Hi Ethan, thank you for sharing. I have two questions: 1) How did you get so many internships? 2) Did you do any summer research institutes or research programs in general? Did you join any presitigious competitions like Regeneron STS or ISEF? Or math olympaid or anything similar like national competitions?
@frsh Congratulations frsh, your internship at a big company sounds super exciting! I’m really happy for you. I struggled too with finding out how to contribute to my team, but what helped a lot was taking it as a learning experience and not stressing out about trying to “prove” myself to my boss or coworkers. I think if you come in with this mindset, you’ll definitely find a niche you feel comfortable in over time.
Best of luck and have a nice day!
@phinease Thanks for your question phinease, I think building up a reservoir of personal projects helps when applying to internships. Developing a strong resume will also make you a more competitive candidate. As far as research programs, I participated in two summer programs, one at the University of Colorado and another administered through the Texas Space Grant Consortium. I’d definitely recommend programs of this nature. I did not compete in Regeneron STS or ISEF but I entered some innovation and app development challenges. I found both types of competitions to be great experiences. If you’re an underclassman, good luck with applying to college, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions.
Have a nice rest of your day!
Thanks for sharing your story!
Thanks for the info.
Congratulations! So which one did you choose?
Hey. So I am a sophomore, rising junior attending a Georgia high school. I really want to go to UGA or Georgia Tech. My grades are, I did really bad freshman year getting a 3.5 GPA with not extracurricular and in my sophomore year I am ending with a 3.7-3.8 GPA with 1 extracurricular which was joining varsity swim. Over the summer, I was going to volunteer at a hospital since I want to go to the medical field in virology or something like that but I couldn’t because of coronavirus. Over the summer/ quarantine I plan to get a part time job/ volunteer work in tutoring online, learn a language, learn how to play an instrument do online courses like in Biology or medical and study for the SAT. I will be taking 3 APs next year (APES,AP Psychology, and APUSH) and honors pre-calc with other classes. In my junior year I plan to join the swim team, join 1 or 2 clubs at school like DECA and volunteer at the hospital over the summer if the coronavirus is controlled. During my senior year i plan to do 3 or 4 APS and continue with the extracurricular that I would do junior year. Do you think my grades (GPA/ SAT scores) / extracurricular would be good enough to get into UGA and Georgia Tech? Thanks!!!
I also have another question. Do colleges average out all grades like from freshman sophomore junior and senior year for GPA? Or do they take a specific year like Junior year and only count that? Do senior year grades even have a factor in the initial admission or are they just used after you are accepted to see if they should deny you because of your performance in senior year? Can u explain to me how that works because people are saying that freshman year does not count and that colleges are only look at sophomore to senior year and others say senior year isnt looked at. Its just really confusing so can u explain how colleges calculate you GPA and what grades from what year they use to determine that. TYSM!!
Congrats Ethan! I’m an upcoming sophomore and my dream college is Yale. I think I’ll be pretty good with stats and scores but I’m a little worried about extracurriculars. I have many leadership positions, etc but I’m worried I don’t have a unique one.
I was thinking of creating a non-profit but I don’t know if that’s too common. Regardless of college, I would love to make an impact on my community.
@ethancollege2020 Thank you for sharing your experience! Not sure if you are still taking questions, but if so and if okay with you, could you share which of these colleges did you choose to apply Early to?
Hi! I’m a junior in high school and I just feel so much anxiety around extracurriculars and building my resume. I go to a competitive high school and it seems as if everyone around me is starting non profits or going to national sports tournaments.
I have adhd and my main interests are medicine and I love art/writing, but throughout freshman and sophomore year I did so many random things (from political jsa conferences to being a tour guide to hundreds of hours volunteering at a science museum to working at a bakery to being in stem clubs).
Right now the main ECs I have are that I’m president of HOSA, Girls Who Code, and Creative Writing Club at my school. I also founded a literary magazine for my school and am xc varsity captain. I have some awards from Scholastics Art & Writing as well. I just feel like I don’t have a cohesive story and I’m out of time. Over the summer I had lots of plans (a girls who code internship for example—because I’m also interested in compsci) but they were cancelled because of corona. This past year has been really difficult for me (my mom battled cancer twice) but now my life is finally getting better and I’m filled with motivation—I just don’t know what I should do to build my resume and create a theme for when I apply. Do I have to have a theme? Any advice?
Would getting around 4 B’s and 1 C make it almost impossible to get into Harvard or any top colleges unless you started having an upward trajectory?