<p>I'm going into sophomore year, and I need to set goals for myself. Is there anything I can do this year to further my chances of getting into an ivy? (What kind of volunteer/how much, how much extracurriculars/what type of competitions can I enter/internships??) </p>
<p>Go to school</p>
<p>blink</p>
<p>You should try not to worry about what colleges want. Just expand your interests and use your time wisely. Colleges don’t want a class of cookie cutter kids that look exactly the same. They want people with genuine passion for what they’re involved in. Take rigorous courses, study for any standardized tests, and be the best at whatever activities you choose to do.</p>
<p>My best high school advice post is [here[/url</a>]. </p>
<p>I would recommend studying really hard for the SAT and thinking really carefully about why you want to apply to Ivy League schools in the first place. Most of them require “Why us?” essays, so you need to have good reasons for liking the specific schools you apply to. They aren’t all the same. </p>
<p>If you’re interested in academic competitions and internships, you can find a list of opportunities [url=<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/resources/]here[/url”>http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/resources/]here[/url</a>]. Free, selective summer programs and internships are ideal. If you can’t get into one, try to get a summer job.
In case you don’t know, college applications won’t ask you how many volunteer hours you have. Volunteering is just one kind of EC. Your ECs can involve community service, but they don’t have to.
The Common App will ask you to list each of your ECs (up to ten) and estimate how many hours per week you spent on each one in which grades. Almost anything productive you do outside of class (including volunteering or working at a job) counts as an EC, except for really passive things like reading. Colleges don’t really care what you do specifically as long as you show focus, dedication, and accomplishment in everything you do. </p>
<p>From a Yale admissions officer ([url=<a href=“Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times):”>Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times]source](<a href=“http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1661936-if-you-could-redo-anything-in-your-high-school-career-what-would-it-be.html]here[/url”>If you could redo anything in your high school career, what would it be? - High School Life - College Confidential Forums)):</a></p>
<p>“The thing we are looking for outside the classroom is not a series of check boxes on a resume; we’re looking instead for a high level of engagement or leadership in whatever it is that the student cares about most. For some students, community service is at the forefront of their extracurriculars, in which case we pay a lot of attention to what they have accomplished in that area. For other students, some other passion or interest holds primary sway, and we evaluate the engagement in that area. We know that very few students can fully engage more than one or two primary activities at a high level. Though it is fine for a student to have varied interests, a significant number of students make the common mistake of spreading themselves too thinly in a resume-building exercise.” </p>
<p>cancer research. colleges love that, no joke.</p>
<p>The more interested you are in [ fill in the blank ], the more interesting you will become.</p>
<p>@halcyonheather. I wish I would have read that link you posted about internships, competitions, academic programs, ect. much sooner. I searched for internships prior to this summer for a while and couldn’t find any. I also always regret not being more involved in math and science (since I plan to be an engineer). But I spent all of high school focusing on music in every way possible. </p>
<p>I’ll be applying to MIT and CalTech soon, so hopefully the passion with music will be at least noticeable…</p>
<p>“Is there anything I can do this year to further my chances of getting into an ivy?” Yes, absolutely. You can stop trying to mold your life around what you think some strangers who happen to work in an admissions office might want to see, and instead figure out what it is <em>you</em> want to do.</p>