<p>I'm currently a freshman and I'm going to try to get into MIT, Stanford etc. I know these schools are extremely competitive and it is impossible to predict whether I will get in our not or what I can do to be guaranteed admission. I am taking the hardest possible classes at my school but in having a hard time coming up with math and science extra curricular activities.
I plan to do the following activities:
Wrestling
Track
Math club (including IML contests AMC 10/12 and AIME)
Robotics club (have to take physics first, I'm taking A physics sophomore year, would it be better to take it at my community college summer of sophomore year so I can have 3 years instead of 2?)
Math and science tutoring</p>
<p>I know there are the Intel and Google science fairs and such but I don't really know where to start or have any project ideas. Are there any research opportunities or science EC's I could do?</p>
<p>Try getting a research internship.</p>
<p>see if there’s a science team. If not, start one!</p>
<p>Research internship/volunteering is important because it is awesome by itself and can segue into science fairs and related competitions.</p>
<p>Make sure to take whichever of the following interest you: chemistry olympiad, F=ma, biology olympiad, etc.</p>
<p>If you were to start some larger tutoring program enlisting your friends and directly contacting poor-performing elementary and middle schools in your area, that would be exceptional.</p>
<p>yeah, research is great! i’m not even THAT into science, but i learned so much from the lab. for example, i learned that research is not for me (not because the professor and grad students with whom i worked were mean, but i can see it’s not my thing). and science fairs with other high schoolers is so much fun. and it’s obviously a great app booster. </p>
<p>what i did: my mom works at the hospital, so i asked if she could find anyone. most people weren’t accepting high schoolers, so i just emailed a professor, who, by chance, was impressed and really accepting lol. so there are nice professors out there; you just need to find the right one. some other high school students have to send out emails to local universities, research facilities, etc., hundreds of times before they get a response. but once you do, it’s worth it. </p>
<p>LOL that was longer than i intended. but if you have any other questions about how to get started on a research project, you can ask me!</p>
<p>Do you live in a metropolitan area - I know that kids from my school who are into engineering and computer science tend to participate in many of the (often free) programs provided by MIT to Greater Boston students - if you happen to live near a large scale University, especially one geared towards mathematics and science, perhaps you should look into some programs they have for high school students. MIT has a program designed specifically to introduce minorities to the realm of Engineering Science (I think its called MITES?) but its still open to overrepresented minorities (East Asians, Indians, and Arabs to an extent) as well as white people.</p>