Though the visual arts require talent and skill, they also require knowledge and critical thinking. Students who want to study art in college should consider beefing up their knowledge outside of the classroom. One way to become a “pointy” student in the visual arts is through extracurricular reading.

Curiosity is an important quality in applicants to highly selective colleges. One way students can demonstrate curiosity is by connecting the dots across various topics of conversation. Applicants can demonstrate this ability to move fluidly between ideas, subjects, and disciplines through their college essays, teacher recommendations, and admissions interviews. Students who demonstrate a genuine thirst for understanding make the most memorable impression.

Do you enjoy learning about the brain and how it works, why we make the decisions we make, and how the brain influences our behaviors? Are you interested in mental health? If you answered yes to either (or both!) of these questions, psychology might be the path for you.

If you’re wrapping up junior year of high school, there’s a lot to think about: college tours, signing up for standardized tests, applying to summer programs – the list goes on. There is one more thing you should be prioritizing as you look toward your senior year: developing your writing skills.

As a former high school English teacher, I always tout the importance of reading as a means to improve one’s writing, especially when it comes to the college essay.
Author Annie Proulx perhaps sums it up best: “Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”  Reading exposes you to different writing styles, diction, and sentence syntax which can influence, improve, and even inspire your own writing style.

Summer “brain drain” or the “summer slide” — the theory that students stop learning over summer break and even lose some of what they have learned during the school year — is a real phenomenon that has been documented by researchers for the past several decades. However, you can keep your brain active during the summer in several ways to prevent losing any of the gains you made over the previous academic year.

When it comes to your college application, colleges will look to see how you spent your time outside of school. In addition to your extracurricular activities, you may also want to list hobbies and interests that you commit a significant amount of time to. Reading is probably one of the best hobbies you can have – it can deepen your interests in a particular subject, help you become a better writer, and will prepare you for the often grueling reading lists in college-level courses. Not only will many colleges appreciate a reading list, some will ask you to list your favorite books on their application supplements.

With an increasing number of new technologies and an expanding global population, self-studying is on the rise. Education is no longer confined to just the classroom, and some would argue that the classroom model is outdated and does not meet the intellectual needs of individuals in such an interconnected society.