It's almost August. Here's what to do with the last few weeks of summer if you’re prepping for uni.
There's a particular feeling that hits somewhere in the last week of July. The summer isn't over yet but you can feel it starting to tilt. School is somewhere on the horizon.
If you're planning to apply to a university abroad this cycle, or seriously thinking about it for next year, this post is for you. Not to make you panic. But to help you use the next three to four weeks in a way that means September-you feels calm rather than chaotic.
Here's the honest truth: you still have time. Not infinite time, but real, usable time. The difference between students who feel prepared in October and students who don't usually comes down to what they did in August, not whether they worked constantly, but whether they spent a few focused hours on the right things.
Here's what those right things actually are.
If you haven't started at all yet - this week
The most useful thing you can do this week isn't researching universities or writing drafts. It's getting clear on the basics. Sit down for one hour and answer three questions as honestly as you can:
What do I actually want to study? Not what sounds impressive. Not what your parents suggested. What subject could you talk about for hours without getting bored?
Where in the world do I want to live for three years? A big city or a smaller one? English-speaking or open to something else? Close enough to come home easily or far enough to feel like a real departure?
What's the realistic budget? This isn't a fun question but it's a necessary one. The answer shapes everything that follows; which countries are realistic, which programs are accessible, whether scholarships need to be part of the plan.
Write the answers down somewhere. Even rough, uncertain answers. This document is the foundation everything else gets built on, and most students skip it entirely, which is why they end up going in circles for months.
If you've done some research but haven't focused yet
What to do with the next two weeks: narrow it down to three destinations and three universities per destination. Not forever, just for now. Decision paralysis is real, and the antidote isn't more options, it's temporarily committing to a smaller set so you can go deeper.
For each of those nine universities, find out:
The entry requirements for your subject
The application deadline
What the personal statement or motivation letter actually asks for
One thing that genuinely excites you about that specific program
This takes a few hours spread across a few evenings. By the time you go back to school, you'll have a real working document instead of a vague sense that you should look into some things at some point.
The personal statement - where to actually start
If there's one thing that separates students who feel calm in October from students who don't, it's whether they've started thinking about their personal statement before September. Not writing it, thinking about it.
The personal statement isn't a test of how well you can write. It's a test of how well you know yourself; specifically, why you want to study what you want to study, and what experiences have built that interest over time.
That self-knowledge doesn't appear on demand. It needs a bit of time and a bit of honest reflection. Here's the exercise we give students at the start of every Lumen program, and you can do it right now for free:
Write down, without overthinking it, three moments from the last two or three years when you felt genuinely engaged, genuinely interested in something. A class, a conversation, a project, a book, a problem you couldn't stop thinking about. Write what happened, why it stuck with you, and what it made you curious about.
This list is almost always where the real personal statement is hiding. Most students think they have nothing interesting to say. Most students are wrong.
English language tests - the thing almost everyone leaves too late
If English isn't your first language and you're applying to an English-taught program anywhere in Europe or beyond, you will almost certainly need an IELTS, TOEFL, or equivalent test score. Many programs have specific minimum requirements, and some are strict about not accepting results older than two years.
Here's why August matters for this specifically: test centres book up. September and October sittings -the ideal time to take the test so you have results ready for autumn application deadlines- start filling up now. If you're in Hungary or elsewhere in Central Europe, check your nearest test centre this week and book a sitting before the good dates disappear.
Even if you're confident in your English, give yourself the buffer of a retake if needed. Finding out in November that you need to retake in January is an entirely avoidable problem.
What to do the week before school starts
This is the week most students spend dreading going back. Here's a more useful way to spend it.
Finalise your university shortlist. By now you should have a working list of six to ten universities across your target destinations. Write down, next to each one, the application deadline and what's required. Put these dates somewhere you'll actually see them.
Tell one adult in your life what you're planning. Whether that's a parent, a teacher, or a counsellor at school, saying "I'm applying to universities in the Netherlands and Germany this cycle" out loud is surprisingly important. It shifts the plan from a vague intention to an actual thing that's happening.
Book your free Lumen consultation if you haven't already. September is when students suddenly realise how much there is to navigate -- application systems, personal statement formats, deadlines, country-specific requirements - and the ones who already have support in place feel the difference immediately. The first conversation with us is free, takes half an hour, and usually gives students a clearer sense of direction than weeks of independent research.
The thing worth remembering
Every year, there are students who spend their entire summer worrying about university applications and students who spend it doing nothing at all. The ones who do best are almost always neither of those. They're the ones who used a few focused hours each week on the right things, and protected the rest of their summer for actually resting, being with people they love, and doing whatever makes them feel like themselves.
You still have time to be that student. August is not too late. It is, in fact, exactly the right moment.