Hello, I am a really dedicated female sabre fencer with a very strong interest in computer science and artificial intelligence. My dream school is MIT, and currently I am taking lots of rigorous science courses. Since I am taking lot’s of science classes and get LOTS of homework, I find myself having to choose between two possibilities:
Possibility #1: 8-ish hours of fencing a week, and (possibly) doing some artificial intelligence research or building an app or something like that for another 8 hours a week.
or
Possibility #2: 13.5 hours of fencing a week (about the level of fencing I need to do to be on the team), doing a little bit of coding for about 2.5 hours a week, and doing research over the summer
Both options sound good to me, I’m just worried that #2 will make it seem like I don’t do enough extra curriculars each week (since I could only really list fencing), and that none of my EC’s will be STEM related, which I probably need if I want to go to a school like MIT.
Could you guys give me any advice?
I’d give the following two guidelines:
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If choosing one of the possibilities would make you significantly happier, then choose that one.
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If both possibilities seem about equal in their short term ability to provide happiness, then choose the one that sets you up better in the very long run (in my opinion, this would be #1).
Guideline 2 is from personal experience. I was a CS major in college and am now in the working world, and one of my biggest regrets is not having spent as much time as I would have liked studying CS and math in high school (I instead spent a lot of time running cross country, which is no longer really relevant to my daily life). Unless you want to pursue sabre fencing at a competitive level as an adult, all those hours you’re spending on sabre fencing now are also unlikely to be relevant to your daily life after you leave high school / college. In contrast, any skills you develop in computer science / research you do in AI will likely help you significantly in your college and adult career (and this will likely be true even if you switch to another field, since CS is now used everywhere). Thus, if you don’t have a strong preference for one of the two possibilities, then I’d choose #1 for the reasons I just outlined.
Another reason for choosing #1 is that there’s a significant chance you’ll want to go to graduate school in the future (to get a serious research job in CS or AI, you’ll likely need a PhD degree). Admissions to top PhD programs in CS are very competitive these days, and the best undergrads have usually published several papers by the time they’re applying for PhD programs in CS. Developing your skills now and trying to do some research will better prepare you for doing research in undergrad, which you’ll need to do if you want to get into a top PhD program.