Manabendra Saharia, Grad Student

675 upvotes by Aditya Bhardwaj, Ishan Anand, Bharath Mankalale, (more)

You have the drive and the will to succeed that most people lose within the firs
t month in college. Too many starry-eyed teenagers end up demoralized in the fir
st semester. To preserve the motivation till the middle of second semester is a
minor achievement in itself ! Now, all you need is a way to channelize that will
.
One of the best ways to use the first break is to pick up some branch-agnostic s
kills that will help you regardless of what area (Management, engineering, resea
rch, industry) you work on. Avoid learning specialized softwares as much as poss
ible and NEVER go for those paid-trainings floated by companies.
Learn LaTeX : A lot of your life in college and beyond will be spent on prod
ucing reports, presentations etc and LaTeX is a tool that can help you make poli
shed documents that you can be proud of. This is a skill that will save countles
s hours in the future and you will come of as a perfectionist whereas your peers
may produce sloppy products. In a gist
Check: What is the best resource to learn the essential commands of LaTeX?
Improve your Vocab, Presentation and Writing Skills: You are what you write
and speak. Ability to clearly articulate your thoughts in an impressive concise
way can take you far in any field. Some of things you can do:
Read "The Elements of Style" by E.B. White.
Start a blog on any topic of your choice and try summarizing thoughts in
clear crisp sentences. (See WordPress.com)
Follow some famous Quora contributors and learn how they synthesize comp
lex information into palatable answers.
Learn to speak with a clear diction with as few 'umm's, 'aaa's etc as po
ssible in a standardized form of English. Practice in your room.
Learn Programming: Regardless of what branch you are in (even if Civil or Me
chanical Engineering), learn to program. It's a skill that will help immensely l
ater if you want to get into research as well. You can start with something easi
er like Matlab (Not the Toolboxes) or a proper language like Python. You can al
so do some fun stuff with statistics using R (programming language).
Enjoy: Means different things for different people. Have you watched all the
movies in IMDb Top 250 ? Have you watched the awesome documentaries available o
nline? Do you like to travel? Are you passionate about something (May even be Ma
nga!)? Maybe you are the socially-conscious type? Try Volunteering then. You can
try CouchSurfing as well!
This is the only break in the 4 years you will have time for yourself. Try t
o pursue a particular area you are passionate about and do something about it.
Learn to Articulate: You are what you write and speak. The thoughts in your
mind matter very less, unless you can express them in crisp language. English is
the global language. Master what is required in a professional setting. The fol
lowing books will be really helpful - The Elements of Style by E.B. White and Th
e Careful Writer. Start a blog in WordPress.com and practice.
Make an Academic Homepage: Probably by this time, you don't have much to wri
te in your CV. It doesn't matter! That's not the point of this exercise. You can
make it using a free service like Weebly or Google Sites. You should do it beca
use:
It's a great tool to keep track of your progress in life and academics.
You can update in the subsequent years as you gain more experience.
When you sit for placements, you don't have to sit cluelessly for a day
trying to recollect all the things you have done.
Quora: No better place to be on the Internet right now to increase your know
ledge 10x (Along with Wikipedia ofcourse!). Even just being a passive consumer w
ill pay you dividends.

Spend Time with Family and Old Friends: Because you will miss spending time
with family later. And will probably be completely cut off from your pre-Univers
ity friends in subsequent years. Most of the things above can be done from the c
omforts of your home.
I think a few of these should keep you busy the whole summer and make you a well
-rounded individual. This will keep you ahead in career skills than any industry
internship in first summer break can.
P.S. I will polish the answer more with more links to the suggestions already pr
ovided.
Updated 11 Jun, 2013. 37,693 views. Not for Reproduction.
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Shravan SuriShravan Suri
35 upvotes by Karanbir Singh Dhillon, Ishwar Partap Singh, Akshay Sharma, (more)
There are a lot of answers to this question already. I am adding some stuff I fo
und really helpful in landing me internships after my 2nd and during my 3rd year
of college.
Try Coursera. Join a course, and learn to have a perspective. They have cour
ses on topics ranging from coding and UX design to Death (yes!). The interface i
s friendly, and you can actually enjoy education, and not studies.
Improve your public speaking skills: And this is different from perfecting E
nglish (or the language of your choice). This is about sounding confident, being
expressive and understanding the subtle art of conversation. Ever tried a group
discussion ? Go for some. They teach you how to channelize conversations the wa
y you want, take control and shape the thoughts of a group.
Do Creative Stuff: Very important. This is the time you are not burdened wit
h exams, or assignments. Take time out and build stuff. With your hands (paint,
best out of waste), with your pen (stories, a crazy blog, anything), or on your
computer (Photoshop, Web Design etc). These may sound silly, but stuff gets exci
ting when you add step 4 to it.
ASK QUESTIONS: About anything, and everything. Politics, history, religion,
environment, culture... anything you read about online or in the newspaper. Go d
eep. Understand world conflicts, understand perspectives. Build an informed opin
ion (THIS will help you in every interview you EVER sit for.)
And oh, when you add irrepressible curiosity to creativity, you walk the lin
es of EVERY great individual who ever did great stuff. Anyone. You name it, they
've done it.
The rest of the stuff I was going to write is already in Manabendra Saharia'
s answer.
What I really want you to do is simple.
1. Learn new stuff (which they might not teach you in your college!)
2. Learn how to think and self examine (your paintings or articles... your thoug
hts)
3. Learn what to think about, and learn to have an opinion about it
4. Learn how to present and discuss your opinion
That's it. That, right there, is a summer well spent !
Written 10 May, 2013. 5,182 views.
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