College Admissions and Covid-19: Summer Activities

Brown coronavirus covid 19 flies through blood cells. Artistic motion effect. 3D rendering

Colleges want students who are involved in high school and who will stay involved in college. If you have been active in your high school and community, you demonstrate that you probably will be on your college campus. Earning good grades at the same time also shows that you can manage your time. And time management is a key to college success. But how can we make best use of the summer when college admissions and Covid-19 are creating havoc with our plans?

For selective colleges and universities, extracurricular activities are a key opportunity for applicants to differentiate themselves from other similar applicants. This is especially true if the activities are unique, interesting, show initiative, or are achieved at a high level.

Summertime Should Be Fun–and Productive

Summertime represents an important opportunity for students to engage with interests outside of the classroom. In fact, without the workload of high school classes, summer is often the ideal time to dedicate energy to these activities. Traditionally, students have pursued everything from paid jobs to volunteering, research projects to travel, and sport camps to pre-college residential programs.

Covid-19 Injects Uncertainty

Quite obviously, if the new normal under Covid-19 extends into the summer, which it might do, how we spend this time needs a complete re-evaluation. 

Most of the traditional activities pursued by high school students are already being cancelled or are moving online. If a student thrives with online learning, then perhaps when their pre-college program announces it’s going online, it won’t be such a big deal. The revenues of these programs is important, so we project programs will try to keep their programming intact, if possible. But many students will need to create a Plan B.

College Admissions and Covid-19: A New Paradigm for the Summer of 2020

Here at Great College Advice, we suggest a few steps to help you re-imagine your summertime:

Create a short list of activities that interest you

These could be activities in which you are already engaged, or they could be something new that you want to try or learn. What is important is that they really seem interesting to you so that you look forward to your ‘project’ throughout the summer.

Consider how these activities can connect you to the world beyond your home

This can mean they respond to the current Covid-19 environment, are relevant to the new normal that is evolving, or that will have an impact beyond yourself at some point in the near future. While it can be satisfying to do or learn something solely for your own satisfaction or improvement, having your activity somehow positively impact others is an important element.

Brainstorm realistic connections between your interest and the impact

Can you see a way to get from your interest to the potential impacts you have in mind? Does the timeline make sense? What are the steps you would go through?

The key is to spend some time on this process. Give your ideas time to develop and seek input from others. The goal is to come up with at least one idea that sounds exciting and interesting to you.

Examples of Summer Activities During Covid-19

To get your ideas flowing, here are a few examples of this thought process in action:

Julia

Julia enjoys drawing, but has always loved learning to paint with oils. She had planned to attend a fine arts portfolio program this summer. She knows her grandmother has felt extremely isolated these last weeks at her long-term care facility. So she plans to contact the facility to ask if she can create a rotating art exhibit for interested residents. Her idea is to affix her artwork to the outside of residents’ windows. She will spend her time learning a new skill using resources she can access from home. At the same time, she will bring joy to others in her community. 

Sam

Sam has been studying French and was planning to spend part of the summer in France. While jumping on Duolingo is a no-brainer, Sam also plans to listen to News in Slow French, go on virtual tours of museums, including the Louvre, try his hand at some French cooking, and use a language exchange service to connect with a French speaker. Perhaps he’ll connect with a French teenager who had plans to visit the US this summer, or he will start a weekly Google Hangout for fellow francofiles to practice French. His plan to forge global friendships can still happen. But he will just have to adjust to the new normal of travel restrictions.

Trish

Trish has always found plants fascinating. This summer she thought she would participate in a field research project, but it has been cancelled. Instead, she is planning to grow an indoor vegetable and herb garden on her apartment’s window sills. She plans to run this as an experiment, documenting what does and doesn’t work well. In the fall, she plans to distribute information and support other residents at her apartment building so as to inspire them to start their own indoor gardens.

Your Summer of Covid-19 

The key to success is your creativity! If you would like to talk to a consultant about ideas for your summer, please reach out. Or if you have other worries about college admission and Covid-19, let us know.

Every student has developed some interests to this point in their lives. We work with students to create a plans that are interesting, enjoyable and helpful in the college application process. We can help connect students with a portfolio development advisor, enroll in an online language class, or brainstorm a service project. Our aim is to help students be the best possible version of themselves. Even in a pandemic.

Extracurricular Activities and Covid-19: Get Creative!

Brown coronavirus covid 19 flies through blood cells. Artistic motion effect. 3D rendering

Stuck. Bored. Stir-crazy. Those are some of the sentiments we are hearing from our students. Without the ability to go out into the world, attend school, get together with friends, or pursue their usual activities, students are unsure of what to do with themselves. Plus, those who have college on their minds worry about how this period in their lives will be viewed in the application process. They wonder, how can I continue to show colleges that I’m involved and engaged when I can’t go out and do my thing? How can I manage my extracurricular activities and Covid-19?

We urge students to re-orient their point of view. Instead of looking at the current situation as a period of confinement, students should instead view it as one of freedom and opportunity. As we’ve said in several of our recent posts, colleges understand the constraints and challenges that students currently face. In other words, they have no expectation that students will be active in their usual pursuits. Students have a pass to take each day as it comes.

Making Covid-19 a Time of Opportunity

How does this cure the stuck, bored, and stir-crazy? While your past extracurricular activities and Covid-19 may be a bad mix, that doesn’t mean you have to laze around and complain. You have a lot of new possibilities all around you. Because students have more time on their hands and they don’t have to stress about what colleges want, now is the perfect opportunity for them to:

  • Try something new
  • Go deeper into interests that they don’t otherwise have the time to pursue
  • Help their local community
  • Be creative

Ideas for New Extracurricular Activities

Here are some starter ideas that are fun, educational, and will even be impressive to colleges:

  • Take an online class. We know you are possibly online already for high school, but that’s not what this is! There are literally thousands of courses on every possible subject offered for free by organizations such as Coursera and edX. From poetry to politics to studying the science of happiness, you are sure to find something interesting.

  • Join a political or get-out-the-vote campaign. It’s a big election year, and there’s lots you can do from home to support your favorite candidate – from social media support to letter and postcard writing. No experience is required. Just contact the office of the candidates, or contact your county-level political party headquarters. Getting involved will help you learn more about the issues in the world around you.

  • Do some online business. Interested in studying business in college? What better way to learn some basic business principles than trying it yourself? Clean out the family closets and do some selling on eBay. Take your creations, whatever they may be, and do some promotion on Etsy. Or, volunteer to help with social media and marketing for a local business that may be struggling during these times.

  • Start a blog. No matter what compels you, a blog is a great way to put your thoughts out into the public sphere, improve your writing capabilities, and learn some new internet functionality.

  • Learn a new language. Online platforms such as Language Bird and Duolingo will help you to become competent in a new foreign language. You can also brush up on the news in other by listening to Slow News in French or in other languages. [And if you want to learn more about foreign language requirements and college admission, check out this post].

Video Course for College Admissions

More Ways to Combine Extracurricular Activities with Covid-19

  • Put your writing hat on. Craft some short stories or a screenplay. Enter creative writing competitions. Let your voice be heard and send in some op-eds to your local newspaper about issues that you care about.

  • Help senior citizens in your area. Offer to do meal delivery, yard work and other outside activities to assist your elderly neighbors (from a distance). You could use sites such as NextDoor to get the word out that you’re available.

  • Sew masks for healthcare workers. Our healthcare workers are in great need of masks to continue their fight against Covid-19. Don’t know how to sew? Now is a great time to learn! There are tons of charities looking for volunteers to cut and sew.

  • Pick up some new life skills. Learn to cook. Paint your bedroom. Do your own laundry! These are all things that will be important as you go through college and life. (We’re not kidding).

  • Gain some computer skills. Many online options exist that educate students on coding, building websites, and other aspects of computing. Here’s a list of over 20 opportunities: Computer Skills.

  • Plant a garden. Get out into nature and start a garden, either for your family or your community. Flowers, fruits, vegetables, herbs. You can learn a lot by planting and growing a variety of crops. If you don’t know where to start, connect with your state agricultural extension office, which is usually part of your state university system. Best of all, you can enjoy the harvest or share it with your community.

So What Will You Do with This Opportunity? 

The bottom line is that only so much Netflix binge-watching is healthy, and there is no reason to feel stuck, bored, or stir-crazy, because there is truly so much that you can do. Look around you, brainstorm with your parents, take time to reflect, and you will discover literally thousands of interesting and productive ways you can spend your time. Seize this opportunity!

What does your GPA mean?

IB exams cancelled due to Covid-19

IB exams cancelled
IB exams cancelled

Every spring around 200,000 students in International Baccalaureate (IB) high school programs worldwide study for and take subject exams, culminating in their final grades and graduation diplomas or certificates. This year, for the first time in history, the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has decided that the IB exams are cancelled for 2020. For those students and families affected, this additional unknown adds to the stress that many had already been experiencing. 

IB exams crucially connect to graduation in a way that AP and SAT/ACT exams are not. Until they take their exams, IB students only have predicted final scores. These exams are what cement their scores and become a permanent part of their educational record. 

In many countries around the world, IB students receive conditional offers of acceptance to colleges and universities based on their predicted scores. Without IB exams, students and their families now worry not only about graduation, but also about university acceptances. They worry about how universities will perceive their academic achievement without the standardized measurement of their IB scores.

While we must be patient to see how it unfolds over the coming months, here is what we know so far:

 
  • Students will still receive either a diploma or a course certificate based on their standard of work to date.
  • In the absence of exams, IBO will evaluate using students’ coursework and assessments over time in combination with historical data from schools and subject data.
  • The 15,000 examiners who ordinarily review IB exams will participate in this new process. Exactly what this means is still unclear. But for the remainder of the year, IBO examiners will evaluate all internal student assessments (normally teachers evaluate the internal assessments, while external examiners evaluate only the final exams).
  • The goal is to still have final scores by July 5.
  • IBO is communicating directly with universities through an established working group. It will give universities information on previous assessments and the process used to determine final grades for this year.

How universities are reacting to the cancelled IB exams:

  • The consensus is that students will be offered places based on a combination of predicted grades, internal assessments, and recommendations. This year final scores will be calculated differently.
  • Given the pandemic, the cancellations did not surprise university administrators in the US. They are now in the process of evaluating how they will flexibly approach their decisions. Colleges worry most about their own survival, so we predict that they will adapt to present realities. Many have already shown this with SAT and ACT testing changes.
  • In the UK, the Department of Education has put the admissions process on a two-week moratorium starting March 23. This is to work out admission arrangements with universities to stem the pandemic panic in the wake of cancelled exams. It is in everyone’s interest that students enroll in university this fall.
  • Moreover, in the UK universities accept students conditionally based on their final score results, a student who accepts an unconditional offer is free now to accept another offer. In the period known as ‘clearing,’ which starts on July 6, students will have a chance to change their minds. 
  • Other countries and universities are in the process of responding to the cancelled IB exams.  While many details are not yet available, we predict there will be much greater flexibility this year due to these unprecedented circumstances.

So while there are no clear answers yet in sight, the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) weighed the pros and cons of conducting IB testing online. In the end, IBO decided that the online format carried too many risks. So IBO cancelled the exams entirely. On balance, this outcome seems to be fair. It will disrupt students’ lives the least, and remove the greater anxiety of access to and performance on these extremely important exams.