Check with your HS science teachers about research opportunities as well.
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To echo what others have posted, the coolest stuff you can do for college applications is not something that looks like you are doing it just to impress someone reading your admissions file. It is the stuff that naturally results from you enthusiastically learning what is being taught in the normal high school classes.
Like an hilarious experiment you thought up for the school science fair about how fast mold grows on an old lunch forgotten in the bottom of a backpack or something. Heck, something like that could even win a school prize. And it would be the result of you exploring something you thought was fun.
A few years ago I read about a volunteer opportunity for people to identify scat (aka poop) while hiking in order to help track and number fox populations. How fun would it be to list Scat Tracker as an activity on college apps?
My point is that there is no need to try to do some graduate-level research before you are in college in order to impress admissions staff. You can be just as impressive (dare I say MORE impressive) by pursuing math and science activities that are not particularly sophisticated or prestigious but just ones that arise in the normal course of you living your life and that you find so fun that your enthusiasm for them just jumps off the page.
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Thanks everyone for the responses, I had another question. To better understand neuroscience and the brain in general should I take AP Psychology or AP Seminar. I have a course space open in my 10th grade schedule and I am confused on if I should do psych or complete the capstone with AP Seminar in 10th and AP Research in 11th.
Both seem equally good to me and I’m having trouble deciding, part of me wants to learn psychology and part of me wants take AP research in 11th grade but I only have 1 course space open.
AP psych has some neuroscience content, so if you want to learn about neuroscience, that would be the better choice. I assume you’re already planning on taking AP bio? The best HS foundation for learning neuroscience later is to take fundamental science courses, and math all 4 years. The classic trio will serve you well: bio, chem, physics. If you have those all covered, AP psych could be a fun addition as long as you have space for it.
So of course psychology is fundamentally about studying the observable behavior and processes of the human mind, and neuroscience studies the physical structures and mechanisms of the human brain. And so understanding psychology is often important to neuroscience in the sense a lot of neuroscience questions are fundamentally about explaining how those physical brain qualities result in observable psychological qualities.
Neuroscientists may pick up a lot of that along the way, but I personally think at this early stage, a course in Psychology might be interesting, and also potentially helpful preparation should you actually study neuroscience in college.
As a final thought, Psychology is in some sense a broader field, with a broader diversity of career opportunities. I note some people actually come to Neuroscience as a sort of outgrowth of their study of Psychology, such as when Neuroscience is a concentration within Psychology, a joint degree between Psychology and Biology, a masters you get after a BS in Psychology, or so on.
This is nothing you should care much about now, but I think some exposure to that broader context might be helpful in the sense it will give you a better idea of your possible paths.
This would be in addition to 5 core classes: Eng, Sci, Math, Soc Studies, and Foreign Language? Those classes come first, and for all 4 years of HS. After that, considering your interests, I think either work, maybe lean AP Psych.
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I guess I disagree with some of the other responders. I think there is value in taking AP Seminar and completing the entire capstone series. Strong research and writing skills will serve you well regardless of the field you enter.
That said, I don’t think there is a strong right answer here. You cannot go wrong either way.
I know my child liked to combine harder AP courses with ones she thought would be easier to make her schedule more manageable. (In her case, she believed AP Psychology was one of the easier AP courses.) So if your other courses are very challenging, maybe take the one you think will be less time-consuming.
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Yep I have all of those!
I am taking AP Bio in hs yes!