Believe it or not, summer is quickly flying by. The “Back to School” gear has already entered the local stores. Before you know it, it will be time start classes for you senior year. Even though you may not have completed all of the tasks on our “Summertime Top Ten Activity” list. There is still time to prepare for college applications.

Over the next few days, we’ll be providing insights on what seniors should be focusing on to help alleviate the college application stress. The fall of your senior year can be a hectic time, but with a little summer preparation, you can breeze through your college applications.

How to Prepare

The first step to organizing your college process is to finalize your list. While you may still be planning to do some additional college visits this fall. You should have a fairly concise list of schools you think you are going to apply to. If you are having trouble creating your list, our post, “Tips for Making a College List” may help. In addition to the summer tasks for seniors mentioned in the post.

Here are some additional things to consider as you attempt to narrow things down:

1. Conduct additional research. The internet has a vast amount of information you can use to research colleges. Here is the list of our favorite college research tools.

2. Finalize college visits. If you are planning on visiting school’s this fall, spend some time to finalize when those visits will take place. Several colleges offer specialized programs, such as open houses and student preview days. These events are a great opportunity to learn more about a college beyond the traditional campus tour and information session. You may be able to see a student panel or sit in on a class. Our post, “How To Get The Most Out of A College Open House” can help you prepare for attending a specialized event.

You can still plan a high quality campus visit, even if you are not able to make it the weekend of a specialized event. Be sure to sign up for our email course: “Plan the Perfect College Visit” for more information.

3. If you are unable to visit a college, there are still ways you may be able to obtain more information about a school without ever leaving your hometown. You can do virtual tours of campus. Also, read our post, “Meeting with Admissions Counselors in Your Hometown” in order to plan opportunities to connect with admissions officers who will be in your area this Fall.

That wraps up our summer tasks for seniors to help them prepare to apply to college in the fall.

The post Summer Tasks for Seniors: The College List first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

As with every part of your college application, though, showing your commitment to learning a foreign language and going beyond the minimum high school foreign language requirements can help your application stand out in the crowd.

To that end, we have pulled together some ways that you can work on your foreign language skills outside of the classroom.

Duolingo

First, Duolingo is a popular free language service that you can use across your phone, computer, and tablet. It provides short lessons grouped by category and is voiced by native speakers to boost fluency and understanding. Duolingo also provides English-based instruction in 33 different languages, including fictional ones like Klingon.

Language Bird

Next up, language Bird is a service that provides one-on-one instruction with a language tutor. You complete the lessons over Skype and you can schedule them at your convenience. They offer courses for credit as well as test prep and conversational courses. In addition, Language Bird provides English-based instruction in 11 different languages, including American Sign Language.

Mondly

Mondly is an app-only subscription service that provides lessons that generally take 5-10 minutes to complete. These lessons are grouped by topic and also have parts voiced by native speakers. Mondly provides English-based instruction in 31 different languages.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is a well-known computer-based language learning system that provides in-depth language lessons. The software has a one-time purchase fee, and the company also has a subscription service that gives you access to native speakers to help you with conversation. Rosetta Stone provides English-based instruction in 23 different languages.

Babbel

Babbel is a subscription service that syncs across your phone, computer, as well as your tablet. In contrast to Rosetta Stone, it focuses on providing short lessons with vocabulary voiced by native speakers to help boost your understanding and fluency. Babbel provides English-based instruction in 13 different languages.

To conclude, we don’t recommend any one of these services above the others, and we encourage you to research each of them to figure out which is the best option for you as you consider how to satisfy your high school foreign language requirements!

The post Satisfy your high school foreign language requirements in fun ways! first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Get a job

A summer job is a great way to show that you are a reliable person who follows through with commitments. It could be something related to your future field of study, but it doesn’t have to be—the nature of the job isn’t as important as the fact that you showed up and did all aspects of whatever it was you were hired to do. Be as involved as you can be; doing as much helpful, useful work as you can makes you a good employee, which means that you might be able to ask your manager or employer for a letter of reference later on.

Do meaningful volunteer work

In order for volunteer work to be meaningful, it has to be something that has an actual impact. Going to the food pantry for an hour here and there is a nice gesture, and doing a two-week volunteer program abroad is a neat experience, but those aren’t meaningful in the long run. Research local groups in your area that have volunteering opportunities, then reach out and explain that you want to volunteer on a consistent basis for your summer break. If it’s something that you could continue once school starts again, mention that too. Local groups will often have plenty of work to do, so this is a great opportunity to make a lasting, meaningful impact on your community.

Learn a new skill

Summer is a great time to do some self-driven learning! Want to learn a new language? Try Duolingo or Language Bird. Thinking about leaning to code? Udemy and Lynda have courses for that. Not sure what you’re interested in learning? Check out your local library or community college and see what kinds of programs they’re offering over the summer. You never know what might strike your fancy!

Read

This doesn’t just mean that you should do your summer reading requirement (although you should)! Reading is a great way to expand your knowledge, your understanding of different topics, and your vocabulary. Fiction and nonfiction alike are great ways to broaden your horizons; there are a lot of lists out there about important books to read, classic literature, and more, but don’t feel limited to the books on those lists. You’ll get something out of whatever book you choose. Your local librarian would be glad to help you pick something if you’re unsure!

The post No summer plans? No problem! first appeared on College Admission Counseling.