<p>I wish to study physics in college, and I would consider mathematics and science to be my passion. In spite of this, I do not participate in little, if any, extra-curricular activities to demonstrate this, simply because I do not know of any that exist. My school does not have a Math or Science olympiad team, or anything fancy like that, so I'm speaking of out-of-school activities. What are some activities that one can participate in that are physics and astronomy oriented, and what opportunities exist for high school students wishing study it before college?</p>
<p>Participate in math competitions like the AMC. Try out for the ARML math competition. Check if your state has a science olympiad and see how you can join and train for it. There are usually many private math clubs too.</p>
<p>Why not start a science/math olympiad team at your school? You sound interested in it, and it'd show initiative to colleges ;) which is always a plus.</p>
<p>Doing research at a local university or college is definitely a plus as well; see if you can contact some professors in your preferred field of interest and get some research, hopefully get a paper published or have something to work with to enter the Siemens Westinghouse Competition or ISEF.</p>
<p>There's plenty you can do! Just make the most of it :)</p>
<p>Try to start a club that involves science. Starting an olympiad team would be great and if you taught the kids joining it it would be much better. You could also start a research project by your own, or try to publish a scientific magazine, maybe with a little help of someone who wants to become a journalist.</p>
<p>Here is a list I found elsewhere (don't ask me what they are - I have no idea). You can use a search engine for more information:</p>
<p>Intel
Siemans
Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) competition
National Science Bowl
RSI
WTP
NASA SHARP
Westinghouse
Doing research
Caltech Signature Award
Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award
Physics Bowl
Lucent Global Science Scholar
Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge (DCYSC)
WTP (engineering program at MIT)
ISEF
IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO
USPhO, USChO, USABO, USAMO, USACO
SSP
JSHS
USABO
MOP
MAO
Science Service
U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force Junior Science & Humanities Symposia Program
Davidson Fellows</p>
<p>Now, when you have completed all of the above, write to me and I will find you more. :-)</p>
<p>Zap, the SSP- Summer Science Program in Calif, is a very prestigious, intensive math and physics program that has strong ties to Cal Tech. I highly recommend you take a look, as it is not as well known as the Intel, Siemens, etc, but students who are chosen to participate do very well in acceptances to top universities.Here is the isp-
<a href="http://www.summerscience.org/home/index.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.summerscience.org/home/index.php</a></p>
<p>SSP is operated by Summer Science Program, Inc., an independent non-profit corporation, and established
in cooperation with California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
New Mexico Tech, Pomona College, Stanford University, and UCLA. It is an accredited observing affiliate
of the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.</p>
<p>forgot to mention that SSP students do combined astronomy/ physics/ math problems, based on observations they do at a observatory 3 nights a week. It's pretty cool for students who are seriously interested in astronomy.</p>
<p>@spideygirl</p>
<p>can anyone participate in these ECs? i am in New york,</p>
<p>Thank you to all that have responded. To those that mentioned it: how would a high school student go about getting their foot in the door to actually do research? I live in the vicinity of a fairly large state university, but it's not known for it's research or facilities. </p>
<p>Also, as much as I wish to not divert attention from the original topic of the thread, I have another EC-related query. One of the activities I've invested the most time into and have generally enjoyed the most is debate, and I would also consider debate a passion, although I don't wish to specifically study political science, economics, or whichever subjects debate facilitates. Will emphasizing debate as a major extra-curricular to admissions, and then claiming a wish to study physics seem scattered and unfocused? I honestly don't think they are too different from one another, but others might not see it. Is there anything I can do to aid this?</p>
<p>Sorry, Greenvision - you are on your own from here. Use Google and just type in each one. I posted the list to help all of you science and math brainiacs, but I am from the liberal arts end of things. Research each one separately. My guess is that you can probably do all of them from anywhere.</p>
<p>To Za: Showing achievement in debate, as well as in math or science, only makes you out to be a more well-rounded and talented individual. You would only seem to lack focus if you were spreading yourself out in too many directions and not achieving anything in any of them.</p>
<p>No, you won't seem scattered. On the contrary, by showing interest in 2different, intellectual areas you strenghten your application. As an example, my son, now a U of Chicago student, had 2 highly different EC's in HS- geophysics [ he did an internship at USGS for 2 summers] and the academic study of obscure classical music composers, which he did on his own. In his college essays, he was able to bring alive his passionate interest in these 2 fields. He was accepted at 13/14 colleges he applied at- all of which were ranked just below HYPSC, which he had no interest in applying to.</p>