<p>I’ve always wanted to do a summer program, and summers are glaring holes in my resume, but I can’t afford them. I was sent information about applying for TASPs based on my PSAT score, but the application was quite lengthy and due at a very busy time for me. Are there any programs I can still apply for that are either free or provide scholarships? I live in New England.</p>
<p>“summers are glaring holes in my resume”</p>
<p>It is perfectly OK to get a summer job. Don’t feel that you must do something “academic”. You will learn a lot about yourself, other people, and life in general just by holding down a summer job or volunteer position.</p>
<p>I’m more interested in doing a program right now. Most summer jobs are just minimum wage labor. This is not just about building up my resume, it’s about taking advantage of unique opportunities. My ideal summer would involve a service trip to a foreign country probably, but those programs are much to expensive.</p>
<p>djz50, most summer programs are profit-making enterprises, or at least have to break even (pay their staff, etc.) The only reason TASP is free is because Telluride Association, which runs them, is an educational trust founded in the early 20th c.</p>
<p>Some summer programs do have need-based scholarships, but your family’s income and savings would have to be low. </p>
<p>Don’t discount what you can learn from a job. Even if you are not doing what seems to you fascinating or educational work–and you probably won’t be–you are learning how to function in an adult workplace, deal with customers and colleagues, and so on. You will also quickly learn what you enjoy in a workplace and what you don’t, which can be quite different from your academic talents or interests. For instance, I learned that provided my day included a lot of variety, the individual tasks I was doing could be quite tedious, and I’d be OK; but I hated, hated, hated sitting idle, especially if I wasn’t allowed to entertain myself by, e.g., reading a book. I very much enjoyed doing physical work outdoors. I also learned that although I could work as part of a team I really prefer designing and following through a project on my own. Realizing these facts about myself helped me when I started thinking about careers.</p>
<p>Another advantage of paid employment is, well, that it’s paid. The money will be useful for college, and even more useful longterm will be your changed attitude to money when it is yours, rather than your parents’.</p>
<p>If you don’t need the money, there are doubtless many volunteer activities available in your community–you don’t need to go abroad to be of service. The advantage of volunteer work is that you can often get experience that is related to careers you might be interested in pursuing.</p>