I’m a very shy student, so for the first two years of high school, I mostly kept to myself. However, in the last year I forced myself to join a few clubs. The problem is I live in a small town and there isn’t much to do at my school. I’m an international student who lives in the US, so I can’t get a job without a work permit. I’ve been trying to get one, but my parents seem stagnant on helping me. I do as much as I can in the few clubs I’m in, but because I’m not popular, nobody ever voted for me to any leadership positions. I did attend Stanford’s Advanced Emergency Medicine program over the summer and I fell in love with the school. I would love to go there, but I doubt they would accept me with my unimpressive extracurriculars. My academic work is excellent, so what are the best schools that would accept me?
Public schools focus more on academic work than private elite colleges. What is your state?
Also, in our century of technologies, you can use the Web(build a website or create a biology project) to prove that you can find opportunities everywhere.
I have a 4.0 GPA, 4.5 weighted, half my classes were AP/Honors (about ten), got an average of 4 on all my AP tests, 1590 on SAT, and still waiting on two SAT subject tests, but I think I did pretty good. The only area I’m really lacking is my extra curriculars. Will this really set me back that much? I live in California, so I would still be content getting into UC Berkeley, UCLA, etc.
Even if you had good ECs, still the possibility of Stanford would have been slim, so be content to the other 2 schools (that you mentioned) and hopefully you get into one of them (Even those may not be for sure … not just because of lack of much ECs!)
As an international applicant, would you qualify for in-state tuition for CA public universities? Stanford seems like a long shot, especially as an international applicant but who knows? You have the grades and test scores to give it a shot. Good luck!
Without ECs, job, awards, recognition or leadership, probably your chances are better at public schools in California. As you are only talking about schools there, I’m assuming you are resident and eligible for in-state tuition so it’s an awesome deal for you.
Don’t give up so easily. If you really are fascinated by Advanced Emergency Medicine, dig deep and learning everything you can on your own - on the internet; take an online course; talk to your local medical clinic, fire department, EMT, hospital; write a research paper on it; push yourself to volunteer in your community. Elite universities want to see how you run with your passion and that you are a creative problem-solver (even if it’s solving your own limited personal and social resources). Being deeply involved in a couple of extracurriculars is better than being a serial joiner of several extracurriculars. Whether you ultimately are accepted to Stanford or comparable elite schools or not, you will be the better for having taken initiative, being self-motivated, and being resourceful and creative. Good luck!
Thanks for the encouragement; I am looking for opportunities outside school.