I am a freshman. I want to major in Computer science, mech engineering, or Robotics(cmu). I want to attend UMich, CMU, Stanford, Ga Tech, UT Austin, UC Boulder, Cornell, or UWa. I’m know some programming and I do well in school. Any other tips?
You’re only a freshman in high school? If so, just work on starting to build extracurriculars that could help you in this area if that’s what you think you really want to do (robotics club, engineering club, etc.)
Thanks.
Keep your grades up. Explore different extracurriculars. Make friends and have fun! (It will help to have them in a few years.)
Study for the PSAT and SAT.
Any more specific advice? Like for these more selective institutions, do I participate in ISF or Cyberpatriot?
There is no magic formula. Heed the advice above. Find activities that interest you whatever they may be.
HS is a time of learning and growth in and of itself, it is not simply a 4 year exercise in accumulating credentials for college.
Prioritize doing well in your classes.
Take the most advanced math you can.
Make sure you are at least taking Calculus by senior year…double up Alg 2 and Geometry if you have to.
If you have health/relationship/etc problems, talk to your GC as soon as possible to keep up your grades.
Read this book:
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
Take some classes at a local college or community college. The college classes u take before graduating from high school & the AP credits you get can mean that u will be able to graduate from college in fewer than 4 years (saving thousands of dollars) and/or u will be able to take fewer than the usual load for some semesters. It might not seem so valuable now , but in a few years u will appreciate being able to take 3 or 4 classes in a term while most of your competition is taking 4 or 5 classes.
Besides classes at a local community college, you can take college courses on Coursera, EDx or Udacity in areas that interest you that will expand your knowledge, and even be something you can put on your college application (though they won’t give you credit). There are some good programming courses on there.
^ Those will not be differentiators except in possibly showing an interest.
study for psat to become national merit scholar
Should I self-study for any ap courses for freshman year? I’m good at history so should I self-study for APUSH? I am already taking AP HG. What about sophomore year?
@“Erin’s Dad” no, but it’ll increase your skill/knowledge in your area of interest (kinda of the point of education) and give you skills you need to participate in some EC like a hackathon, for example
Don’t bother self studying for APs. @skieurope heard that from highly selective admission officers. They aren’t impressed.
So no self study. Should I just take computer science, apush, physics c, calculus bc, and English lit? Also do cs admissions value debate as an extracurricular even though it is more political science?
No self-study needed for APs, but if you want to major in CS, then self-study could be useful, because AP CompSci doesn’t get you very far (the CS AP exam is an easy 5). If you want to get into a CS at top college (which is very competitive), some CS related ECs would be good and for those you need skills - your own development projects on Github, participation in CS programs offered by your school or outside your school, hackathons, etc. CS is one area where there’s a lot of good material online for self-study and results in highly demonstrable skills.
For APs, definitely take those you mention above, plus the Physics C’s if you want to do engineering. Unless you like English Lit and History, Econ might be more useful.
Also, in 8th grade, I got a 1220/1520 on the psat. 690 CR and 530 Math. Is this good for an incoming freshman. Btw, I didn’t take it this year. Also will my math naturally improve as I take geometry and algebra?