I know there’s a few parts of my resume that are lacking, so can anyone give me suggestions? Any specific activities, EC, or anything else that would help me get into a top school? Of course I know things like getting a high SAT and GPA, but what else?
Freshman year gpa was 95, so far this year it’s 98 and it’s looking like it’s gonna increase
I’m a sophomore, white, immigrant from Russia, lower class, living in NY (about an hour outside NYC)
Took 1 pre ap and one honors in freshman year
This year:
-Italian
-AP World hist
-English Honors
-Science Research
-Bio Honors
-Orchestra
Junior year I will most likely take:
-Italian
-APUSH
-Science Research
-AP Environmental science
-Chem honors
-Alg 2 honors
-AP English Lang
-Orchestra
I’m not sure about senior year since it’s still far but I will probably take 3-5 AP classes
Extra:
-mock trial
-SADD
-Doing track for a few years
-volunteer at my town hall
-will volunteer in hospital next year
-working on independent research project about Lyme disease through my science research class
-Might take a law&trial program offered by Invision at Stanford this summer
-Will probably volunteer in Nepal or Thailand before senior year
Here’s the top colleges I would like to apply to, in order of favorite to least favorite. (obviously i know they’re very hard to get into)
You are a HS sophomore. I’d suggest you get off of CC until mid-junior year. Spend your time and energy on doing your best in classes and getting involved in ECs you care about.
The first thing you need to do is find affordable safeties you like.
So, what characteristics interest you in particular among these 7 “reach for everyone”’ colleges?
As far as what to focus on, your Lyme disease research and ranking at state level for Trial are the two activities that’d likely yield the best results.
I don’t remember exactly what my score was but it was in the 90th percentile. I didn’t study and it was my first time so I think I can get that score up with more preparation on my part
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”