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How To Make The Most Of Your Last Summer Before College

We asked people to give advice on how to have the best summer possible before you start college. Enjoy! And make sure you're ready for first semester with Amazon Prime Student.

1. Get a summer job.

"The last summer before I went away for college, I worked at a mini golf course. It was a fun way to make some cash for spending $$ before leaving for school. Naturally that spending $$ was gone in about a week 'cause I pretty much made minimum wage, but it taught me to manage my time... Work hard/party hard, and so on."


—Tara

2. Make the most of naps.

3. Get into an exercise routine.

4. Do something crazy.

"I told my parents I was going to young life camp and planned a trip to a music festival instead. They found out because I'd printed out a bunch of information, crossed out the name of the festival, and written 'Young Life' instead. Fortunately, they didn't care! Long live adulthood."

—Jen

5. Try to figure out what you like in life.

You'll learn a lot about who you are when you get to college, and you can be whoever you want to be. But it helps to decide what you're really into before you get there so you know where to start.

6. Spend as much time with your friends and family as you can.

"My four high school friends and I were super close, but none of us were going to the same college. Just before we graduated, I planned a scavenger hunt that took us around to all our favorite spots. I hid rhyming clues all over our hometown, and the last one took us to our favorite teacher's house for dinner, which I'd preplanned. We took photos in each location, which gave us a bunch of good memories to take with us when we all went our separate ways. :)"

—Jen

7. Read as much as you can.

8. Or trick your brain into learning things without actually studying.

"I studied abroad in Japan before I went to college. Meeting new people at freshman orientation was a piece of cake because I could make small talk in English instead of my mangled elementary Japanese."

—Ashley

9. If nothing else, just enjoy the summer and these final months of freedom!

"I went to college in a major city but grew up in the country. Knowing I wouldn't have access to great outdoor spaces for a while, my friends and I spent most of the summer hiking in gorges, swimming in waterfalls, and playing on the playgrounds we played on as children. It was kind of a weird juxtaposition, knowing we would never have this much freedom as an adult ever again and never get to be children again either."

—Kristen

10. And make sure you've got everything you'll need to sail smoothly into first semester.

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