Are Extracurriculars really that Important for non T20 CS?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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@squ1rrel I’m not surprised that your robotics team doesn’t know what they are doing. It is very confusing and intimidating for beginners. That is why new teams getting started are supposed to be mentored by other well-established FIRST teams (who get credit towards the Chaiman’s Award by helping new teams.) This is often done by having alumni (former team members) come to your school and guide you through getting sponsors, setting up a work space, and learning engineering and programming skills. The team at our school gives area workshops on these skills at the beginning of each school year for all the teams in the area.

An alternative for you, if your school team doesn’t work out, is to join one of the teams at another school near you. I don’t know about all teams, but our school accepts anyone who wants to join from another high school. By the way, it is more fun to be on a winning team, but I don’t think it really matters how well the robot does in competitions as long as the team members learn the skills needed to design, build, and program it.

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@MYOS1634 I’ve actually recently started a large scale programming project with about a dozen other friends to help people study for geography competitions, for the AP Human Geo test, as well as those who are just interested in geo in general.

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@BunnyBlue I live in Exeter and so my nearby school is PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY and one of my best friends is the leader of their team. He would let me join if I was allowed to, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to join (it doesn’t hurt to ask though), and I’m also pretty sure that everyone there is a tryhard and I would look like I have no clue what I’m doing (BECAUSE I DON’T).

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At first you wouldn’t know, then you’d pick it up.

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That sounds great! That demonstrates leadership and organizational skills as well as programming know-how.

Btw you will need community service for applying to mid-level. colleges, not just elite ones. There is no need to join a school club to do service. You can volunteer on your own if you want with community organizations, like the Salvation Army, Rotary Clubs, and community centers. Actually I think your ECs are shaping up quite nicely.

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@BunnyBlue It might be a lot more convenient to join a school club, especially since many of my good friends do it as well.

Also, do national honors societies like Rho Kappa and others matter at all? Or are they just a waste of time?

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I don’t think membership in honor societies matters that much, but I don’t know really know. Maybe someone who has connections to admissions will answer this. I think being an officer in an honor society would help, though.

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@BunnyBlue Ok, I’ll do a bit more research.

I reached out to my friend at Phillips Exeter and he sent an email to his advisor regarding whether or not I can join the robotics team. The chances are slim, but it’s worth a shot! I’m just terrified I will look like an absolute noob when I join.

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Kids who are new to an established team have to accept that they won’t know what to do or how to do it. It is that way for everyone in the beginning. But you get mentored by the older kids and gradually you catch on and find yourself teaching other kids what you just learned. It is easier to feel comfortable at the beginning of the school year when there are a lot of new kids who are in the same boat. Sometimes there will be someone who helps the new ones get integrated and involved, but not always. Sometimes you just have to find a group that is working, watch them awhile, and then ask if you can try. With programming it is a little different. The lead programmer usually gathers a small group of those who are interested and presents lessons.

So glad you reached out to the other team. Good luck! If they take you in, maybe it would eventually result in getting help for the “home team”.

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Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.

“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”

http://www.examiner.com/review/be-a-relaxed-high-school-superstar

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^ this is very very very true. Get the book and get reading :slight_smile:

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@bopper I have Cal Newport’s other book about how to be a straight A student LOL that just proves that there is something wrong.

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@BunnyBlue They said I couldn’t join :frowning:

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:frowning:

Ok, let’s recap

  • you’re working on a personal CS project
  • you’re playing JV soccer
    You COULD try and join the robotics team and the track team. You will find a way to use your skills to volunteer (look into putting your CS skills to use for a charity).

Is there an option to dual enroll through a NH public university online?

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@MYOS1634 Varsity next year for sure, also probably math peer tutoring; already started geography bee coaching. Probably going to do separate community service and national honors societies if need be. Track and Academy soccer are doubts.

With the NH public university, I haven’t heard of any good programs. The only course I need to take that is college level is math and potentially CS…

Not sure how dual enrollment or works, or whether it is worth it.

36

National Honor societies are only worth it as conduit to achieving personal projects. In and by themselves they’re worth very little.

Dual enrollment would free some time in your schedule (class 3 times a week + online = flexibility). It doesn’t matter whether the program is “good” it’ll necessarily be more demanding than high school- much faster pace,* less handholding. The best indication you’ll be successful in college is actual college success while in HS.
*What a HS AP course covers over 10 months 5 periods a week, a college course covers over 4 months 3 periods a week.

Try to integrate community service and our specialized/advanced skills. Elite colleges want to see how you apply your strengths to positive impact in the community. (That’s a high bar).

Track: see if you can do well and like it.
Academy soccer: based on everything you’ve said I don’t think it’s the right choice for you. In addition there’s no way you’d be able to keep a diverse schedule of activities, a rigorous academic schedule, and academy soccer.

(If ofccer matters that much, I was previously joking about a soccer-focused gap year abroad, but why not? Choose a powerhouse French or German or Spanish youth club, ask yfu/CIEE to find you a school nearby, become bilingual and grow as a soccer player.)

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@MYOS1634 I actually have a thread on taking a gap year in China to get better at Chinese because it’s going to be such an important language to know for the future. Chinese Super League pays higher than any other soccer league lol, something to think about

38

So sorry you couldn’t join their team!

39

You are a FRESHMAN. Your ECs are not “HORRID”, they are those of a normal, smart, freshman.

Stop trying to figure out how to get into a specific college. That is not what you should be doing.

You should be figuring out how to get the best education you can, and how to do stuff outside of school which will help you develop as a person. Great ECs are not those in which a kid decided to engage to increase their chances of being accepted to a specific college. They are those in which a student engaged because they enjoyed them, and were passionate about them.

Having a good EC is an excellent excuse to convince yourself not to spend every evening playing video games and watching TV, but they always have to be stuff you genuinely enjoy, and would do without the college angle.

It seems that you are engaged in a number of good ECs, though some are in their early stages, and there are other things which you would like doing. Enjoy them for what they are, don’t do them as a requirement for college acceptance.

Seriously, so you’ll spend all of your HS focused on college, all of your college focused on your job, and then spend that on preparing for the next stage, and then one day you’ll be retiring, and realize that you’ve never actually lived, you’ve just prepared.

Despite what you may read here or hear from peers, getting into “the best college” is not the most important part of your life, or even in the top 10 most important parts of your life. Not getting into a T-20 college is not a widely held regret that people have on their deathbeds.

When you graduate, you should be proud of your accomplishments for what they are, not for the colleges for which they qualified you. You should consider learning advanced computing and helping 35 kids learn geography to be worthy achievements, whether or whether not they help you get into a T-20 CS program.

Also, your goal, AFTER you graduate HS, is not “to be accepted into a T-20 program in CS”, it is “to study CS+geography in a program in which I will be challenged”.

In summary, I think that, for a freshman, your present ECs are fine, but they are mostly early stage, so take some of the excellent advice here, and speak with school counselors, etc, to figure out how to move them forward. At the same time, choose your ECs and classes to maximize what you are getting out of your life, not what will get you into the “college of your dreams”. Choose your classes so that you are developing intellectually, and choose your ECs so that you are developing in other ways.

Good luck on your finals and use your summer wisely (that includes hanging out with friends).

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We have a friend who lives in Exeter. I know they have a nice recreation program. Perhaps you can volunteer for a program this summer and/or see about helping run a program for them for soccer, robotics etc. Unrelated my kids loved the wooded playground and pool with waterslide.