How to spend your quarantine the right way?
Summer is just around the corner, and every year, students take advantage of this time to build their profile. This is done in many ways; including community service, summer schools, internships to name a few. However, this year, we are faced with a pandemic, COVID 19, which requires us to rethink our plans. While disappointing, keep your spirits up! There is an extensive list of productive activities that you can continue to pursue… online!
- Skill Set Development:
Now is the best time to focus on developing useful skills. Whether you want to improve your reflective writing skills, delve into coding or test your hand in cooking, there are a wide variety of options from which you can choose. There are ample resources and courses online that you can enroll in to help.
- Summer Schools:
Some of you may have applied to summer schools. Due to the uncertainty of the situation, some of these programmes might still run on the university campus, some might be cancelled and others might offer the programmes virtually. Keep checking the summer programme’s website and stay in touch with the programme representative to make sure that you have the most recent information available. Also, given the current situation in India, be realistic about travelling even if the campus reopens. If you do not have a visa, it is unlikely that you will get one in time as the consulates in India are shut. There are many programmes offered online instead opt for these.
- Community Service:
While most of us are under the presumption that community service can only be done in-person, 2020 changes that for most. Site visits and in-person interactions will be a challenge given the current scenario, but you can promote social change and work towards various social causes online. Initial and long-lasting change can be achieved by video storytelling, creation of a website, a blog or an app, or even via creating content on financial literacy.
- Passion Projects:
Students can work on projects in areas about which they are passionate. STEM students can use their knowledge on artificial intelligence to come up with entrepreneurial ideas or actually extend coding skills to create video game applications. Students interested in photography can use their time to create unique albums of photographs on different themes. Art students can build their portfolios and so on.
- Test Preparation:
Getting your testing done early is the best thing you can do for yourself. For those of you in grade 9 or 10, give a diagnostic test of both the SAT and the ACT. This will help you identify which testing style suits you better and begin preparing for it early on. If you’ve completed grade 10, you should spend considerable time over the next few months to prepare for your chosen test, so you can give it at the earliest test date. A good score will only make your application more competitive. Nonetheless, not all universities will be waiving this requirement.
- Academic Enhancement:
For those of you that are studying in the Indian board, now is the perfect time to start preparing for the Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The good news is that these AP exams will take place twice this year, and the May ones aren’t cancelled as they are allowing students to test from home. All those math geniuses that intend to apply for pure math/STEM fields and plan to take the AMC examinations spend your time preparing for those so when the next academic year begins, you are already set to give this.
- Supplementary Courses:
If you are moving from an Indian board to an international board to study the IBDP or A-Levels course, you can use this time to enroll for IB Bridge Courses. Many universities are providing niche as well as in-depth courses on different topics and subject areas. If you are keen to know more about philosophy but haven’t had the chance to study it yet, this is the best way to get a glimpse of it. Here, you can access these courses.
- College Research:
In case the college visits you planned for this summer gets cancelled, you can learn more about your dream schools by taking a deep-dive into their websites, connecting with their alumni and current student body, taking virtual tours online as well as attending webinars and information sessions that admissions officers will be conducting. This will help you get a better understanding of the location, courses offered, area, costs, and other critical factors about the university.
While the next few months can be daunting and the uncertainty can leave you perplexed, focus on the positive and use the excess time that you have in the most constructive way. Good luck and get in touch with 3RDiConsulting if you require further assistance on how to plan your time.