ECs, programs, awards for astrophysics major

Applying to College
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My goal is to major in physics/astrophysics/cosmology at a top school. I’m a sophomore in high school and I don’t have many extracurriculars related to my major. I also don’t have any awards in those areas. Currently, I am a member of math club and space club, but that’s it.

I’m not good enough to go to the USAPhO or ISEF or whatever. Does anyone know of some interesting and semi-competitive extracurriculars, programs, competitions, etc that I can do? Or ideas of how to demonstrate leadership in those areas? Thanks.

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  1. Do ECs that matter to you. A job, sports, band, walking dogs at the shelter - whatever interest you. They needn’t match your major.

  2. Ask your science teacher if they know of any competitions. Or opportunities. Check with local science museums - what opportunities to help do they offer ?

  3. Few have true awards. You want to do things that show commitment and responsibility. The award often matters little. Awards may demonstrate excellence (gold medal at the Olympics) but you don’t get an award for helping 5 dogs at the shelter get adopted. Or bringing in shppping carts from the parking lot. But those, in their own way, are impactful accomplishments.

There are many great schools in your areas of interest and some don’t even look at ECs at all.

Be the best you, inside and outside the classroom, and you’ll be fine.

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I’d suggest really reflecting on this advice from MIT:

The upshot is you do not need to do ECs or get awards related to your academic interests. For that purpose, you should be taking relevant classes and doing your reasonable best. At this point in HS, that means taking foundational science and math classes.

For ECs, you should just be doing things you can really do with sincere enthusiasm, and that can be anything.

And then the thing in my experience many smart and ambitious kids blow right past is being nice. Being nice, in a consistent and demonstrable way that will show through in your applications, is more of a challenge than many such kids realize. And I think failing to give it the serious attention it deserves–not just for college but for life in general–is a common mistake.

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Thanks! But how can I demonstrate kindness and enthusiasm? It’s not really something that can show up on paper, is it? I mean, I guess I can tie those themes in to my essays, but if I don’t have any awards to show, that’s probably bad, right?

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Thank you!

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Go back to what I said - most do not have real awards. They have things like AP Scholar with whatever - which means x amount of APs with a 3 or more.

The schools already know you have that.

You want to show tenure and impact in your activities.

That shows strength, commitment, care, and more…especially something like a paid job.

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So this may sound trite, but the first step is to actually be that sort of person. Be kind. Be enthusiastic.

The tricky thing about this advice is you can’t be doing this just to SEEM kind and enthusiastic to colleges, because that is actually fakery. You have to actually be kind and enthusiastic just because that is the way you want to be, not because it will help you get into a college.

And then it might well find its way into your application. Maybe it will be in your recommendations. Maybe it will be reflected in your activity descriptions, or an essay or two.

Or maybe not! There are no guarantees, this may do nothing at all to help.

But again, if you are actually a kind and enthusiastic person, then being that way is its own reward. And then if some colleges also like that version of you, that is a bonus, but not the main purpose.

No, really in fact no. I have seen many AOs address this, and they all have said some version of that the Awards section just is not a big section for them, that in fact they know in many cases it won’t play any role in various successful applications. And then sometimes it does contribute, but that is just for those kids, other kids are fine with little or nothing.

If it helps, AOs will periodically try to explain this is not at all like a test, where you start with 100 points and they deduct for deficiencies.

This is more like, say, casting a big movie, where maybe everyone has to have some baseline ability to act, but then they are looking for people who will really stand out in different roles.

So it really isn’t about what you don’t have (aside from whatever they expect in terms of academic qualifications). It is about standing out to them in some way they find compelling enough to want to “cast” you in one of the many roles they have available. And then the next person they “cast” with an offer of admissions may be very different, and on it goes.

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