<p>Hi. I'm about to be a junior and some of the accomplishments that CC'ers have make me feel a little nervous as to how hard it will be to get into a good college. I have:</p>
<p>-2 years on the newspaper, and junior and senior year I'll be editor. If we get really good, we may be in UIL.
-Freshman year I was a member of the school's Literary Magazine, for the whole year until the two teachers in charge of it decided to end it.
Freshman year I was also in theatre after school.
-Starting junior year (and if I enjoy it) during senior year I'll be on the debate team. I forget the name of the organization (Urban debate league, or something like that), but my AP history teacher is in charge of it and recommended I be on it. There are a lot of competitions involved so any achievements there might look good.</p>
<p>I initially stopped doing theatre because the hours for it weren't conducive to my schedule, and I thought I'd take it back up junior or senior year but some of the better actors left and the quality of their productions deteriorated. I wish Lit Mag had stayed alive, but that failed. I think Debate and especially Newspaper are promising, but I don't know. I'm planning to apply to:</p>
<p>-Rice (I think this is my best bet)
-MIT (wishful thinking, but if its any consolation my scores and GPA are amazing; basically EC's are my only weak spot).
-UT Austin (Its sort of my safety school because it's in state and a lot of people I know with less impressive stats got in)
-Georgia Tech (not too sure how rigorous it is to get in there, but they have a good engineering program).</p>
<p>Any recommendations or comments would be appreciated, thanks!</p>
<p>4.0 thus far (non weighted, of course). I expect a B when I take Calc 2 because its just so incredibly rigorous at my school, and (although its supposedly easier) possibly one in Calc 3. </p>
<p>I’ll have taken 5 AP’s at the end of my junior year, and considering my skill in the particular subjects I expect 4s or 5s on all of them. </p>
<p>I’ll probably be a national merit scholar (at least a finalist), and I’m 99% sure I’ll break the 2200 SAT barrier. Also I’ll be taking the SATIIs for Literature, Bio, and Physics, all of which I expect to do well on. </p>
<p>Sorry for all the extra information but I really want to stress that EC’s are the main thing that worry me about applying to college. I’m pretty confident in the rest of my stats… Thanks!</p>
<p>Oh yea, I didn’t mention that because I figured it was sort of a different category than EC’s.</p>
<p>I’ve done little things here and there so far, I’ll also be getting a lot of hours this year from being in NHS (members give tutorials twice a week for an hour each), and from Community service club (an hour every friday, plus extra projects that they do throughout the year). Also next summer I plan to either volunteer at the Science museum (thats a mon-fri, 8-4 job, so thats where I’d get a lot of hours) or the SPCA (my homeroom teacher has been encouraging me, because she volunteers there too). Between all that I should hit around 300 hours… Probably not HYP standards but I have no interest in those schools…</p>
<p>Can anybody tell me if what I’ve mentioned so far is worthy of those schools I listed? </p>
<p>(Lol this kinda turned into a chance me thread… sorry about that :S)</p>
<p>I think what you have done so far is good for the majority of the schools you listed so far. However, for MIT, you might want to do something that stands out. Maybe enter a national contest or win a few awards. Regardless, with the statistics you provided us with on a different thread, I would say you have a decent chance. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Yea, MIT will be a doozie… lots of competition to get into the US’s premier Engineering school. :S I’m not sure what national competition I could be in, I’ll have to look into that. But like I said, our dean (who is like my mentor, and former newspaper instructor) is pressing me to get the newspaper to a level where it can compete in UIL. Perhaps if that goes well, I’ll have some awards to put on my Application. That or debate… we’ll see how that goes.</p>
<p>You said you are in debate and literary mag. And since your applying to MIT and GTech, maybe you ought to consider some science/math ECs? I know for certain that CalTech has a specific section for math/sci ECs, so I would assume MIT would as well (just a guess, the app hasn’t come out yet for MIT). Maybe join a robotics team, look into Math Olympiad or Science Bowl. Broaden your horizons…Look into activities that genuinely interest you, and work hard and just have fun!</p>
<p>Isn’t there anything on a smaller scale that I can do? Lol. Your recommendations are all good but while I have an aptitude for math and science and pursue both of them with a passion, I live in houston, and furthermore my school is in a district with 3 other MAJOR schools, which dwarf my poor little one. haha. I’d have enough trouble finding teammates for the Science Bowl, let alone advancing at all. I’ll look into Math Olypmiad, though my instinct is to guess that it will be a similar case.</p>
<p>Robotics club is possible, and so are other science related clubs. Are those admirable at all or does MIT have a large enough pool of applications to draw from that they get to cherry pick for national matheletes and science savants?</p>
<p>^^More towards the latter. Science Bowl and Robotics club aren’t that impressive for MIT. Stuff like USAMO, published research, website design businesses, whatever are. Granted, I was just looking through the results thread, and a ton of people got in with what I’d describe as sub-standard (some even had none) math/science ECs. I just skimmed a few pages, but acceptees with eye-popping ECs were a surprising and definite minority. It also helps if you’re hooked in a way (recruited athlete, URM, legacy, even having XX chromosomes from what I’ve heard :)). But, since you live in Houston, adcoms might expect a bit more out of you than your average Nebraska farmboy. So yeah…</p>
<p>One thing that might be a concern is I got the impression that you could be volunteering to rack up hours. I could be wrong. Regardless, you definitely don’t want that to be portrayed on your app, though. Like if a person listed “soup kitchen helper” which they do bi-yearly with their temple, that would raise a red flag (at least imo).</p>
<p>Why would the soup kitchen helper raise a red flag? In any case, I think you got that impression because I verbalized all of the volunteer work I do. The only “planned” volunteer work I have is the science museum, but that’s because my friend told me about it and it sounds extremely fun and interesting, and I love being in a science environment. </p>
<p>As for being in houston that’s going to be a definite weakness for me… I might as well be in Nebraska as small as my school is (~400 kids). Will they take that into consideration when they judge me as a “Big city kid with lots of educational opportunities”? Because imo, my school has no opportunities other than the college classes offered; we’re poor as hell… lol we only have enough funding for one sports team.</p>
<p>As for suggesting ISEF… not a chance. MIT is my ideal school but if it requires that prestigious of an award, I’m MORE than happy to settle for UT Austin (public, in state, 3 hours from my family, and one of the top 10 engineering schools in the US). </p>
<p>One of the top 3 winners of ISEF this year was the older sister of a girl I went to middle school with, who goes to the school down the street from me (NOT the school I attend). I guess you guys wouldn’t understand this unless you lived in the houston area, but Bellaire High is a gigantic school of around 3000 kids, whose students fetch major awards in just about every skill imaginable. THAT is the goliath of the district that my puny 400 kid school competes with.</p>
<p>You know what that girl did to win? “Li Boynton developed a biosensor from bioluminescent bacteria (a living organism that gives off light) to detect the presence of contaminants in public water. Li’s biosensor is cheaper and easier to use than current biosensors, and she hopes it can be used in developing countries to reduce water toxicity.”</p>
<p>She had to create a better biosensor than grown scientists. Not only does that require incredible ingenuity but (per reading the local paper’s article on her) it required having family friends who work in the science department at Rice university who were willing to let a high school student use their expensive equipment.</p>
<p>Even if I did come up with a brilliant scientific advancement like her, I wouldn’t have the slightest connection to equipment, or even a lead to get my idea in motion. Lol, I think I’ll just stick with being an intelligent, well-rounded student and cross my fingers that MIT sees potential in me.</p>
<p>Been taking classes at the local community college this summer. Volunteered at my school’s fish camp (for incoming freshman) as well as orientation, and I also volunteered at a Teacher inservice thing.</p>
<p>I’ll be taking Leadership class senior year, which corresponds to me being an advisory leader (advisory is our school’s equivalent of homeroom). That involves me learning leadership skills and preparing activities in advisory, and just generally being an authority. Compare to the “Prefects” in Harry Potter. lol.</p>
<p>Junior year is the hardest one at my school… I’ll either be getting a job during the second semester of that, or I’ll have one throughout senior year…</p>
<p>That’s just a defeatist attitude. You do have to go outside your school and close community, I guess. But you live in HOUSTON! There must be dozens of universities and colleges where research is taking place. There must be dozens of research scholarships available to less priviliged students, if you are one. And besides research, there are tons of other things to do, many of which are close to free. Like building useful stuff on with junk you find in the neigghborhood. I realize it’s hard that you don’t get everything handed to you, but not everyone does. There are people that search for opportunities and are relentless in their pursuit. </p>
<p>The Nebraska guy gets a break. He doesn’t have research going on at a nearby university. All he has is his farm and garage. The Nebraska guy is still expected to do stuff, just on his own. You have that expectation at the least. But, since you live in such a vibrant center, you have more expectations put on you. You may not be as advantaged as the girl down at that sick texas science school, but you certainly have more opportunities than some rural farmboy. You just have to be proactive. </p>
<p>I didn’t have EC opportunities handed to me. My former HS sucks for math/science activities. And I didn’t search for outside stuff, despite living in a huge metropolitan area. And I regret that.</p>
<p>Also, the soup kitchen volunteer would raise a red flag because he does it TWICE a year, which I mentioned.</p>
<p>**** it. I’m not going to do graduate level research to prove to MIT that I have potential. Its a beautiful school and I’d love to go there, but I don’t see a degree from MIT giving me much of an edge over graduates of UT in the real world… Especially a world so dependent on Engineers.</p>
<p>I like Science a lot but since I joined CC and started asking questions about college I feel like its being forced down my throat. I’d like a couple more years of being a happy-go-lucky teenager before devoting “afternoons and nights after school” to research, like that girl who won ISEF…</p>
<p>Do what you want to do without focusing on college admissions. It’s bad when people try to take on too many things because they think it will be “impressive” for college. A good student is a well rounded student. I have only participated in 2 clubs during my whole high school career, but I have held the highest leadership position in both of them. I think this says a little more than simply doing a load of activities, but without developing much leadership. DON’T let the fellow CCers on here intimidate you. Remember, the people on this site are truly set on going to a good college. So of course they are going to have very good credentials. You also need to realize that there a bunch of people applying to colleges that do not have nearly as good of credentials (aka, those other 75%+ people who have lower scores than you). Colleges want a diverse student body, so they are not going to always pick the kids with the most activities since they see that all the time. Good Luck with your schooling and I’m sure you will end up perfectly fine!</p>
<p>You are absolutely right. If you are a hard enough worker with enough experience behind you, you will be much more accepted as an engineer in the real world.</p>