I’m a high school junior looking to apply to a couple of tier 1 schools (Cornell, MIT, Princeton) and I know my grades are like that of other applicants but my ECs are most likely lacking. What can I do to improve upon them at this stage?
FBLA(Treasurer, VP) - won regional/state awards and organized schoolwide student/faculty events to raise money
Science Bowl- won regional awards
Interact(Historian, Treasurer, President) - organized service projects within the school and community
National Honor Society - only open to Juniors and Seniors and I have a strong chance of a leadership position next year. I do a large amount of service through this club.
Volunteer/Community service:
-Tutoring students in algebra, Volunteering at the local hospital and library, NHS/Beta/Interact stuff, altogether about 150 hours so far.
Summer Activities:
-Internship at a genetics lab at Emory University in the summer of sophomore year
I’m currently applying to summer programs and also might work under a professor at Emory doing research. I’m also taking to a teacher to start a coding club for girls at my school.
My daughter had many STEM activities on her app, schools where she was admitted included Berkeley, Smith, and USC. In addition to getting your coding club off the ground, what about creating a summer coding camp at your school, or at Emory, or at your local Y, for younger girls in your community? Perhaps that camp or program could bring coding skills to underserved populations. Perhaps there is a way to partner with the Girls Who Code program. The summer before my daughter’s senior year she ran her own summer camp, took a college science class, and did a two week internship at an international research station. With respect to this summer, I suppose you’ll have to weigh the prestige of the summer programs you’ve applied to with your other, potential options. I do think it helped her app to show that she took initiative to create something new with her camp, just as you are trying to do with your club. It’s not easy to start new programs/camps/clubs, adults always find reasons not to do things, but I like demonstrating that you had an idea and saw it through to fruition. I hope you can start your club soon, it’s a great idea.