ECs for those who will study social science

Applying to College
1

What kind of stellar ECs can pre-social science students do? They cannot invent new method for curing alzheimer’s disease or research new fish living in pacific ocean…

One more… Do they consider the underprivileged economic situation for international students too? (Not in FA but in Admission process)

2
  1. You don't necessarily need social-science EC's to be a compelling candidate who wants to major in social science. Publishing research papers on a subject that is passionate to you is an option. Working with a professor on social science. Intern at a museum or something. Because I don't live where you do, I don't know the opportunities available.
  2. Yes. If you're poor, you might be viewed negatively at most schools as they see your financial information on the application and a lot of schools are unable to meet 100% demonstrated need for international students. However, if you apply to Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Amherst, then they are need-blind and your inability to pay will not affect your decision. Being poor and the difficulties that you faced, and how you grew from those experiences could be a compelling essay topic, but keep in mind if you're really poor, even if the schools accept you, if the school is not one of the six I mentioned above, you might not be able to afford the hefty tuition (50-60k US Dollars + per year).
3

“Social science” is a very broad category. There are selective, competitive and prestigious funded programs like TASS, TASP and the Notre Dame Leadership Seminars that overlap with social science issues. There are selective competitive (not funded) programs like Yale Young Global Scholars and the Stanford Summer Institute for the Humanities (with possible financial aid available). If you’re interested in anthropology then there are field opportunities. If you’re interested in geography there is an Olympiad program. If you’re interested in linguistics there are funded language programs and also an Olympiad program. There are prestigious journals / competions for history essays. There are tons of journalism opportunities. There are lots of public policy/advocacy opportunities, bridging in with ECs like speech and debate and MUN. There are programs for those interested in government, international relations, economics and psychology - some of them competitive and funded. There may be research opportunities in fields such as psychology and economics, and there are internships related to government and policy.

As presumably an international student with limited financial needs, many of these may not be available to you. But some may be. You need to define what you actual interest is, and then explore the options in more detail.

4

Thank you for kind comment!

  1. I have a strong interest on both Government & Political Science and Business. I did was some simliar programs as you mentioned above such as MUN, national awards or participatinj in school governance process as student administrator, making own business model or establish ASB with some funding from scholarship foundations, but what i wanted to ask was - Do universities will consider that i was not able to do so stellar activity with enormous amount of funding? or Do they consider that i didn't have enough opportunities even i'm international student?
  2. I can fully support 80%~100% needed money through my scholarships from my country so it doesn't matter right?
5
  1. They know. If you were poor, then they know many opportunities would not be available to you as tons of activities require money to join. If you're interested in Government & Political Science, maybe intern for a local candidate in his or her campaign or something like that.
  2. Can those scholarships last you all 4 years?
6

Thanks again…

  1. That's great! Yeah, i'll search for those kind of opportunities. For the research, do i must conduct it with professors? I have some but it was written with my club members since we cannot find help from prof. in my country.
  2. Yeah.. it can cover for 4 years.
7

My IR kid did orchestra, Science Olympiad and the literary magazine at school. It was all about hanging out with friends for him. He didn’t do the Model UN because he said the group was run by pushy parents and the kids were the biggest drinkers in the school that he wasn’t interested in hanging out with. Outside of school he made origami earrings and helped with cataloging the neighborhood association papers. He ended up writing about how that experience made him feel like an historian.

If you are interested in government the obvious thing seems to be to get involved in a campaign. Also our town has internships in the summer for kids to do various jobs at City Hall.