I would be careful about how you label or “embellish” your EC’s.
When you say “researcher at UCSD”, it will be questioned by the schools that look at the ECs. I noticed it immediately and had to comment.
I conducted research and was very close to completing my PhD, but I spent so much time on research (2 years of full time writing -12-14 hours per day), that I was flat broke, and decided to work in the field. (Do you even know what a researcher has to go through to conduct research? Fill out forms, get approvals, get funding, get permission to conduct the research, begin the research, write? ) Working was a good decision for me. As a high school student, when would you find the time?
I’m local and have several neighbors who are Professors/Researchers at UCSD. They have PhD‘s and MDs. Their research is funded by the NIH or by state or government grants. You are “assisting” a PhD candidate who doesn’t have his/her PhD yet and who needs to present it.
My eldest daughter assisted a med school professor (neighbor) in her cancer research, onsite, at UCSD (by putting blood pressure cuffs on mice- as part of her high school biotech class internship). My daughter was 18, so she was allowed in the labs, but she couldn’t give them the number of hours they wanted her for because she attended high school.
You’ll be “called” on it by admission staff who will wonder what else has been “exaggerated” in your application.
Also, If you are helping to care for a family member who is ill, it is expected. You are going to do that because you love your family.
You can’t say that your grades dropped because of it. As mentioned previously by @tsbna44 it be seen as an excuse. I experienced the following:
At the high school, on my daughter‘s tennis team, we had a student immigrant from China her name was Lin. At the beginning of the quarter she was a really strong athlete. Towards the end of the quarter, I noticed her weight loss, her hunger, when we provided snacks and I tried talking to her. I gave her name to our care coordinators on staff at our high school.
She collapsed on the courts. When she was taken to the hospital the school tried to contact her parents and couldn’t reach anyone. They had officers go to her house and found her 13 year-old brother and her dad who apparently had a stroke at the beginning of the quarter. Both Lin and her brother thought he was just really sick. Lin had a part-time job, was going to classes, and was on the tennis team. She was using her funds, from her part-time job to provide meals for her father and her brother, and paid the water bill. Electricity had been shut off. The mortgage payments were delayed.
Her grades, and her brother’s grades, however, were perfect.
She was caring for her father and a brother by herself. (Once the care coordinators got involved, everyone had a chance to help out her family. All of the yearly volunteer chore lists were full within a day. A benefactor paid off the mortgage, and set up automatic payments for utilities and taxes.)
My lengthy point is that these schools are looking for students who still manage to maintain their grades despite life’s challenges.
Remember, these schools expect you to be forthright on your applications. (Yale just removed a student because of a questionable admissions application.)