Hello! I am currently a Sophomore student and I am puzzled by my next step in terms of preparing for college application. I really need some insightful advices regarding to something that I can do to prepare for the college admissions. I feel like my Extracurriculars are very weak and I would greatly appreciate if you could kindly provides some insights about what I might do to strengthen my profile as a college applicant.
Demographics:
Asian Immigrant
Male
Washington state public high school (~2000 people, highly competitive)
Intended Major: Science Driven, potentially double major in management/business
Academics (No honor class offered):
Unweighted GPA: 4.0/4.0
9th: AP Human Geography, Intro to Marketing (Dual Enrollment)
10th: AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP World History, AP Statistics, Precalculus (Dual Enrollment)
11th(planned): AP Calculus AB(no BC offered in my school), AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, AP US History, AP Language
12th(planned): Advance Calculus(BC Calc+Multivariable), AP Government, AP Physics 2, and one more AP classes(undecided)
Plan to take SAT this summer
Extracurriculars:
speech and debate(state awards + multiple regional awards)
volunteering (100+ hours), Presidential Volunteering Service Awards(Gold)
Founder/President of a organization (not officially registered)
Summer internship in a tech firm
Planned: National Honor Society (applied, results not released yet)
Planned: Research Paper
Planned: Start a innovation club in school
I would greatly appreciate your time if you could kindly comment on my profile above and point out something that I may do to strengthen it. Thank you!
Seems like you’re doing everything really well already. Keep it up. If you’re doing nothing this summer, look for a job.
As you travel, even locally, stop in at different campus types. A UW - big urban school. A small LAC like Puget Sound - which is in a larger city and more urban area. Then the opposite like a Whitman. And get up to Bellingham - go check out a mid size like WWU.
No need to formal tour - although you can (with an info session). Start to get an idea of the campus type, weather, environment that you like.
But you’re doing great - so keep up the great work.
PS - where will you take Calc BC if your school doesn’t offer it?
You should do ECs that YOU like and not ones that you think might impress some adcoms down the road.
Extracurriculars:
speech and debate(state awards + multiple regional awards)
if you enjoy this, continue it
volunteering (100+ hours), Presidential Volunteering Service Awards(Gold)
volunteering is always a good thing to do.
Non-profit Organization Founder/President
who did this with or for you! As a HS student, you are too young to set up a non-profit by yourself. Did you have an adult do this, and did you have legal counsel to help legally set up whatever you did?
Summer internship in a tech firm
Is this something you have already done?
Planned: National Honor Society (applied, results not released yet)
fine to do this, but it won’t add much, if anything, to your college applications. If NHS at your school has volunteer activities, take advantage of those.
Planned: Research Paper
with whom? And about what? And will this be published before you graduate from high school? What will your roll be?
Planned: Start a innovation club in school
are you doing this because you think it will look good to start a club? If so, I would suggest looking at what your school offers and see if you can make a significant contribution on something already started.
Plan to take Physics C senior year, AFTER you’ve taken Calculus AB. Take Honors Physics (to have an overview of all topics) or Ap Physics 1 or 2 (fewer topics, more in-depth) junior year instead.
Calc BC typically is a year long course, is it a semester course at your school?
Have you reached level 3 or 4 in a foreign language?
Have you already taken honors bio and honors chem?
Talk about costs with your parents - even though popular culture makes it sound like students take on tens of thousands in debt, they can only take 5.5k for freshman year.
Most scholarships come from the colleges themselves, either through merit (gpa, rigor, test scores) or need-based.
Do you know your SAI?
Run the NPC on your state’s flagship (UDub?), Whitman, UPugetSound, UIUC, Penn, Fordham, and Lafayette. Is each net price affordable for your parents?
Thanks for reading. The organization is not officially registered but is functionally operating. As far as the internship, I will do that this summer and I already signed the contract with the company.
The physics C teacher claimed that he will teach all the math needed in his class and a lot of students are taking it as their first physics class. Calc BC is not offered individually in my school, but rather as a part of the Advanced Calc which covers topics in BC Calc and additional topics. I am in level 2 of Spanish right now(because I came to US 9th grade) and planning to continue for junior and senior year. I had taken Bio and Chem, but not honor(not offered a my school). I am not certain with SAI but I think all the prices are affordable. Thanks for your time!
I plan to do the research on my own about the effect of AI/Data on Job market and employment. I am still planning with details but it won’t be in great depth. I anticipate that it will be published before I apply.
Your own research. Your own non profit. These aren’t likely to be helpful. And published by whom?
Good college ?- define a good college - because I can think of hundreds and likely more.
Please don’t conflate rank with good - and please have a budget.
But you’re still too early for this - so go visit some colleges to see what type of environment you like, you have a paid job this summer, and keep doing well in school.
Wrt Physics C: Colleges want to see a progression.
Physics C is the highest Physics class you can take in HS and one of the hardest APs.
As a result, you want to take Physics 1 or 2 THEN Physics C.
In addition, I too have seen that claim about learning the math as you go, and the same is said in college… and the odds of succeeding in a calculus-based Physics class before you have taken Calculus are really low.
Your parents are likely indifferent because they don’t know much about college costs. Parents who do are either nervous or billionaires.
Please run the NPC with them on the colleges I and tbsna listed. On the list you have instate and OOS public universities, meet need colleges, colleges that offer merit. The results are likely to be quite different from college to college.
I am not sure this is anything more than looking for information. It does not sound like original research to me. Do this if it interacts you, but I’m not sure it’s going to move the needle with college admissions.
You want to have authentic and believable ECs, not ones you think will impress adcoms…and this is what it sounds like to me. If I’m wrong, please clarify.
Do your parents know that many of the elite colleges will have $100,000 a year price tags by the time you enroll? Are those the colleges they will pay any amount for?
@thumper1 said it b4 - do the jobs, activities that interest you. Stop trying to impress.
You impress when you do things of interest, develop tenure and depth. It shows commitment.
You like pets - walk dogs at the shelter.
You like making money - go stock grocery shelves and bring in carts - and yes, that looks very good if you can keep it. Sounds like you already have a summer gig. Work shows you have responsibility, that you can work as part of a team, etc.
I could be wrong but I believe all legal immigrants have green cards.