I am currently in my junior year… Current GPA is (not counting this year): Weighted: 4.1 Unweight:3.8 Taking AP Chem, APUSH, Honors English, AP CALC BC, AP Comp Sci. Have no taken SAT yet but plan to in December. Took SAT Math II got 800 and SAT Chem 700 (planning to retake, it was a mistake to take it after Honors Chem). So what should I do now besides what I have mentioned? Like clubs, summer programs? I don’t know anything about college admission… Please give me some guidance. I am aiming for top comp sci colleges like CMU, MIT, etc.
math olympiad and physics olympiad. More importantly focus on studying for the SAT.
Or any robotics, math league, etc.at your school. Maybe tutor?
@jerseygirl188 Well olympiads such as AMC, AIME, and things like those really require a lot of devotion… I am focusing on SAT right now. However I feel like my EC is not good enough, I barely won any awards or won any compeititons. I do volunteer, jv sports and clubs, but nothing else really
Volunteer, Sports and clubs are great ECs!
I would try to find leadership opportunities:
Leadership can be President of a club or Captain of the Team or Section Leader in Band. But it can also show through activities such as:
-Student involved in ethnic community center for years and then is asked to teach little kids
-Watched little brother after school and encouraged parents to sign up brother for sports team and took him to practice
-Within a club, organized an activity for that club
-Lead a community service activity
-Lead singer of a band - sings, chooses set list, organizes transportation for other members
-Summer Camp counselor
-Boy Scout Eagle Award/Girl Scout Gold Award
-EMT Cadet
-Boys State/Girls State
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.”
http://www.examiner.com/review/be-a-relaxed-high-school-superstar