I am a junior, if you want more info check out my other threads. I want to major in chemistry and have scores for top schools. The thing is, I lived over seas for much of my life and came back in 8th grade. I’ve never participated in and didn’t even know about AIME, science okympiads, etc until a few months ago. I really have no interest in competitions because I want to learn the subjects just to learn, not to compete with others. I am currently taking AP Chem and Physics 1 and am hoping to take chemistry at a local university next year but that is really the thing going for me. Will the lack of competitions hurt my chances? Should I try the AMC’s or science olympiads or something? My top school choices right now are Swarthmore, UChicago, and Caltech.