I am currently a soon-to-be sophomore in high school who is a little “disoriented”. I have a plethora of interests, which include entrepreneurship, medical research, robotics, law, government, and software engineering. As one of my endeavors, I know I want to attend an Ivy League college. More specifically, MIT or Harvard (I have the grades too). I have done my research on how to get through high school and construct a powerful resume to get into such college. Almost every bit of advice includes utilizing my said “passion” to apply myself to one or two. Currently, I am involved in a business club at school, and I plan to get involved in Student Senate and Student Council sophomore year. Also, I want to either learn an instrument or learn how to code via taking an online computer science course. Since my school is fairly new with relatively little extracurricular opportunities other than sports, I plan on starting either the school newspaper, the debate club, or the science bowl that would compete at the National Science Bowl competition. I have read that it is not good to “spread myself thin,” meaning that I join/make a club for each interest. So, how can I discover my true passions without spreading myself thin and looking/being mediocre in everything extracurricular I do?
MIT isn’t an ivy.
And to answer your question, you need to do things because you love them, not for the college application. Figure out a subject you really love (trial and error) and get really involved in that, go to events, network, work hard for competitions, find new opportunities in the field. You’re looking at this backwards if you’re just trying to pad your resume. The activity should be the reward in itself and MIT or Harvard should be a nice bonus if they work out. MIT and Harvard are strong in very different subjects too, their campuses are different, the types of people who go to them are different. I would really recommend making a school list using factors other than percivied prestigie.
Unless you are a valedictorian or salutatorian, you are right to say spreading yourself thin is not good. However, you can be too specialized in that an activity you do can be seen as too specific (even if its related to your intended major). For example, my main thing was Music (was accomplished, you can read on my stats if you want for perspective), and even had econ/business things related to my major, but the main concern I heard was that I did not have enough business stuff, and that of my business stuff I did not show enough in “business math”. Basically, if you overload on one thing, make sure it encompass all of that subject (if you do business clubs, dont just do marketing but do finance and operations as well, etc).
If you’re into business start a business, work at a business, get involved in a community business organization. Find a business mentor in your community…it doesn’t have to be huge but you should show application of your passion in different situations. Also it is very important to contribute to your school and your community. Good luck you sound like an awesome student!’
That’s a lot of fields. Without taking a GPA sacrifice by taking non-honors electives do participate in extracurriculars that span multiple fields such as Science Olympiad -> Robotics, Anatomy/Physio, some coding and pick events to explore your interest. On the side Academic Decathlon will cover the social science areas.
… Oh you have to start each of these clubs. They can fit on your resume however.
You’re 16 years old. This is a time to start to figure out what you like and what you don’t like. Don’t start a debate team because it will look on a resume down the road, debate because it’s something you like.
I think it’s doing a real disservice to yourself to sacrifice what you actually enjoy doing for the sake of a college resume. Become the best version of YOU, not the imaginary “you” that you think an adcom will want in 2 years.