Hello! I am a 9th grader interested in joining a science club. The ones they offer at my school are biology club and the Science Olympiad. The thing is…they fall on the same day! After choosing one, I plan to commit all 4 years to it. So, I need help in making the right decision. Biology club is great prep for future science courses/exams, but it doesn’t have competitions or anything to appeal for colleges. Science Olympiad has competitions and looks great on apps, but I don’t know if it will help me academically when I take future science courses. I’m absolutely torn between the two. Has anyone joined any? Please describe your experiences. Thank you.
Biology Club
Study Sessions, Fundraisers for Biology Causes, Biological Research Discussion, and Supplemental Activities (experiments, behavior labs, field trips to research facilities and seminars, having guest speakers come in and talk about biology, bird watching, and many more).
Science Olympiad
competition
What should I do? I love both a lot. Please help
Hm…I’m pretty sure you already made a thread about this… but anyways: Biology Club does sound amazing, and if I could, I would join both, but oh man… Science Olympiad has really changed me… I already told you about Science Olympiad in your previous thread, but I’ll go more in detail here.
Science Olympiad is a real commitment if you want to be competitive. DO NOT go into it with the mindset of “winning for college apps”. The students at my school who do that, don’t go very far with it, since they usually don’t do it for fun, but for college apps. The students that are TRULY passionate about science and Science Olympiad are the ones that excel. As I mentioned in your other thread, Science Olympiad does help academically. Ecology and Invasive Species corresponds to AP Environmental Science, AP Biology, and Biology. Optics corresponds to AP Physics 2. Anatomy corresponds to Anatomy… Rocks and Minerals and Dynamic Planet corresponds to geology, Astronomy corresponds to physical sciences, Game On corresponds to Computer Science, etc.
Medaling in a competitive state (like the one you’re in), and especially medaling at Nationals demonstrates an IMMENSE amount of effort. The feeling of medaling…it’s like nothing else, and knowing after all that hard work…it really did pay off…some of us are reduced to tears (especially after we finally made nationals in Pennsylvania!)
Is it POSSIBLE to do both at the same time? I know a couple people involved in Marching Band, VEX Robotics, TSA, competitive sports, and other time-consuming things that also participated (and did very well in) Science Olympiad.