Sorry for the vague title, but I’ll be talking about a lot here.
So I just started my freshman year of high school, and I love physics and math. I get good grades (mostly As), I’m in three honors classes (the hardest a freshman can take, no APs for freshman), and I’ve gone far ahead of my school’s curriculum via textbooks (learned all of high school math in middle school, just about to start learning linear algebra, and btw sorry for being really braggy here, I don’t know how else to start these mad ramblings). Sometimes I really feel stuck when thinking about what to do in the next 4 years. My dream school is MIT. I obviously don’t have a chance, as I’m as dumb as a pile of rocks, (but one can dream), but looking through the MIT admissions forums, my chances seem even lower. Here’s some of the things that I’ve seen, and that make me feel hopeless:
- Math Competitions/Extracurriculars
I've seen people who say that if you want to get into MIT, you should do extracurriculars, and you should end up in the top 0.001% in the world in all of them (for example, a pianist should be internationally praised). The only extracurricular for math that colleges care about seems to be the competitions (USAMO, IMO), but I don't like competitions. I don't want to do them. Will this hurt my chances of getting into a decent college? I've also seen people with about 50 trillion leadership positions in extracurriculars. The math and science clubs at my school are all competitive teams (ew). The only other ECs that I want to do are band related (I am first chair in the trumpet section in my band, and my teachers frequently laud me for some reason, they say I'm as good as the best seniors. What?? I don't think I'm that good. In fact, I'll go as far as to say I'm awful. I can't play crap). So I obviously don't have many ECs, so there goes my chances, in the trash. What can I do?
Again, sorry for being arrogant and braggadocious.
- AP tests
I thought that the college admissions people probably won't believe that I study things on my own. So why don't I show them? I've looked over past AP Calculus BC exams, and I was able to do the problems well. I also read that one can take AP tests before they take the class. Is that true? IF it is, I can just take the AP tests for subjects I am familiar with (AP Calc BC, AP Physics) I tried to Email my counselor about this twice over the past few weeks, but he hasn't replied. I think it was because I was seeming pretentious.
- Research
I’ve seen people on these forums talk about their research in quantum physics, medicine, etc. during high school. How the hell do I do research in high school? I’m in a rural area, 3 hours from Chicago, and there are no labs or even Universities within 30 minutes of me. And even then, why would these places accept a high schooler to do research in the cutting edge of science? Am I just dumb and uninformed? Probably. What do I do? Will my chances of getting into a good university go even lower if I don’t do research in high school?
Sorry for this grammatically atrocious, mad, and stupid post. I’m kind of upset right now after going through a bunch of college admissions posts. Also sorry if this is not an appropriate discussion for these forums. Sorry if this is in the wrong place.
Mostly I think that you should relax.
I got my bachelor’s degree at MIT. While I was in high school, I literally never thought at all about what I would do to get into universities. For ECs I did what I wanted to do. Because I did what I wanted to do, I did it well. I did well in math and science (all A+'s except for chemistry, which was an A) because that was just what I did in math and sciences. I didn’t do it for any other reason. I didn’t take any AP’s at all because my high school didn’t offer any AP’s. If my high school had offered AP’s, I would only have taken them in math and physics, and nothing else.
There are a lot of very good universities in the US. You don’t need to go to MIT to do well in science, engineering, technology or mathematics. You don’t need to worry about being impressive to get into MIT. You don’t need to go to a top 20 university if you later want to do graduate school at MIT or Stanford.
Expect high school to be tougher than middle school. Keep ahead in classes.
Do what you want to do. Do it well. When the time comes, find a university that values what you have done and that fits where you want to go.
You don’t have to have any of these things in particular but you do need to have something. So, not interested in competitions, that’s fine, focus on the other stuff. You will be building a resume, and the key word is building. You aren’t going to start off with prestigious research, but you might be able to end up with it.
I’d start by letting your science and math teachers know you are really interested in these subjects and you’d love to have outside of the classroom experiences, just not in a competition. (Although I’m not sure why you don’t like competitions because if you’re on a team there is a lot of collaboration with your teammates). They probably have some pretty good ideas. I’d also look into summer science camps. There are some threads on CC about different summer internships, such as at NASA or the NIH, look at these for more ideas. Finally, different colleges offer programs for gifted and talented kids, such as Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth or Duke TIP. I’m sure there is something more local to you, and these programs can offer some interesting weekend or summer seminars.
The competitions can grow on you, but you don’t have to do them. I think you shouldn’t get hung on MIT, but you’re obviously very good in math and you should have a chance to continue developing your skills.
I would still try research. You don’t have to meet with your mentor very often if you want to do research in math (which is of course incredibly hard). You can start by looking at the professors’ areas of research, see what catches your fancy and write to that professor to ask for recommendations about self-study and eventually possible research in this area.
Do you like programming? This could be your chance have meaningful ECs without having to go anywhere.
See if there are some summer residential programs available to you in the Chicago area. Your math/science teachers may help you here. Stop worrying about any particular university. It sounds like you enjoy learning.
In the wilds on Maine, we actually have some free residential summer programs for math and science students who are Maine residents. Massachusetts has at least one similar program. Do what you like to do, learn. Success will follow even if you end up at a school you have never head of. Talk to teachers who relate to your interests.
There are two things that I think you should look at.
- Money.
You didn’t mention this at all, but it will decide where you do eventually study. So talk with your parents about how they expect you to pay for your education. They may whine and fuss and tell you it is too soon to worry about that, but do your best to get them to run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of several colleges and universities - the public university in your state that has the best acience and engineering program, a college or university with a strong music program, and a couple others. That will help all of you understand what your will be facing on the money side.
- Your current math placement in high school.
Do your teachers know that you have been studying math on your own? Have you been accellerated in your math classes at school? What accommodations can your achool make for you for advanced math? How are you studying linear algebra this year? Independently or through a distance ed program of some kind?
Anyone who shells out the money for an AP or CLEP exam can take that exam. You don’t have to take an AP class in order to take an AP exam. But frankly it would make better sense for you to arrange to take the higher math classes through a college or university if they aren’t offered at your high school. Many rural schools do make advanced clases available. Talk with your math teachers and guidance counselor about this now to set it up.
Guidance counselors are busy people. Don’t worry about your counselor not getting back to you yet about the AP tests. Focus instead on getting together so that you can arrange to take the math class that you should be in instead of the class most 9th graders are taking.