Yes UCSD admits to the college based on your list. The major will be the same, it’s the general requirements and graduation education requirements vary across colleges, in addition to where they live in campus. All colleges offer the same major you choose. Our school arraged a virtual session with UCSD and here’s some info on how colleges are compared (http://compare.ucsd.edu/). I think you can compare upto 3 colleges at once.
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Thanks , another question. for UCs, do we need to submit FAFSA/CSS etc ( even if we do not plan to apply for need based aid).
UC’s only accept FASFA and not required unless you might consider taking out the Federal student loans.
Edited: From UC website::
To be considered for all UC, state, and federal grants and scholarships, apply for financial aid.
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Fwiw, the AMC exams attract roughly 100k students per year, mostly across 9-12, so that’s less than 1% of high school students. Our local math club attracts students from about 10 of the local 120 high schools.
D’s school had no such program, other than MathCounts through the MS gifted program. They only offered the A test starting three years ago after I steadily prodded them.
AoPS is by far the most common way for mathy student to get involved in non-curricular topics and competitions, available anywhere.
Perhaps it’s a regional thing - it’s somewhat limited here in PA and it seems that many students are from the two coasts. I was a math geek and won an AHSME award in NJ back in ‘82, so I transplanted some of that to western PA. The coach of the local team (CMU PhD student) was also from the east coast.
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For UC app activities/awards section - does it matter how we order them by importance or time spent? this looks very different from common app. Common app allowed to move them up or down, it does not look like UC app allows that
I would list by importance within each activity/awards category.
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I honestly have no idea how AOs manage to compare students from such different backgrounds.
The AOs evaluate each student in the context of their own background. They want to see if a student pushed himself/herself to take the hardest courses, took advantage of opportunities to go above and beyond, showed leadership, etc. but this is all evaluated within the scope of opportunities reasonably available to that student.
They know that opportunities differ widely by district or region (or country) as well as by a student’s socio-economic background, and they actively take that into account. That’s why the top schools accept students from all over the country as well as from across the world.
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Yes, I know that that AOs are doing their best to try to compensate, I’m just saying that it must be incredibly hard. At some schools, they have a pile of 10 kids with high grades, high SATs, and who have taken the most challenging courses offered at their schools. Some of these students come from schools where there are lots of applicants, so the AO knows the about the possible extracurricular opportunities and may even know the GC. Other kids in the group come from schools with no previous applicants from towns that the AO may never have heard of. As an outsider, I imagine that this part of holistic admissions is really difficult.
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Agreed. It’s not an easy job and it’s definitely gotten harder with the large increase in applications (especially at the T20 schools).
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My S21 ordered in terms of importance. For him, it was sports so he had his club sports, then varsity high school, etc. Then he did community service (I think that’s the grouping) and listed in order of importance what went under the community service bucket, etc. Good luck!!
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Mine used to be regular at prepping but this year she couldn’t touch her comp math due to all the other commitments (working on a research paper and publishing). She wanted to brush up her euclidean geometry and combo so she can score better than before. She’s doing it because she feels it’s very important to her, and since she’s also considering a major in math.
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And I wonder how different schools view a kid like mine, who likes math best in school, but wants to do more than just math and pursued competitive sports and community service instead of math club and competitions.
Is the result a student who is TOO well-rounded for some schools/programs? Probably.
I keep reading advice to demonstrate a passion or “spike” in order to get an admissions nod from selective schools, and I confess it feels a little to me like the expectation has become for kids to do college-level everything BEFORE they get to college. Does every student at an Ivy arrive as a freshman with the skills and experiences of a grad student?
It is wild to me that so many students are that laser-focused on what they want to do so young. I am old and biased, but I also think there is something to be said for the student who is able to excel in rigorous courses without studying the same subjects for purposes of extracurricular competitions and clubs. The most talented mathematician I know was primarily a line-cook and caterer during high school. I also know a highly acclaimed physicist with a PhD who spent high school summers as a lifeguard. I wonder how AOs would look at them today.
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My D16 was very focused on sports in high school. Extremely focused! But just very good at her sports, not great, so no scholarships there. Her summers were mostly about sports, though she did some church activities too. But definitely no research/internships/academic competitions.
She was also highly academic, but no math/science extracurriculars, and her science courses during high school were not extremely impressive: physics/chem/AP Bio/AP comp sci (all homeschooled).
She was very successful as far as college admissions. Noteworthy that she was offered the Stamps at Ga Tech, though she ultimately attended Princeton for engineering (and in grad school for engineering at Duke now.)
I know there are kids who love doing the STEM activities during high school, but well rounded works too. The important qualities are natural curiosity and work ethic, imo. The colleges do seem to try to sort all that out, though it is a challenge, I am sure.
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Pretty impressive EC. I wish mine play a sport. She’s never athletic, have a B+ in her PE class so to say. But if she’s asked to solve or write problems she’ll sit on it for hours. My husband and I don’t play any sport, which could as well be a reason. She’s a blackbelt in Taekwondo but refused to continue post that. Each kid is different.
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I think it is actually pretty sad that so many talented young people spend their teenage years curating activities that will be appealing to prestigious schools instead of spending time just being a kid.
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This may come as a shock, but my daughter actually enjoys competitive math. And piano. And flute. And Tae Kwon Do. And her Fairness/Equality club. The activities that she didn’t enjoy, she dropped.
She also is a big Taylor Swift fan, goes to concerts, hangs out at the HS football with her “gang”, etc.
I don’t find it sad at all that she is avidly pursuing those things that she enjoys.
YMMV, I guess.
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I think they will look at every student and what they enjoy/choose to do. There’s nothing special about a math club over community service, sports, or anything else. Schools are looking for passion, leadership, and how it contributes to their campus and community.
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I really believe that the top schools seek the kids who have a true love of learning and other passions. These kids are self-starters and do the activities for the love it, not because it’s going to look good on a piece of paper. Acceptance to these tops schools is really just a byproduct for this phenotype. Maybe the folks who are just doing stuff because they think it looks good to colleges are wasting their years, but don’t think that’s true of the folks with real passion and dedication… Just my 2 cents…
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I am the only female professional that did not get a summer job for their kids in my office and let them fend for themselves. My son caddied working pretty rough 12 hour days and got a $5,000 caddie scholarship from the country club. My daughter got a job at a restaurant, was promoted to manager and it helped her get more interested in a career in business. I think it’s great that her college essay included “cleaning bathrooms that no one dared touch” because she is going to stand out from privileged kids. Don’t pull strings and let kids fend for themselves. Great things can happen.
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Goodness, I imagine the mods can set their watches by when the tension increases on these Parent boards - I do remember this from last year right around this time (just wait until the dog days of late January!). How about we all be supportive of each other and trust the we are all caring, thoughtful parents no matter what choices are made on how they spend their time, got jobs, used our help, didn’t use our help, got spiky, got rounded etc. Let’s get through this together, there is a long way to go! 
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