Hi! I’m a class of 2025 high school freshman, and I have a good portion of my life planned out. Plan to go to Yale for sociology, Berkeley for my sociology masters, then Oxford for my Sociology phD, to ultimately become a professor. I have had great opportunities growing up that have allowed me to explore different paths, and I am now sure that this is the path for me. I am not in it for the money, but rather my passion and comfortability in the broad subject and all it’s branches, and for teaching it, and luckily I don’t have to worry about the price of college.
I want to show my passion for the subject in my college applications, and I was wondering if anyone had any opportunities or programs for high school students that are both related to sociology and impressive?
I currently am planning on going to TASS AOS, YYGS, doing National History Day, a Youth Advisory Council, Disney Dreamers Academy, and I have a national nonprofit that helps with expanding educational opportunities to people from under served communities. I also am planning on doing a few essay competition’s for my own personal merit, and plan to make a supplemental writing portfolio when I apply for college. The essay competitions include The American Foreign Services Association Essay Contest, John Locke Essay Competition, Profile in Courage Essay Competition, Voice of Democracy Competition, and the Civic Expression Award.
While I want to do all of these things for personal passion and desires, I feel as though they won’t be enough to get me into Yale or any of my top 5s. Are there any other highly regarded programs with a link to sociology that I can do?
Thank you.
Read this blog. Take it seriously. It applies to Yale just as much as MIT.
Keep an open mind when it comes to universities, and make sure that you apply to safeties.
Life has a way to get us to change our plans.
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So, you are 14/15? Your actual, physical brain is about to go through its biggest transformation since you were a toddler. You will (or should!) learn and grow and evolve dramatically over the next number of years. Keep following the threads of your genuine interests, but don’t assume that you have sorted it all out.
It may be that the route you have mapped out will be exactly the right one for you. It is more likely that there will be some adjustments- maybe small ones, more likely big ones. The MIT admissions blog applies to any of the super selective schools, and is still the best advice going.
You have set out a laundry list of high profile things you are hoping to do (b/c while you are ‘planning’ to do them, you have no idea at this stage if you will get any of them), and are asking for more, with the idea that they will somehow validate you when it comes time to apply to college. Anecdotally, not one of the (unhooked) students that I know who have been accepted to Yale has been to any of those programs (or similar ones), except one international student who did YYGS.
Just as well, as neither sociology nor academia are particularly well known for being lucrative pathways!
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Hello! Thank you for this. Do you recommend I loosen my expectations for getting accepted to all of these programs? (the ones listed I want to go to for personal growth and not for university admissions)
I was asking for more programs due to a huge imposter syndrome within myself, I thought that I wouldn’t get accepted unless I got highly recognized programs like everyone I see on threads of Yale applicants. Knowing that I can get in without them is definitely relieving.
Thank you again.
You should indeed be participating in the programs that make sense for you from a personal point of view.
I think that I should repeat something I have said a while back on a different thread. When I was applying to graduate programs I was rejected from my “dream school” (Cornell). I was accepted to my second choice (Stanford). I went to Stanford and LOVED it. I also did very well in their master’s program. Years later I finally realized that Stanford had always been a far better fit for me. The admissions staff at both schools appear to have understood this far better than I did at the time.
This might be seen as one example of life getting me to change my plans, but in a way that worked out really well. Flexibility and the ability to adjust to what life throws at you are important skills.
It sounds to me as if you are doing quite well. Just keep doing well and participate in the ECs that make sense for you while taking the classes that make sense for you and doing well in all of this. Remember that “leadership” means listening and making things better for everyone who participates in the same activity.
Also when the time comes apply to a range of universities and keep your budget in mind. As as potential sociology major avoid debt for your education. You should do well.
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Try reading this article from the Harvard Business Review:
Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome.
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You have plenty of time to worry about that. Life doesn’t always conform to our ambitions, so just have an open mind. You have an eternity to figure it all out. Worlds of change happen between 14 and 18. For now, have fun…just be a teenager! Just don’t blow anything up…
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Closing for ToS violation
