What to do during high school summers

High school summers feel long, but there are only four of them, and each one is better suited to a different kind of work. The families who use them well tend to spread the college preparation process across all four years rather than cramming everything into junior year.

This isn't about filling every week with structured activities. It's about doing one or two meaningful things each summer that set up the next school year.

Freshman summer: read

The single best thing a rising sophomore can do over the summer is read. Not SAT prep books. Not textbooks. Books that are worth reading for their own sake.

Students who read widely and consistently score higher on the SAT's Reading and Writing section, not because they've studied test strategy, but because they've built the reading comprehension, vocabulary, and comfort with complex prose that the test rewards. This is the kind of skill that develops over years, not weeks, and freshman summer is the best time to start building it.

A good starting point is the 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers list on Goodreads. It includes fiction and nonfiction across a range of difficulty levels. The goal isn't to get through the whole list. It's to find a few books that hold your child's interest and to make reading a habit rather than an assignment.

If your child doesn't enjoy reading, start with what they're curious about. A student who reads three books about marine biology over the summer has done more for their reading skills than a student who reluctantly skimmed one classic novel.

Building a habit of reading publications like the New York Times, the Economist, or Scientific American is also valuable. The SAT's Reading and Writing passages are drawn from similar sources, and students who are comfortable with that kind of prose before they encounter it on the test have a significant advantage.

Sophomore summer: start SAT prep

Sophomore summer is the right time for most students to take a first look at the SAT. Not to take the test itself, but to understand what it is and where they stand.

Start with a diagnostic practice test on College Board's Bluebook app. This gives a baseline score and a breakdown of strengths and weaknesses by skill area. The score doesn't matter yet. What matters is knowing which areas need work so your child can start addressing them before the test counts.

From there, the summer is a good time to work through a prep book or to start using a structured prep tool. Khan Academy is free and covers foundational skills well. Sharp is free to use and adapts to each student's level, with a Pro plan at $18 per month for a personalized study plan and targeted practice. For students who prefer books, Erica Meltzer's reading and grammar guides are strong options for the Reading and Writing section.

The goal for sophomore summer isn't to reach a target score. It's to build familiarity with the test format, identify weak areas, and begin closing gaps while your child has the time. Junior year tends to be the busiest year of high school, with AP classes, extracurriculars, and college research all competing for attention. Students who start junior year with SAT prep already underway are in a much stronger position than those starting from scratch. We've written a full guide to starting SAT prep as a sophomore here.

Junior summer: write college essays

The Common Application opens on August 1 each year, but the best time to start thinking about college essays is earlier in the summer.

Junior summer is the first time most students have enough life experience and self-awareness to write a compelling personal essay, and the last time they'll have extended, unstructured time to do it before senior year gets busy with applications, schoolwork, and retakes.

The goal isn't to finish every essay by September. It's to brainstorm, draft, and revise the main Common App personal statement so that it's close to done when school starts. Students who enter senior year with a strong draft are in a much better position than those who start writing in October while juggling everything else.

For SAT prep, junior summer is also a good window for a final push if your child is planning to take or retake the SAT in August or October. Two to three months of focused work on specific weak areas can produce meaningful score improvement. We've written about what to do when scores plateau here.

Senior summer: breathe

By the summer after senior year, the work is done. College decisions are in. The next chapter starts in the fall.

Senior summer is a chance to rest after four years of building toward this moment. If your child has orientation, housing forms, or placement tests to handle, those are worth taking care of. Beyond that, this is their time. The most productive thing many graduates can do the summer before college is something that has nothing to do with academics at all.

Sharp is built to enable every student to realize their academic potential, regardless of their starting point.