Summer is approaching. When it comes to holiday plans, some international students may choose to travel to a third country; some aim to get ahead academically by taking summer courses, conducting research, securing internships or participating in competitions. Others prefer to return home for the summer to reunite with their families. If you haven’t made your summer plans yet, here are some options for your reference!

Summer Planning for High School Students

1. 1.Volunteer Work
   
2. Starting from Grade 9, students are advised to take part in volunteer activities. This helps build leadership, language proficiency and other soft skills while enriching resumes, which is highly valuable for future applications to business, engineering or management-related majors.
   

A solid volunteer plan requires long-term commitment. Outstanding volunteer projects should also create impact. In other words, you should stick to the work and inspire people around you, such as friends, to join in.

2. 2.International Competitions
   
3. Participating in two or three well-known international competitions and achieving good results during high school can demonstrate your academic strengths. Compared with other background enhancement activities, competitions reflect your subject knowledge and mastery, which greatly benefits applications for subject-based university majors.
   

For example, if you apply for subject-focused majors such as Physics, Computer Science or Mathematics, competition awards can fully show universities your passion and solid academic performance in these fields, boosting your chances of receiving offers.

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4. 3.Summer Camps
   
5. Many students join study-tour summer camps during the break. To make this short experience worthwhile, you need to take initiative rather than treat it lightly. Try to take on key roles in the camp or bring creative ideas to group projects.
   

Before the trip, you may research phenomena or attractions in the destination country or city that relate to your major or interests. You can also set a simple goal of making friends. Summer camps gather talented students from all over the world. The connections you make can be useful later when expanding the influence of your clubs or organisations to other regions.

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5. 4.Summer School
   
6. Summer schools include credit-bearing programmes hosted by universities, business leadership camps, humanities summer schools such as certain programmes run by Stanford University, writing camps and debate camps offered by Harvard and Northwestern University. Besides liberal arts options, there are STEM summer schools covering Mathematics and Science.
   

High grades and recommendation letters from professors obtained in summer school programmes can significantly improve your chances of getting into top universities. Credits earned from some summer schools can be transferred to your future degree programmes.

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6. 5.Research Projects
   
7. High school students can join academic background enhancement research programmes relevant to their academic abilities and intended majors. Admissions officers can see from these projects that you possess matching capabilities and genuine in-depth interest in your target majors, which plays an important role in undergraduate applications.
   

You may also take part in activity-based background building to demonstrate comprehensive qualities such as social responsibility and empathy. These are not tied to specific majors but still carry weight for undergraduate applications.

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7. 6.Boosting GPA
   
8. GPA is critical for undergraduate applications. If your GPA is unsatisfactory, one-on-one tutoring is recommended instead of group classes, since students differ greatly in English proficiency, academic foundations, learning pace, teaching materials and class schedules. One-on-one lessons are highly personalised. You may contact Jiashinhui Platform to access abundant overseas tutoring resources.
   
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10. 7.Standardised Test Preparation
    
11. While maintaining your GPA, start preparing for standardised tests as early as possible. Language proficiency cannot be improved through last-minute cramming. Although TOEFL and IELTS scores are valid for two years, do not leave preparation until the deadline.
    

SAT/ACT has adopted a test-optional trend in general, yet the number of test-takers has risen in recent years. Around 1.7 million high school students took the SAT at least once last year, an increase of 200,000 from the previous cohort. This means applicants aiming for top universities worldwide still prepare for SAT/ACT.

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9. 8.Application Essay Writing
   
10. For students moving from Grade 11 to Grade 12, it is recommended to finalise your university shortlist and intended majors during the summer and start working on personal statements. Completing your personal statement over the summer will ease your workload in the application season, leaving you enough time to draft supplementary essays for each university, prepare for interviews and apply for scholarships.
    

Summer Planning for University Students

1. 1.Summer Internships
   
2. Summer is the prime time for internships, and high-quality internship experience is especially valuable. Internships help you build professional networks, clear up career confusion and explore sub-fields within your major. Only by understanding the skills required for jobs and what type of work suits you can you reach your goals efficiently.
   

Internship experience also greatly benefits future job hunting. Employers prioritise relevant work experience and hard skills such as Excel, PPT, SAS and SQL.

Each internship should ideally last no less than three months, ranging from three to six months. Develop a habit of documentation: record how you identified and solved problems and summarise takeaways. This helps you review your experience and makes writing application documents much easier later.

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3. 2.Research Profile Development
   
4. You can take summer research enhancement courses. High-quality research projects closely related to your target universities and majors will strengthen your applications for postgraduate studies.
   

Overseas universities usually let students declare their majors in Year 2. If you have not decided on your major, narrow down a broad field first. Browse university websites to check major lists and curriculum outlines, then explore subfields to select research topics.

If you already have a clear target major, you can directly select matching research topics. For humanities and business majors, practical opportunities are limited, so research should focus on quantitative analysis skills. For science and engineering majors, logical thinking and rigorous experimental methods are essential: you need to collect data through experiments and draw conclusions from data analysis.

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4. 3.Improve GPA
   
5. GPA is extremely important for university students. A good GPA matters not only for university admission, but also for on-time graduation, major transfer, scholarships, postgraduate applications and job hunting. If your grades are unsatisfactory, you can take supplementary courses to improve them.
   
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7. 4.GRE/GMAT Preparation
   
8. If you plan to pursue a master’s degree, use the summer break of your second year to study for GRE or GMAT, and review for the exam in the summer of your third year. This reserves ample time in your fourth year for final preparation while protecting your GPA.
   
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10. 5.Application Document Preparation
    
11. For postgraduate applicants, finalise your university shortlist and target majors in the summer of Year 3. Prepare application materials such as personal statements and recommendation letters according to different programme requirements.
    
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13. 6.Professional Qualifications
    
14. You may earn certificates aligned with your career path. For example, students majoring in data analytics can take the SAS certification; those in finance can pursue CFA, FIM and other qualifications.
    
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16. 7.Summer Courses
    
17. Summer courses feature short, concentrated schedules, offering a great chance to accelerate your studies. If you are working on a double degree or minor, you can complete some course requirements in summer. If you failed to earn enough credits in the winter term and wish to avoid delayed graduation, summer courses are a good option. Students hoping to graduate early may also take extra summer classes.
    
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19. 8.Driving Licence
    
20. It is advisable to get your driving licence during summer vacation, which will benefit your future career and daily life. In Canada, for instance, a driving licence serves as an important identity document and is widely recognised across North America and even some European countries.
    
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22. 9.Returning to China for Summer Break
    
23. China has further eased pandemic-related entry rules, making it easier to come back home. Starting from April 29, inbound travellers may take an antigen test instead of a nucleic acid test within 48 hours before boarding, and airlines no longer check pre-departure nucleic acid certificates.
    
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25. 10.Travel
    
26. Road trips are a popular choice. Classic Canadian routes include: the route from Jordan Village to Fort Erie in Ontario, Banff to Jasper in Alberta, the North Cape Coastal Drive in Prince Edward Island, and Victoria to Port Hardy in BC. Famous US road trips include the Pacific Coast Highway in California, the Olympic Peninsula and Highway 101 in Washington State, and the Overseas Highway along Highway 1 in Florida.
    

You can also visit popular tourist attractions in other countries, such as Quebec City and Thousand Islands in Canada, Yellowstone National Park and Maui in the US, Edinburgh Castle and the Isle of Skye in the UK, and the Gold Coast and Sydney Opera House in Australia.

　　If you are currently pursuing a master’s degree, note that the duration of master’s programmes varies across countries. For example, programmes in the UK are generally one year long, while those in the US last two years or 18 months. Therefore, you should use the summer break to make up for your shortcomings according to your academic progress, research requirements, internship experience and other personal circumstances.