Last-minute undergraduate summer plans
May 11, 2010 4:57 PM Subscribe
What are some good last-minute summer activities for an undergraduate college student to do?
My original summer plans fell through, so I'm trying to find something to do over the summer to keep my mind active or at least earn a bit of money.
I'm dubious of using Craigslist to find a job - most of the jobs require experience which I don't have, because I haven't had a job... ad infinitum.
I've asked a professor about the possibility of helping him with research over the summer, but he hasn't gotten back to me. My classes are over and finals are halfway through, so I don't necessarily know if I have the opportunity to help another professor with research, or how I'd ask them.
I've considered cleaning up and attempting to publish a board game I've been working on, but that's not all-consuming or necessarily possible with the (basically nonexistent) amount of money I have behind me.
I would take summer courses, but I've already got my general education and prerequisite courses done and I'm doing an interdepartmental studies major, which I need to take with courses from my university. I'm going to graduate Spring 2012 regardless, so a summer course doesn't save me much effort.
Thanks in advance!
My original summer plans fell through, so I'm trying to find something to do over the summer to keep my mind active or at least earn a bit of money.
I'm dubious of using Craigslist to find a job - most of the jobs require experience which I don't have, because I haven't had a job... ad infinitum.
I've asked a professor about the possibility of helping him with research over the summer, but he hasn't gotten back to me. My classes are over and finals are halfway through, so I don't necessarily know if I have the opportunity to help another professor with research, or how I'd ask them.
I've considered cleaning up and attempting to publish a board game I've been working on, but that's not all-consuming or necessarily possible with the (basically nonexistent) amount of money I have behind me.
I would take summer courses, but I've already got my general education and prerequisite courses done and I'm doing an interdepartmental studies major, which I need to take with courses from my university. I'm going to graduate Spring 2012 regardless, so a summer course doesn't save me much effort.
Thanks in advance!
This is for your free time, or all of it if it's all free time :
If you want to keep your mind active, and you enjoy reading, you should knock off a whole lot of fun-but-"educational" reading. Stuff you won't get to read in class but that overlaps with your interests. All the following comes to mind, but you should pick & choose: "popular science", biographies, historical narratives like The Devil in the White City, self-help/business/efficiency texts like Getting Things Done. Learn a foreign language. You can also use this time, if you're disciplined, to bone up on some statistics or an area of math that seems a little wild or a new programming language.
And use a library to do it all :)
You should also write, take walks, take photographs if that's your thing, learn a new instrument.
I am incredibly envious of having such free time and opportunity.
posted by knile at 8:39 PM on May 11, 2010
If you want to keep your mind active, and you enjoy reading, you should knock off a whole lot of fun-but-"educational" reading. Stuff you won't get to read in class but that overlaps with your interests. All the following comes to mind, but you should pick & choose: "popular science", biographies, historical narratives like The Devil in the White City, self-help/business/efficiency texts like Getting Things Done. Learn a foreign language. You can also use this time, if you're disciplined, to bone up on some statistics or an area of math that seems a little wild or a new programming language.
And use a library to do it all :)
You should also write, take walks, take photographs if that's your thing, learn a new instrument.
I am incredibly envious of having such free time and opportunity.
posted by knile at 8:39 PM on May 11, 2010
Get involved in the Gulf Coast clean-up.
posted by quadrilaterals at 10:23 AM on May 12, 2010
posted by quadrilaterals at 10:23 AM on May 12, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by danceswithlight at 6:00 PM on May 11, 2010 [1 favorite]