<p>I met an intern at NASA</p>
<p>Can someone then tell me somewhere I can explore studio art? I think that’s all I need to know…</p>
<p>@ll7 Take a deep breath and relax. Enjoy this summer playing sports and the other things you like doing. Start freshman year rested and ready to go.</p>
<p>I have no idea what options are available to you one hour away from your home, but you have all summer to hunt around and find them out for the upcoming school year or next summer. You live in an area that has MIT, Harvard, Tufts, BC, BU and on and on and there are no opportunities for you to eventually take classes, work in labs etc? Furthermore, I would suggest that you STOP asking the same questions over and over again and go find the answers yourself as other posters have already suggested. My daughter did some pretty amazing things and to my chagrin, she never went on CC after the initial time I told her about it (I thought I had discovered the greatest thing since sliced bread, she said she had better things to do than become neurotic looking at what others were saying and doing). Anyway, the point is that the journey of discovery is part of the process. </p>
<p>You are good at asking the same question over and over again, so after you’ve had time to reflect on what YOU want to do, why don’t you re-direct this skill at people who can actually help you (professors, teachers, volunteer organizations etc.) instead of strangers in an internet forum?</p>
<p>Designing an app is no longer a unique concept, but it shows initiative and if happens to solve a real need (such as the girl who built an app to monitor pacemakers)…</p>
<p>As we have repeatedly said, there are no set formulas. Some didn’t do any community service and got into Harvard (my daughter, Gibby’s daughter) because they were consumed with honing other skills, others have done a ton because it comes from a fire that burns within and it is a major reason why they got into Harvard. There is no right or wrong answer, only what comes naturally to you. If you force things, you will not enjoy what you are doing and the results will reflect that. If you volunteer so you can check off a box then you have wasted both time and energy. If you volunteer because it comes from compassion for others, than that compassion will grow and grow and you will be a great candidate for life, if not Harvard. You have mentioned you are religious and that you want to be a doctor. I am sure you are a compassionate person. Let it come through in the work you do in community service and your EC’s.</p>
<p>Lastly, stop worrying about all the things that think are out of reach or that you believe others know and you don’t. When you are ready, start doing things, the more you do the greater the likelihood the path you were meant to take will reveal itself - not before then and certainly not now.</p>
<p>No, developing an app isn’t a boost. </p>
<p>But I’m thinking the pursuit of the formula, arguing with a bunch of adults quite familiar with elite schools, could make a funny essay. But, maybe at 17, when you get the futility.</p>
<p>I’ll try and hopefully come up with something. It seems that everything is for juniors and seniors though. Anyways if anyone knows of an art activity I can do, please tell. Until I find something, I’ll just look around. When school starts, I’ll look at this area at our school to find volunteer and jobs. I think my passion is art </p>
<p>Thank you everyone :)</p>
<p>Good luck to you. And believe this: you will be fine and happy and fulfilled, wherever you end up.</p>
<p>“Anyways if anyone knows of an art activity I can do, please tell.”</p>
<p>Well, you certainly win the award for persistence. I would hate to have been your parents when you wanted a pony for your birthday!</p>
<p>I am taking that as a compliment 
</p>
<p>And really if you know of one tell me</p>
<p>^^ Hey, I’m just a math, science, & finance person. All right, all of you out there with the art activities, stop holding out on the poor girl! :)</p>
<p>Ahaha
Thank you
If you have a math and science thing too let me know ;)</p>
<p>Falcon, we’ve pointed in directions. It all keeps cycling back. I am not sure why.
I already said, the passion for art (starting with the insistence on keeping it in the schedule,) is good. A nice add for a STEM kid. That will be noticed. It was the first thing I noticed. But it’s reactive, in the sense OP is just looking at courses and putting art in. He/she needs to be, as we keep saying, proactive- finding ways to express this, move it forward and share it, in ways that represent more than a kid sitting in a class. The shark, always moving in the water. </p>
<p>Asking repeatedly for what to do…may come through in 3.5 years as not having self-direction. Just some likes, just the opportunity to do what is offered. The golden carp, frozen in the ice.</p>
<p>If you have to ask what is proactive, ask for suggestions, persist, insist you can’t figure it out- and all the etcetera in this thread- there are only two conclusions. The nice one is: it is too soon for you to know; get started in hs, see what’s what and come back for some fine-tuning chat, a year from now, when you can tell us what you DID do and we can react.</p>
<p>And what is the other one?</p>
<p>Can I ask, is it wrong to ask for ideas? I didn’t know about STEM until someone pointed it out and it is now on my list of things I am waiting for the opportunity to do. I’d you don’t want to give me an idea, don’t.
I am proactive. Just because I haven’t done it yet doesn’t mean I’m not proactive. It means I haven’t found something that will allow me to become proactive…</p>
<p>“How can I find it because when I think of passion, six different things come to mind.”</p>
<p>I think the first step is to take a break from College Confidential. Seriously! In the meantime, devote yourself to activities that you love, do things that make you smile inside. Don’t worry, College Confidential will still be here in two years when you come back, and because you will have devoted yourself to things that you love, you will be in a great place when you start to apply to colleges. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Let’s step back a little.</p>
<p>You seem remarkably well spoken, thoughtful and reflective in these posts. Very good qualities. Remarkable for someone your age, I think. Definitely having the potential to be a Harvard-man, if you will (I say in my best Boston Brahmin accent).</p>
<p>I will reiterate briefly that the type of question “What does it take to get into Harvard?” seems a bit icky, especially to adults like the author in the NY Times article mentioned earlier in this thread, who remind me of me (where I spent much of my youth playing ping-pong and eating snow cones at your age). Pre-AP rigmarole. We muddled through. It has worked out ok by and large.</p>
<p>So focus that intellect on figuring out another way to ask the question. Hmmmmm…
Don’t keep asking the same question.</p>
<p>I would add and have said elsewhere in the CC forums, because yours is one of many similar questions, that a smorgasbord of extracurriculars won’t capture anyone’s imagination. I think these admissions people get the fact that to be world class in something you have to commit a lot of time to it. Tradeoffs are a fact of life. But you have a lot of things in place to prepare you for the career in medicine. I just don’t see the specialized interest and investment of time yet. Read Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers. </p>
<p>So find a passion and dig deep into it.</p>
<p>You already said, “I want to be a neurosurgeon and hope to attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School.”</p>
<p>Ok, now we have something to work on. </p>
<p>Your father is in the profession. Quite normal for you to be interested. And absolutely gives you an advantage.</p>
<p>I think the fact of the matter is that saying you want to be a neurosurgeon will raise very few hackles and will get you concrete help from the generally supportive crowd at CC. Focusing on the Harvard part, which is understandable because you posted it in the Harvard thread and not in a “I want to be a doctor thread” (duh) is the thing taking up so much of the oxygen in your thread. </p>
<p>Synergy - So think about activities that contribute to the story that you want to be a doctor in general and a neurosurgeon in particular.</p>
<p>One reaction - I get the art part. I can come up with a story that says the surgeon or the dentist would benefit from the same skills of visualization and dexterity that an artist would have. So go for it. And pursue it beyond the AP art courses. Work on that connection between art and medicine.</p>
<p>Hopefully your parents are supporting your passion for art and can understand how that becomes part of your story. But asking the question, “How do I get into Harvard?” and “Does anybody know of any art competitions?” within this thread isn’t going to get you anywhere. Take the latter question to the fine art sections of the forum and to your art teacher and other local artists. Pursue enrichment programs in art during your summers. Join that art community in some way in your town. Have you been to the Museum of Fine Art or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Have you been there enough to be a docent? Can you walk around the place and discuss the technique and provenance of a few items in a thoughtful way. It will make you a more interesting person. It will be at the sacrifice of other things like the 4th sport or the math tutoring but at the margin I don’t see the utility of those things. That is economic reasoning.</p>
<p>Let’s pursue further this notion of synergy in your goal of becoming a doctor. When I was a freshman in college I contacted the hospital administrator in my small town. I said I was thinking of being pre-med. Could I volunteer? He said this to me:</p>
<p>“If you and I both knew you were going to be a doctor in the end, I would put you in the kitchen or laundry because I don’t think most doctors appreciate all the things it takes to make a hospital work. But I realize you need something sexier than that for your resume.” </p>
<p>So he let me be a volunteer orderly in the emergency room. Probably inconceivable in this litigious day and age of liability. I moved corpses to the morgue. I collected from some family members the finger tips of their boy cut off in a table saw accident as they brought them in (not all at once), and put them in saline in a refrigerator. I overheard the doctors deliberating on their options to operate locally, air lift him to the big city hospital, all against a ticking clock, and then what were they going to say the family of this boy, who also played guitar. I disposed the drainage of a catheterized older gentleman suffering from prostate cancer. I overheard the conversation of a former HS classmate who had come into the ER with a serious infection after a short career as a prostitute. I heard the nurses complain about doctors they thought were imperious and stupid, and appreciate the ones that weren’t. I don’t think you could get a job like this these days. Being a volunteer in a hospital these days is giving directions to visitors at the elevator, I expect. I doubt if they would even let you take some one just released, on that wheel chair ride, to the parking lot. Probably the same response you got regarding lab research. Not old enough. Even then, you are up against current nursing and EMT and pre-med students in trying to get that experience. Saying you are not old enough is the easiest thing for them to say to you. But go ahead and ask. See what happens. A lot of things come to those who are persistent, which that hospital administrator admired in me. Maybe you will get a job offer in the kitchen and laundry. And you might want to take it.</p>
<p>You got family connections in medicine, for goodness sakes. Continue to press your parents on the issue. Shadowing is a start. Just keep your eyes open on how to make it more real. And that will take time and being in the right place at the right time in ways you can’t really plan for.</p>
<p>But what could you do now? </p>
<p>Perhaps you can’t get a sexy job in medicine because of age and liability. You mentioned volunteering in your father’s office. Learn the accounting software, the insurance claims process, the scheduling software. Take phone calls and learn customer service skills. Handle money and credit card processing system. Become a respected member of a professional staff. I think that all of this will take some time. And if you are applying to Harvard or medical school down the road saying you were the office admin in a doctor’s office while you were in high school, then hopefully you got some interesting stories to tell. And you will learn a lot of terminology, procedures, empathy with patients. Give you some insight into Obama-care beyond the soundbites.</p>
<p>And to get the most out of an experience like that, it will take some time at the expense of that 4th sport and the math tutoring…</p>
<p>Think about other first responders: police, fire, EMT. Do they have an auxiliary or scout troop or training programs that let you get some experience or certification while you are in HS? Instead of taking all those time consuming AP course, could you take those fire dept and EMT courses at the local community college. You want to be a doctor, a first responder, not a test taker.</p>
<p>I don’t see the 3rd or 4th sport as adding value to the college application unless you already are outstanding in some sport, captain in a few. So you are a competitive swimmer. Have you really stepped up that game? Swimmers I think spend incredible hours in the pool. It is one thing to be on the 3rd relay team. It is another to be a league champion. Have you dedicated yourself to be the best you can be at a few things, like swimming, like art? Rather than adding the math tutor or another EC. Taking that 9th or 10th AP course seems like the relatively safe choice compare to striving to be the best in a single activity.</p>
<p>This may sound like heresy, but I would question the 9th or 10th AP class just because it “challenges” you. From my perspective it is more of the same in the highly structured world of high school and far less interesting than something in the unstructured world outside of high school.</p>
<p>And have you considered being a lifeguard. Again combining a sport you like and the synergy with medicine and first responders. </p>
<p>Nobody is going to tell you, “To get into Harvard, go be a lifeguard.” But if you pursue those activities that interest you to the fullest, the interesting experiences and carryover skills will come.</p>
<p>I could share with you details about how my D got into the Harvard-NEC AB/MM program, which requires getting into NEC, and getting into Harvard and, in a separate decision, being deemed ready for a master’s program at NEC. They take about 6 or 8 or 10 per year. Just one example: when she was your age, she got a job in the local jazz society office. She could use Excell so she managed mailing lists. Made fundraising phone calls - gasp telemarketing. She made name tags for the students for the camp that summer - a camp she was going to attend. She helped the camp registrar with the class scheduling. She served food and sold raffle tickets at jazz society member parties. She hung around the office and did odd jobs. And she has been considered one of them, ever since. The skills paid off. The relationships paid off. Nobody is going to tell you that working in a camp or telemarketing is going to get you into Harvard. But she paid her dues starting in junior high.</p>
<p>She didn’t get straight As. She didn’t get perfect test scores. She didn’t have the long list of ECs that you see on these Chance Me threads. If she asked the question you asked, I would said, “What, are you nuts?” I think I am tough on some of the right things and much more liberal than your parents on some of the right things too. Don’t get me wrong, I think that lots come out through your posts that your parents have done a lot of right things.</p>
<p>But she was passionate about music. Gave up sports in 9th grade to focus on it, and BTW she did 4 interscholastic sports in junior high and I think she was quite good at soccer. But she received local, regional, state, and national recognition in music. Even in junior high. More importantly, she was developing peer relationships on a professional level with other outstanding musicians from across the country, not to mention faculty members at the conservatories. Her work in music competitions enabled her to meet faculty members from around the country, starting in junior high. She went from local camps to pre-college experience at several summer programs around the country. (And your parents won’t let you have a sleepover? I could say a lot about that and will if you want. But I think you tried to shut down that conversation.)</p>
<p>I think H recognized her as an asset to their music program. Broken record…3rd or 4th sport, being the math tutor, not going to capture anybody’s imagination. What will be the asset you bring to Harvard or any competitive school? I just don’t see it right now.</p>
<p>So taking it a step further…where will your activities help you build professional relationships with the decision makers at the schools you want to get into? Faculty, department heads, admissions officer. Don’t see it right now. In music my daughter was able to do that really as early as 8 years old locally and about your age nationally. If you say you can’t do it, I think you aren’t trying, or your parents are limiting your options. And you and they need to take responsibility for that. </p>
<p>I am telling you point blank, developing professional relationships with decision makers is one way to help you achieve your goal. Ok, you asked about lab research and were rebuffed. And now your thinking about being a math tutor in you local school? I don’t see the math tutor or 4th sport or whatever getting it done. And by the way, I don’t think these decision makers will want to help you if your pitch is “What can I do to get into Harvard?” I think they might, if you say, “What can I do to become a neurosurgeon?” And of course, you need to have the followup pitch when they ask why do you want to be a neursurgeon, in a 30 second, 1 minute or 5 minute version that is persuasive. And I don’t think making my parents proud is sufficient there.</p>
<p>Surely there are task in the medical field that reduce the exposure to liability and get around the working age requirements that you are up against. Google “medicine and art” and see what you come up with. There is a journal from Johns Hopkins on that subject alone.</p>
<p>I don’t recall any passion in your desire to be a doctor in your posts. </p>
<p>The whole “how do I get into Harvard” seems a little soul-less. But I think you have a lot more going for you than that. You just need to think outside the box that CC often presents in the Chance Me thread. You can dismiss each and every one of the specific suggestion I made. But I don’t think you can ignore synergy, developing a story of your life and developing professional interests and relationships. Hopefully something I have said has got the creative juices flowing in you. You stuck in the grind that is high school today. Being concerned about that is the right question. </p>
<p>There is another thread started in the music major thread that is starting to explore and question this Chance Me, college admissions issue. It is in its early stages. Not sure how it will develop, but I think a thoughtful person like yourself may want to check it now and again.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1523348-schools-future.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1523348-schools-future.html</a></p>
<p>So get out of the Harvard thread and check out the more specific interests you have in other threads. There may even be a thread about “I dearly love and respect my parents but they won’t let me have a sleepover in jh or hs and even want me to be a commuter student in colllege. Help.” I bet that question has been asked before. </p>
<p>But do keep in touch. Good luck.</p>
<p>Powerful posts from parents, here.
OP should reread this thread, and pay careful attention to both the quality of the advice and the nature of her responses.</p>
<p>^^^ I love your response thank you</p>
<p>Swimming is a past time. Rugby, Basketball, & Cross Country are the sports I will play at school. They will stay hehe </p>
<p>I think at the beginning of this I was soulless as you say but I really do see the light now. I also notice that my math and science competitions were clubs that I wasn’t going to enjoy even though I love the subjects dearly. I’d rather do more professional work in the areas instead of competing. I think instead of those two, I will replace them with Art/Set Design and Board of Bilinguals.</p>
<p>My father’s practice is new and I helped him start it up, getting him patients and such. I take phone calls for him, fill out paperwork, occasionally deal with money although my dad doesn’t like that and read his wide array of books while I wait for something to do. I organize medicine and such.</p>
<p>I think art is what will allow me to stand out. I really do. But art will not be my job, I want to be a neurosurgeon. I could go on and on about why but it would be a long long post because of it. </p>
<p>I have moved to many many schools, 8 different ones in 6 different districts, so I never really had the chance to settle and do things with</p>
<p>^^^ I love your response thank you</p>
<p>Swimming is a past time. Rugby, Basketball, & Cross Country are the sports I will play at school. They will stay hehe </p>
<p>I think at the beginning of this I was soulless as you say but I really do see the light now. I also notice that my math and science competitions were clubs that I wasn’t going to enjoy even though I love the subjects dearly. I’d rather do more professional work in the areas instead of competing. I think instead of those two, I will replace them with Art/Set Design and Board of Bilinguals.</p>
<p>My father’s practice is new and I helped him start it up, getting him patients and such. I take phone calls for him, fill out paperwork, occasionally deal with money although my dad doesn’t like that and read his wide array of books while I wait for something to do. I organize medicine and such.</p>
<p>I think art is what will allow me to stand out. I really do. But art will not be my job, I want to be a neurosurgeon. I could go on and on about why but it would be a long long post because of it. </p>
<p>I have moved to many many schools, 8 different ones in 6 different districts, so I never really had the chance to settle and do things that I’d want to do.</p>
<p>I really am beginning to notice how everything works with admissions into any school.</p>
<p>I will read the article and keep an eye out on it :)</p>
<p>I didn’t see a medicine major on here so I posted on here instead. Oops</p>
<p>I’ll ask my dad for any professional places I can learn and flourish.</p>
<p>Thank you for your post, it is being copied into my notes!!</p>
<p>I love the part about the start-up. Run with that combination of medicine and entrepreneurship. There are probably young doctors complaining about not knowing how to run a business and you are learning how to do it now. My guess is that med schools are coming late to that game. That is a story that will resonate. Pursue that experience to the fullest. The potential there is very rich.</p>
<p>If you want to get mercenary about it: Think about the common app questions.</p>
<p>Will you run into ethical dilemmas in the operation of a doctor’s practice. I would bet yes.</p>
<p>Will you have an opportunity to have an impact on an organization? If you keep at it, like for instance, I observer that there is a lot of turnover in doctor and dentist office staff. If you stay with it and suddenly are the resident expert on systems. You have made an impact. If you follow through with a systems upgrade implermentation and are training the staff, you have made and impact. One week shadowing a surgeon? Where is the essay coming from that.</p>
<p>I could continue. But I like your chances if you approach the problem like I was discussing.</p>
<p>Another story to tell, because I like telling stories. Another reality check. </p>
<p>I went to college with a kid who grew up in a little farm town in Wisconsin. He played football. His school was so small that at half time he had to stay on the field to play the tuba in his football uniform. At the same time he read books on differential equations for pleasure, not to pass an AP test. I don’t think AP classes are inspiring a love of learning in anybody. So again, where is the passion in your studies and activities.</p>
<p>So there are kids that don’t have the support system, the opportunities around them like you do. Another Malcolm Gladwell observation in Outliers. But they are just doing their thing. That has to come across in your story. </p>
<p>Trust me, there are kids that are autodidactic without the advantages that you have and aren’t even realizing you have. They may inspire or intimidate you when you get to college. </p>
<p>AP courses aren’t really diagnostic for career choices for the kids getting good grades in everything. What are things in which you are autodidactic and not doing to please the adults or the high school system?</p>
<p>Consider this. What is a subject that you want to sit around the dinner table and talk about - with your family, with your friends. Can you make it interesting on some level to some stranger sitting next to you on the subway? Now we are talking about passion. </p>
<p>I am not saying pursue art as a career. And if you think your art will make you stand out, you should look at Youngarts - a national level competition. <a href=“http://www.youngarts.org/[/url]”>http://www.youngarts.org/</a> I am saying pursue any activity you do in the pursuit of excellence. Its just that art seems fun and if you play your cards right there is synergy with the medicine story. A synergy you didn’t realize. That could be a hook at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Without having to be prize winning artist.</p>
<p>Let me put you on the spot. I don’t buy the “I want to be a neurosurgeon. I could go on and on about why but it would be a long long post because of it” cop out. I said cop out. I wasn’t questioning that desire. But you really need to come up with a compelling 30 second, 1 minute, and maybe 3 or 5 minute versions of that. If you can’t, you will fail your college and med school interview. Nuff said. Work on it. The story may evolve over the next few years. Keep it in a drawer and revise it over the next few years. Work on it.</p>
<p>Also, I think you should reflect on your frequent moves. The whole “Army brat” phenomenon. It has an impact on your development that has its pluses and minuses. But I think there is an essay in there about your growing up, your family relationships, your peer relationships, etc.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure if anyone has responded this … but I believe virtually all the top private schools … Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Williams, etc … require freshman to in on-campus housing and not at home. If your parents want you to live at home and attend a tippy-top school they may need to revisit their expectations.</p>
<p>(PS - I do not know but I would guess most schools have a way to ask for a waiver of the required residency requirement … however “parents don’t want me to” … doesn’t sound like a compelling reason).</p>
<p>(PS #2 - here is a web-page about freshman life at Harvard which talks about Freshman living on the yard … (not some freshman) … [Harvard</a> College Freshman Dean’s Office § Living in the Yard](<a href=“http://www.fdo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3806&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup9254]Harvard”>http://www.fdo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3806&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup9254))</p>