<p>I'll probably update this once I've taken the SATs, but I'd really like to know ASAP if I have a chance for Harvard, MIT and Princeton with these ECs... if I already seem like I'm out of the running, I might not sit the tests. I've made a few other posts on the forums here, and I'm still not quite sure what the standard is, so I thought I'd post up my own things for a bit of feedback.</p>
<p>Music:
-A first violinist in my statewide youth orchestra for the third year running
-Attained my associate diploma of music on violin aged 15
-Concertmaster twice (at the end of the 9th and 10th grade) of the top orchestra at our statewide music summer school
-Performed on a local television show as a young child
-Performed in a number of local venues to raise money for the children's hospital
-Toured England in the 9th grade as a soloist with my school's orchestra
-A first violinist in the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet's Orchestra
-Performed as the assistant concertmaster in a number of venues in 2009 for a series of opera concerts
-Music captain of my high school
-Concertmaster of my high school's orchestra in the 11th grade; leader of the senior strings in the 11th and 12th grade (I had to drop orchestra this year due to a clash with a subject); leader of the school quartet in the 11th and 12th grade; director of the strings at a range of competitions in the 11th grade; leader of our middle school strings (middle school refers to years 9 and 10) in the 9th and 10th grade...
-Concertmaster of the training orchestra for the statewide youth orchestra in 2007 (the 9th grade) and recipient of the musical prize
-Concertmaster of the youth string ensemble (as part of the statewide music program) in the 6th grade and recipient of the musical prize for the ensemble
-Invited to collaborations with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
-Involved in a quartet for the statewide youth orchestra (first violin) - quartet tutored by the Flinders Quartet (quite well known over here in the classical music circle)
-A few awards here and there...</p>
<p>Leadership (this isn't quite so long...):
-Represented Australia at an international youth leadership conference in the 10th grade
-Roles throughout high school, such as an elected representative on the student representative council, a member of the school magazine committee, junior school music captain (in the 6th grade), concertmaster of a variety of ensembles (already mentioned), school music captain (as a senior)
-Ambassador role (to be discussed later on)
-Awarded an Australian Government leadership prize in the 10th grade
-Captain and founder of the school science club in the 11th grade
-My year level's prize in year 9 for EC involvement</p>
<p>Academic activities:
-Currently involved in the national science olympiad program for physics - 24 students nationwide invited, and the team for IPhO and the asia pacific olympiad will be selected from this group in about a month...
-Qualified for the chemistry olympiad program (we can only be involved in one olympiad program), even though I didn't find out until I was already at the scholar school for physics...
-Completed research at one of the local universities (quite prestigious - ranked 2nd in the country, I think... or perhaps 3rd) in the 10th grade focusing on linguistic factors influencing the education of indigenous kriol speakers in the northern territory of Australia
-State Ambassador for medical research in the 10th grade (run as a national competition, and I was announced as 2nd in the country) - shadowed researchers, met with the state governor and collaborated with the other state winners to produce a communique used by the government and major companies
-Prize winner in the science talent search (the largest science fair, so to speak, in Australia) in the 7th and 8th grades (designed a board game in year 7 (we have a board game category!), invented a variety of light sensitive blind in year 8)
-Science Club
-Maths Club
-Represented my school at the Maths Olympics (note: NOT IMO)
-Represented my school at the Chemistry Challenge
-Selected for a young researchers program in biology at the aforementioned university in the 7th grade (applications were open to students in years 7-10)
-Written pieces which were published anonymously for government publications
-School debating team in years 9 and 10</p>
<p>Academic competitions/results:
-Olympiad results, science talent search results and ambassador competition results (all of which can be seen above)
-Topped my state in 12th grade physics, taken as a junior (it's not common for students to accelerate physics...)... I also took 12th grade English Language (which is akin to linguistics), and while my results weren't as good, they were still high enough to be published in the newspaper...
-3rd in the state for French, year 9
-Currently studying first year physics at university
-State semi-finalist and regional winner, public speaking (8th grade... I was regional runner up in year 9)
-One of 6 national finalists in National Masterminds (5th grade)
-Finalist in the Nestle Write Around Australia, 5th and 6th grades
-A number of other writing competitions...
-High Distinctions (which equate in most instances to the top 1%) in the following national competitions (most results have been achieved numerous times):
+International Competitions and Assessments for Schools English Competition
+International Competitions and Assessments for Schools Writing Competition
+Australian Mathematics Competition (I've also been awarded a prudence award in this competition)
+National Qualifyinig Examination for the Physics Olympiad (obviously...)
+National Qualifying Examination for the Chemistry Olympiad (once again, obviously...)
+National Chemistry Quiz
+Australian Maths Challenge
+Australian Geography Competition
+Alliance Francaise Written Competition (that's the aforementioned statewide French competition)
+Alliance Francaise Oral Competition (likewise...)
-Offered a scholarship at a local university (it's the one that's been mentioned several times) in the 10th grade
-Attended model UN conferences at Government House with dignitaries
-Competed in the final of a statewide Japanese public speaking competition in the 8th grade
-I've also won a number of school prizes, which include:
+Subject awards in Science, History, French, Geography, English, Japanese and Music at my old school
+General Excellence at my current school every year (9-11th grades) - these prizes are awarded to the top 10 in each year level
+Award for year 12 physics (in the 11th grade) for topping year 12 physics at my school (3 students in the cohort achieved perfect scores, but I attained the best results from our internal assessments)
+The award in the 11th grade for the student who displays the most promise in science</p>
<p>I've left a few things off, but that's just the general gist of what I've been doing. I'm really interested in pursuing science (in particular, physics and chemistry) and I'm also fascinated by language. If people could give me an indication of whether these ECs are on par with others applying for the universities I've listed, that'd be great! It's hard to get an indication when basically no one I know's applying...</p>