Planning by Grade
8th & 9th Grade: Start Exploring
The years to try things, work, and find the question that lights a student up.
What these years are for
Explore widely. Show up consistently.
This is the time to try things: a summer job, a new club, a week shadowing someone at work, a book that pulls a student down a rabbit hole. The student who explores early arrives at tenth grade knowing what excites them and ready to go deeper.
By the end of ninth grade, I want each student to have found one interest worth following. Then we ask a bigger question: how could this reach more people? A love of chess might turn into a club for younger kids, and a fascination with water into a summer spent testing the local river.
Exploring does not mean drifting. Alongside trying new things, every student commits to at least one activity they show up for consistently, all year and into the next. Colleges notice that kind of steady commitment more than any title or award, and it becomes the foundation for everything that follows.
Ask your kid
Ask your kid. Then listen.
Ask at dinner, in the car, on a walk. The answers will change, and that is exactly the point.
- What problem in our neighborhood bugs you?
- Whose job looks interesting to you? Would you spend a week with them?
- If you could start a club tomorrow, what would it be?
How are you going to save the world?
A 2026 study found that when parents support a teen's own choices, students manage time better and persist longer. Source
Where I encourage students to start
Real experience, early.
- Volunteer in one place, steadily. A single organization all summer says more than a handful of brief visits.
- Get a summer job. Lifeguarding, scooping ice cream, working a farm stand. Colleges read real work as the real thing.
- Shadow someone for a week. A family member or friend at their job: a veterinarian, an architect, a nurse, an engineer.
- Start something rather than just joining. A club, a small project, a service for the neighborhood.
- Read with intention, chasing one question that won't let go.
The question I ask every student
What do you want to solve, figure out, or invent?
Ninth graders rarely have the answer yet. Asking early gives them years to find it, and the confidence to believe their ideas matter.
A student who volunteers every Saturday for four years tells a story no résumé can.
Where I come in
The details are the work.
I build a plan with each student, matched to their interests, with specific opportunities, people, and next steps. That is what we do together in our sessions.
The research
What colleges say.
Harvard
Harvard's guide for families encourages part time jobs, camps, programs, or volunteer work, along with ways to help family and community.
Source →Tufts
Tufts says there is no prescribed list of summer activities. It has admitted students who started a lawn mowing business or rebuilt a grandparent's deck, and it weighs family responsibilities equally with traditional activities.
Source →MIT
MIT is not expecting teenagers to have cured diseases by fifteen. In its words, tutoring a single kid in math changes the world.
Source →Admissions policies change. Last reviewed October 2026.
Questions from families
Frequently asked questions
01Is eighth grade too early to start?+
No. I meet with younger students just a few times a year. The goal is shaping summers and habits, not adding pressure.
02Does a summer job really count?+
Yes. Colleges value paid work, and it often teaches more than an expensive program.
03Should my ninth grader do a summer program?+
Only if it follows a real interest. Admissions readers can spot a summer that was bought rather than chosen.
Begin
Let's plan your student's first summers.
Initial consultations are complimentary.