I live in a small rural town and attend a large public high school. While my grades are good, my extracurricular activities are ‘weak’. All the forums and colleges encourage you to “explore your passion”…how am I supposed to do that if I can’t?
I would like to do science/math research or internships, but the only local college we have is a small community college with business/technical education centered programs. The most I can do if volunteer at a local science museum, which is what I am already doing. This might seem typical, though, to colleges like HYPSM. What should I do to enhance my application?
We live in a rural town and while you might not be able to participate in cutting edge research, kids here have lots of opportunities for meaningful ECs.
Big Brother/Sister program, Salvation Army after school program, help with blood mobile, take training to become an EMT or CNA, volunteer in the hospital, Habitat for Humanity, food bank, participate in theatre performances, marching band, take instrument lessons, participate in a sport, visit residents in a nursing home, the possiblities are plentiful.
There are also summer programs you can attend that focus on STEM, governor’s school, some colleges offer programs.
I think these schools want to see well rounded students that have interests outside of academics.
Art, music, community service are worthwhile pursuits in developing your whole person.
So find things that interest you, not just focusing on one narrow area.
How about tutoring younger students? Enter some competitions, there are hundreds online. Whatever your area of interest is, just google it. You can’t do something that interests you an use your own initiative to make it happen? Are you interested in bee keeping, for example? Order the components, get a hive going in your back yard, collect honey. Interested in bike riding? Help some younger kids learn how to ride a bike, do some guided bike rides with youngsters. Colleges love to see initiative. Not having many school extracurriculars is no excuse for not creating some. And you don’t have to do twenty things. Do one or two,things that you are interested in. Also, get a job. Colleges like to see that students have worked. There is a lot you can do, and this is why colleges expect to see you have made an effort to do something apart from go to school and do homework.
Colleges like to see excellence in areas. Music and art might be good to pick up, but I couldn’t excel with just one or two years of practice. I would, however, excel in science, and that’s why I’m looking for science ECs
@adizzyone , sure excellence is great, but it is not required. They want to see that you have made an effort. If you only think excellence is required, you are going to be disappointed. I menitoned a lot of potential opportunities above, none of whihc require excellence. You just need to get going and do something.
I live in a small town as well. While at first it looks like there are very limited opportunities, I have actually founds that it’s much easier to become involved with new things (I was on the varsity tennis team after only a year of playing) and get leadership positions.
Some ideas as far as science and math:
-ask your local hospital if there is research you can help with there
-tutor younger students in science and math
-try to enhance your volunteer work at the museum-- can you develop a new program to fill the need for science opportunities in your region?
-research doesn’t need to be large scale… I don’t know what area of science you’re interested in, but I think a college would be impressed by you completing independent research on something that can be accomplished anywhere, like cataloging wildlife or plant life.