were you are or travel to a different part of the world you learned about, and work there during your junior summer. Lots and lots of our friends did all sorts of interesting things - working on farms, building houses, working in the retail, restaurant, and entertainment businesses - in foreign countries. By doing this, you'd be making money, learning a foreign language, and seeing the world all at once.