I am currently a junior in high school and will be a senior when I apply to colleges this fall. I will apply to computer science colleges. I am top of my class and with a superscored SAT, am expecting a score of 1540+. However, my EC’s are weak. In freshmen year, I have was in Interact Club (volunteering club) and Mock Trial. In sophomore, junior, and the upcoming senior year, I will have been in Science Olympiad for 3 years (1st year = codes/cryptography; 2nd year = circuits; 3rd year is undecided). I have been in NHS since the second half of sophomore year and Spanish Honor Society since the second half of this year (Junior year) and will continue to be in both next year. I attended a student state leadership conference in which my school chose me to represent them last year, called HOBY. I have started to day trade and invest in the stock market since February of this year (300% return to date on a $7,000 initial investment, but I don’t believe that counts or is even worth putting as an EC). Awards so far include an award for History class in my freshman year, and the Kumon award for completing all reading levels and the Kumon award for completing all math levels. I tried to be class president and will try again senior year, but couldn’t as I wasn’t voted in. Also, I tried to find research opportunities to do over the summer, but couldn’t find any. Does anyone have any advice to demonstrate interest for CS by November 1, which is the early action application deadline? I know you can do side projects in CS, but I really want to demonstrate interest to CS schools.
I did sci oly, and it is a club that takes up a lot of time. Do you have any awards/medals? Try finding places to volunteer over the summer that are meaningful to you. I’m really into robotics, and I was able to teach other kids over the summer what I knew, and I got a lot of community service hours from it.
Edit: For something CS related, you could develop an app and put it on the App Store or the Play Store, as a good side project. I don’t think you need to “demonstrate interest” for CS.
Why do you think your ECs are weak? You sound like a great student that has many interests outside of the classroom.
Yeah, don’t be so down on yourself. Also, your life is too short to do stuff just for college admissions. Especially since CS is a very employable major where what you can do and the projects that you did (skills you have) matter most (though CS is probably the toughest major to enter). So concentrate on costs and fit. What are cost constraints? What schools are you looking at and why?
Your ECs are fine - they don’t want to hear a list of 20 of them. They want to know about 2 or 3 that you spent time in.
The Honor Society stuf fis fluff - but your Science Olympiad is good.
Many schools admit by GPA/test or just GPA so you didn’t mention where you are targeting.
But you’re going to be absolutely fine.
My target school is MIT, so that’s why I said they are weak.
My target school is MIT, so I was thinking these are weak for MIT.
Hi, MIT is a great school for your interests but it’s a very difficult school to get into as an undergrad. It was one of my daughter’s friends’ “dream” school and despite excellent academics and ECs he was not chosen for admission. He’s a really lovely and smart guy too, so it’s MIT’s loss. My advice is to apply and try to have a deeper understanding as to why MIT is the right school for you. Don’t just rely on its reputation as a STEM powerhouse. Make sure admissions is aware of this deeper understanding. As far as ECs go, do what you love. My daughter’s ECs have nothing to do with what she will be studying in college and she’s figuring out ways to continue them while there. Good luck OP!
You can’t get into thinking it’s possible to do “the thing” that will make you get into MIT, because the school accepts so few applicants that it’s practically a matter of chance once your stats are past a certain threshold (as yours are). It’s more important to be true to yourself than to try to cram together more ECs for the purpose of appealing to MIT. You’ve got a shot as it is, which is about all anyone can hope for. Good luck!
MIT is not a target for anyone - it’s a reach - and I encourage you to apply - but you also need targets and safeties.
We can help you build a list. You are a very good candidate. But we need to know things like your major, size preference, geographic preference, what you can afford, etc. Apply - but just know it’s unlikely you’ll get in…so make sure you have a proper plan so you ultimately attend the right school for you, MIT or otherwise.
Yes, and undergraduate admissions to the vast majority of private elites, even to MIT, isn’t completely meritocratic (Caltech and Oxbridge arguably are) plus MIT takes such a relatively tiny number of applicants (given that top STEM kids from all over the world apply there) so you really need to broaden your horizons and consider a bunch of schools. No set of ECs will make MIT likely.