EC and Summer Advice From Knowledgable Parents

Parent Cafe
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<p>Currently I'm a high school junior who is looking for some advice. Mainly I'm looking to improve my ECs. I have pretty good stats (3.9 GPA, 35 ACT, rigorous curriculum, yet to take the SAT and SAT IIs) but am afraid that I need to enhance my ECs as I'm thinking about applying to some selective schools (Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Columbia and Harvard are reaches). I want to apply to these schools because I'm very interested in a medical research career and want to conduct undergraduate research with the excellent scientists and facilities at these universities. Anyway, here's a brief overview of my ECs</p>

<p>co-President of buildOn, lahser chapter (buildOn is an organization that raises money to build schools in third world countries, peforms community service and advocates global education, it has chapters in many high schools throughout the U.S), through buildOn I've been involved in the veterans center, tutoring at Baldwin school in an underdeveloped community, working for the food bank, etc., i was involved in leading the major fundraisers of this and last year</p>

<p>officer model UN, recipient of honorable mention awards at annual conferences</p>

<p>president of lahser medical association, raised 5,000 for the American Heart Association</p>

<p>leader of lahser forensics team, state finalist in oratory with numerous invitational awards</p>

<p>long time volunteer at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital</p>

<p>10 year student of bharatanatyam (indian classical dance) at the Chauladevi Institute of Dance and Yoga/Nadanta, Inc. Dance Company, currently in the process of preparing my debut performance</p>

<p>concertmaster of lahser symphony orchestra </p>

<p>vice president of the regional Temple Youth Committee (invovled in a lot of service work: gleaners food bank, habitat for humanity, local soup kitchen, etc.)</p>

<p>This summer I plan on doing more work with buildOn and also interning with the NIH (through NIH SIP). I've filed an application and am waiting to hear from a scientist. I also plan on starting my own research project, but am lost as to what I'll be doing. I plan to talk to my AP bio teacher about it and hopefully submit it for the siemans competition if it's ready/good enough. </p>

<p>I know my ECs don't seem very focused, but the thing is that I never really though about focusing my ECs because crafting myself for a college application was never really on my mind. I always just got involved with the things I liked. I wanted to help the community and learning about what buildOn did really supported my beliefs about people empowering themselves through education. I joined med associated, volunteered and applied for the internship because I'm interested in medicine and science. I did forensics and Model Un because I like public speaking and politics. I've been in dance because I love it and its a huge part of my culture, same goes for orchestra. </p>

<p>Basically, any kind of advice you have for me would be much appreciated as I've recently been struck by the pre-college nerves. I'm looking to take my ECs to the next level/ learn about new opportunities in my fields of interest. Also, if any of you know anything about the NIH SIP or the siemans competition, if your son's or daughters have participated/if you're familiar with it, and information would be great. </p>

<p>Thanks for any advice you, I know that was long and everyone is busy but I really appreciate it</p>

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<p>Watch out - people will accuse you of being a ■■■■■ because your resume is already very impressive, and you probably don’t need our help! That being said, I like to try to envision a “theme” for an applicant, and yours could easily be global health. You can combine your interests and experiences in service and community development, international affairs, and medicine in a way that would be very interesting. If you get the science research/NIH experience you’re looking for this summer, I don’t think there’s much else you could fit in that schedule. But maybe your independent research could focus on disease prevention in developing countries, to tie into this theme. Or maybe just spend your copious amounts of free time working on some essays that convey the theme. Obviously, I’m just throwing out an idea of a theme, and you could certainly come up with a different angle; the point is to try to integrate your existing EC’s into some sort of coherent profile. I think you’ve got great material to work with.</p>

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<p>And that is as it should be. Now write some killer essays about things that are important to you.</p>

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<p>I agree with mafool.</p>

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<p>as a suggestion, don’t put your HS name down in these blogs, your comments can be tracked back to you</p>

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<p>^^Echo fauxnom.</p>