<p>On this thread i hear all the time that you need to show passion for your interests and such.</p>
<p>I am interested in biology, but the thing is, i wasn't able to get any hospital internships ( they are all lottery based) or any bio-related volunteering opportunities. My main source of passion would be Boy Scouts in which i earned an Eagle Palm Bronze, got into BSA's scout run organization known as the Order of the arrow, and got a leadership position in that organization, also upon getting my eagle scout i received a letter from the president and first lady, US defense secretary, and an official award from the mayor of my city for my work. I also had many leadership positions inside my troop (which is a pretty old and established troop). I'm pretty proud of what i have accomplished over here, but i am also scared that this has nothing to do with Biology or any science.</p>
<p>What can i do to show my passion for Biology, or is my work in Boy Scouts enough?
Im taking both Biology and chemistry subject tests, have taken Ap Bio and chem (5 on the subject test). And am doing pretty well in school (2340 SAT, 5.0/5.0 GPA weighted, 4.0 /4.0 unweighted). But my biggest concern is that im not showing enough passion for the sciences through my ECs.</p>
<p>You can try the USABO Open exam, which is a qualifying test for the United States of America Biology Olympiad -> see here [CEE</a> | USA Biology Olympiad](<a href=“http://www.usabo-trc.org/]CEE”>http://www.usabo-trc.org/)</p>
<p>Colleges don’t think of you as a pre-med. Colleges think of you as a prospective undergraduate. Because they know that a huge fraction of students who enter college thinking of themselves as pre-med leave college thinking of themselves as something else. And when I say “something else,” I do not mean, “medical student.”</p>
<p>At the majority of colleges and universities in the country, your extracurricular activities are actually pretty unimportant. At a small number of selective colleges and universities (which, for understandable reasons, garner a disproportionate amount of attention on College Confidential), admissions officers use extracurricular activities to determine whom they’ll accept from among the thousands of applicants who are academically well qualified to attend. When they do this, they’re looking to build a class. They will be interested in extracurricular activities that say something about who you are, and not about what you study. They will want to know how your extracurricular experiences have shaped you, or given you opportunities for personal growth.</p>
<p>Now, I suppose you could have “a passion” for following a pulmonologist around all day while he sees former smokers with COPD, but that would seem to me like a might odd thing for a teen to be “passionate” about. You’ve been interested in scouting; surely it’s given you challenges to face and shaped your character. Right? Go with that! It’s great. Do more of that! Let your application tell the admissions officers how scouting has molded your character, made you a better person. Because, seriously, no college really gives a rodent’s behind whether you shadowed a local doctor one summer.</p>
<p>wow thanks for the amazing post, I immigrated here so my parents don’t know much about american colleges and our counselors hardly get a chance to talk to us, so its really people like you who can steer us in the right direction. Thanks for your effort :)</p>
<p>Yeah, I may have been a little…vociferous at the beginning. Sorry 'bout that. I get a little worked up because I see and hear so much advice that’s based on some combination of bad intuition, misunderstanding, outdated information and just plain making stuff up.</p>
<p>But really, you don’t need to match your ECs to your proposed major or career. Not for Harvard, and not for anybody.</p>
<p>the letter from the POTUS and First Lady s a nice thing for your scrapbook, but says nothing more than becoming an Eagle Scout. Mentioning it sounds pretentious and will not help your case. Having said that, your ECs will stand fine. Many people major in science without having done anything with it in HS beyond the normal curriculum. Show passion for what you have chosen to spend your time doing, not what you hope to someday do.</p>