I will be in 10th grade in the fall.
My extracurriculars next year will be:
-Robotics club at school, Documentation Manager (we win competitions and are an advanced team, travel a lot)
-Linguistics club, leader of Toki-Pona group
-Programming club, new member but hopefully will get some sort of symbolic position as I love programming.
-Piano (I do competitions and play at old age homes, not for community service but just for fun)
-Thinking about doing debate - not sure. Would you recommend it?
Sports: Tennis, JV (very good and selective team, league leaders)
Community Service:
This is where it gets sketchy. I want to do something meaningful that I actually enjoy and that will help people. Maybe something related to robotics or programming? Ideas?
I will also be a teacher at my Indian Culture School (Bal Vihar) and will get a certificate for doing so. I enjoy teaching but I also want to do something outside of my comfort zone.
Assuming I get A’s in the highest level classes and I do good on my SAT’s, is this good enough for top colleges? My dream is Cornell, especially since they are opening a new tech campus in NYC in 2017. What do I have to do to improve my chances of getting into selective colleges?
Thanks!
I think you have a diverse set of EC’s. You don’t need to pile too much on. Quality over quantity. Keep in mind that EC’s and community service are always secondary to grades and test scores.
Do you have a major in mind? Something tech related? It helps if you’re participating in something related to your major.
Thanks for your reply! I am very interested in science but especially computer science. I will go to hackathons with some of my friends and win awards. Is this sufficient or do colleges expect me to run a successful start up?
focusing on computer science is good, elite colleges like “spiked” applicants, where one extracurricular is emphasized.
The unfortunate thing is that the Indian-computer science profile is completely over saturated in the admission pool, making it hard to stand out.
here’s that i would suggest:
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Continue with your computer science ECs, as I said before.
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Extend this EC into something more meaningful. Yes programming at clubs is cool, but it’s not gonna make you stand out. So you need to project it. Like you mentioned, a start-up would be great, but it’s pretty unlikely and difficult.
I would recommend starting programming classes, I’m sure the library would welcome that. Whether you teach to kids or disadvantaged students, this shows your strength computer science as well as a contribution to real-world society (which Cornell would love).
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i wouldn’t do debate if i were you, unless you truly enjoy it, not for college admission. you don’t want to make your profile “cloudy” with various types of ecs.
So far you’re doing great, and now it’s time to go to the next level. Good luck!
Also: Note to moderator, i think this thread is in the wrong subsection, should be moved to college admissions.
@deeeznuts THANKS!
LOL, I guess being Indian doesn’t help my case for what I want to do. However, computer science is just one of the many things I enjoy, including biotech, robotics, and basically everything that has to do with engineering.
Programming lessons seems like a really cool summer project! If it is done through the library, it may also count as community service! I’ll ask my friends to join me and we could do that! Do you know any ways I could create a spike in other engineering fields?
Also, I will move this thread (if I can I don’t know how yet because I’m new).
Thanks!