Don’t waste summer watching TV

Many colleges offer summer programs for high school students, where students live at the college for about a month while taking college classes. The students get a taste of what college is like and can earn college credits. If you plan on going to college, attending one of these programs is a good idea: They show colleges that you can handle a college workload. Even more, the college whose program you attend will know that you’re interested; when you apply to colleges, that college is more likely to accept you.

I went to Johns Hopkins’ pre-college program last summer, and I consider the program to have been a great experience. I really mean it. The program was a challenge, but it was an enjoyable challenge. I met new people from many different countries, made friends, tried new things, lived on my own at a new place — it was exciting. What’s more exciting than doing your own laundry?

A week into the program, we went on a field trip to Washington, D.C. As a group of us walked through the city, a student and I had an hour-long discussion on philosophy and the existence of God. Our group ate lunch in Chinatown, and the fortune in my cookie said, “You are pretty.� I had a great time.

One of my classes was an introductory astronomy course. The astrophysics homework was extremely hard, which means it was extremely fun.

The students were friendly, even the one who always called me “nerd guy.� I count him as one of the friends I made at the program. He’s now a freshman at Johns Hopkins, and I saw him there last week.

And I didn’t mention my other class, my roommates, the rest of the field trips, the astronomy professor’s lectures, the campus, my frustrated attempts to get a group together to watch “Fahrenheit 9/11.� Pre-college programs don’t ruin summer — they make summer amazing. Who knew that really hard work could be fun and extremely worthwhile? Where else could you have such a good time?

If you’re going to apply to a pre-college program, you’ll have to hurry. For the Johns Hopkins program, at least, the deadline is next week. But you can apply after the deadline, since the programs don’t fill up immediately. Last year, I applied early, and I got mail over the summer about how there was “still time� for students to apply, even though the deadline date had passed.

If you don’t go this year, take a course at a local college instead. Do something: Read a book or get a job. Why waste your summer watching TV? I think that attending a pre-college program is just about the best thing teens can do over summer break.

Jake Mokris is a homeschooled student and member of the Teen Takeover staff.