Academics:
• Freshman Year: GPA: 93%
• AP Psychology: 5 (self-studied)
• AP English Language and Composition: 4 (self-studied)
• Sophomore Year: GPA: 97.4%
Accomplishments: • NSO (National Science Olympiad): Gold Medal (Zonal Distinction) • French Olympiad: Gold Medal (Zonal Distinction)
Leadership Skills: • School House Captain for 2 years, responsible for 400 students. Organized competitions and collaborated with students to enhance the school community. • Led team to first place in a national project-based Math competition, researching and submitting winning reports on fractals and their efficiency in the traffic system. • Highly commended in a nation-wide essay competition for addressing relevant social issues. • Writing Club: Current Vice President (3 years), overseeing peer anthology publication and weekly activities. • Math Club: Vice President (1 year), overseeing activities.
Experience: • Completed week-long internships supporting novel writing organizations and contributed articles for a magazine run by the students of UC Berkely.
Interests: • Volunteered over 220 hours at a local art gallery, engaging with the community and promoting the arts. • Enrolled in Stanford’s Mathematical Thinking course and pursuing Google’s certified Data Science program. • Led students in preparing for the Columbia Symposium, facilitating discussions on literary works. • Pursuing the highest-level school courses, consistently achieving top grades. • 13-hour course by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) • Applied to various research programs and Columbia’s weekly journal for further growth.
*Applied for research publications but results haven’t come out yet. *
Colleges: Haven’t researched much, am in 11th grade
I think that your ECs are very good. Your academics also appears to be very good.
One thing that comes to mind is the advice that is provided on the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. I believe that this advice applies to other top universities also. The basic advice is to do what is right for you, and do it very well. Do not try to impress university admissions. Try to do what is right for you. This approach has worked very well for my family. However, what I did, and what my wife did, and what each of our daughters did, are entirely different things.
My second piece of advice is to understand that for every one of us there is a limit on how much we can do. Be a bit cautious about trying to do too much.
Remember that “leadership” is not about getting your way. Instead it is about making an activity better for everyone who participates.
Also, when I see “French Olympiad” and “academically excellent” in the same student, it occurs to me that McGill would be a possible choice (you do not need any French to attend McGill, but it will make four years in Montreal more interesting). One daughter applied to McGill and they did not even ask about ECs. However it appears to be very likely that you are going to have lots of other great choices in terms of universities or colleges to consider attending.
Do the things that you love doing, and pursue them as deeply and widely as you like. Don’t try to do ECs to impress colleges. Do them because you want to do them, whichever ones you like.
Continue to get top grades. Try a practice SAT and a practice ACT (and find out if you can even get a seat for an ACT test in your area), choose which one works best for you, and then self-prep to the max for it. A very high score on the SAT or ACT will help you, since it validates your high performance at an int’l school.
Assuming you are an int’l applicant, assuming you don’t need financial aid. I agree with considering Canada - U Toronto, McGill, possibly other schools. You’ll get in, and it may lead to Canadian residency/citizenship, which is much easier to obtain than in the US. Know that Canadian schools are much more concerned with grades and SAT/ACT, and much less so with everything else - they are not “holistic” in their evaluation of applicants. You can also apply to US top schools, but they’re much more of a crap shoot. For the best schools in the US, you really need to be one of the top students in your country, as demonstrated by whatever national exams or competitions exist. You’d have to be more than just the top student in your school. But there are many, many other excellent colleges in the US that would probably be happy to have you, assuming you can pay full tuition.