Junior in High School, what can I do?

Applying to College
1

<p>Well here's the situation</p>

<p>I am currently a Junior in high school. All through school I have focused mostly on good grades and nothing else. I got one B last year for a 3.8 GPA overall, and a couple B's freshman year for a 3.5. Cumulative it is a 3.65 I'm currently taking multiple AP classes and at the rate I'm going will be having A's in all my classes with the exception of AP Chem, easily boosting my weighted cumulative gpa by the end of the year to around 4.0. </p>

<p>Last year, as a sophomore, I took both the PSAT and SAT. I did not do particularly well on them, scoring around an 1800 on the SAT and a bit lower on the PSAT. But yesterday I did take the PSAT and I studied for it this time (last time I did not study for either the SAT or PSAT) and feel confident I got 200+. I've also started studying for the SAT which I will take in the spring, so I have a lot of time to prepare for a higher score on that.</p>

<p>But the thing is, I have very very little EC's. I mean like almost none. I just never got around to it. Currently I have done pretty much no EC's freshman and sophomore year. This year I am taking the online <a href="https://www.ai-class.com/home/%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.ai-class.com/home/&lt;/a> taught by a Stanford professor, I am going to join a community service club at my school and National Honor Society when I can. I'm also probably going to do this Google</a> Code-in 2011 - Home page when it starts. If you can't tell by now I'm interested in computers and want to major in computer science. </p>

<p>So as you can tell, I'm kind of cutting it close on these EC's. Is it too close? I feel lost right now and I'm scared that it might be too late. I want to go to fairly good schools so I don't know if I'm good enough. Clearly my main strong point is my passion for Computer Science and dedication to good grades. But what can I do with the lack of extracurricular's? Even with a bunch this year and next, it's still pretty weak. My biggest regret throughout all high school is not getting involved in EC's. I guess I'm just asking for help, what can I do at this late stage? And how am I doing so far?</p>

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<p>Maybe you are the rare student who only eats, sleeps, and studies. However, if you examine your life, chances are there is more to it than that. Any activity you engage in outside of class is by definition extra-curricular. What else do you do? Collect stamps? Keep a garden? Teach old ladies how to use a computer? Cook dinner every night? You don’t have to belong to a club at school just to be able to say you have an EC.</p>

<p>When you discuss your preliminary college list with your teachers and guidance counselor, find out how the institutions on that list feel about ECs. The simple truth is that many don’t care at all.</p>

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<p>Only colleges will admit rates below 25% will generally care about EC’s.</p>

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Yeah, you and 70K+ other people ;)</p>

<p>As pointed out, very selective colleges care about ECs. Member of this or participant in that is typically not a level of activity that meets the bar at these schools. So being a Grand Prize winner in that Google contest stands out, being just an entrant not so much.</p>

<p>The question about impressive ECs comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How</a> to Be Impressive](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-art-of-activity-innovation-how-to-be-impressive-without-an-impressive-amount-of-work/]How”>The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save</a> This Grind?](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/09/12/case-study-how-could-we-save-this-ridiculously-overloaded-grind/]Save”>Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.</p>

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<p>Probably more accurately, schools that are selective enough that typical academic factors like GPA/rank and test scores do not differentiate the applicant pool well enough.</p>

<p>It seems doubtful that CSU San Bernardino (admit rate 19% in 2010), CSU East Bay (22%), or Central State University (22%) care more about ECs and stuff like that than Harvey Mudd (25%), Haverford (26%) or CMU (33%).</p>

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<p>I’m a senior - so I understand where you’re coming from and what you’re thinking.</p>

<p>1) Like everyone said, check the different parts of your life. Babysitting, volunteering in a church/cultural organization, helping with your little sisters’ Girl Scout troop = these all count. Even if you helped make programs, or music, or anything else for a program - that counts.
2) The Google competition is good. Other things to try - tutoring in your school or community. Anything that could be short term but makes a big difference. Starting something, even if its small. Raising money for an organization. Being the only teenager in a more-adult group. You have computer expertise- maybe help out a library, senior home, something like that. </p>

<p>Basically, what NorthStarMom’s post came down to was anything that an adult might do that a teenager does. </p>

<p>PM me if you have any questions
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