What rising seniors should do this summer

The single highest-leverage stretch in the whole process, because everything you finish now is work that senior fall won't demand from you.

Four items, in priority order: request recommendation letters, draft your two core essays, build the master activity list, and assemble the deadline calendar. All four are possible without school in session.

Letters go first because they depend on other people. A teacher asked in July has time and goodwill; the same teacher asked in October has thirty requests and a stack of grading. The difference shows in what gets written.

The two core essays cover most of what you'll be asked: why this direction, and a time you got through something hard. Get both to a genuine draft. Almost every scholarship prompt is a variation, and a strong base essay turns each application from a four-hour job into a one-hour one.

The activity list is dull and disproportionately valuable—roles, years, hours per week, one concrete accomplishment each. Write it while the details are still recoverable.

Build the calendar last, with alerts three weeks and four days out on everything. September through January is dense enough that anything unscheduled will be missed.

If you finish early, apply to local awards now. Community foundations run summer cycles against a fraction of the usual field, and an early win makes the rest of the year feel real.