I dont have great extra curriculars that relate to my planned major (biology). All i did in school was marching band and speech for all 4 years and tennis for 2, along with a few other minor things and ~50 hours of hospital volunteering, which is nothing compared to how amazing some of the people on here are D:
But I do have a good GPA (will be ~3.9 when i graduate probably) and ACT (36!!!) so where can I get in that doesn’t care about me as a person and just offers challenging classes for good scholars?
Are you a senior? Have you already submitted some applications?
Marching band isn’t a bad EC and neither is tennis. Probably not good enough for elite schools (Ivy’s, etc), but good enough for many schools)
Are you a junior or senior? Are you a likely NMF?
What is your goal with biology? Premed?
Edit…a junior…
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chance me please! (Junior in HS)
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Im planning to apply to Cornell, Colgate, Georgetown, Northwestern, Bowdoin, UMich, Hamilton, Ohio State, CO school of mines
3.83 GPA, probably will be able to raise to 3.9 by senior year (i didnt try freshman year )
36 ACT (35 math and reading, 36 science and writing)
Taking the SAT on saturday (prob wont send them unless its like 1580 tho)
Currently in IB program (all A’s first semester!!), but I took 3 AP classes before that (bio, calc AB, USH) and taking 1 (calc BC) now. 5 on all the AP tests
ECs:
Volunteer at hospital (50 hours as of now, trying to hit 200)
On track for congressional gold medal (currently at bronze certificate )
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Assorted awards they prob wont care about, plus NMS semifinal as of now
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Ok…looks like you got a NMSF worthy PSAT. Is that right? What is it? Are you an Ohio resident?
What an interesting post. Why do you think your ECs are bad? Do you enjoy them? I have great news for you: your ECs are totally wonderful because they are things that YOU have done! I am a little saddened to think that you may have been moping for months or even longer and worrying that you won’t get into a great college because you think they are bad. I am also amused that you ONLY did speech and marching band for four years, and tennis , and other things and volunteering, and your GPA is 3.9. Kid, you got a 36 on your ACT. 36. Colleges of all sorts are going to drool all over you.
I have more news. There are only so many truly spectacular students with amazing ECs like international chess champ and Intel science winners. There are more than enough colleges to go around. There are literally hundreds of college’s that offer excllent academics. There are plenty of stduents with “bad” ECs at Harvard and the like. Apply to any dream school desire, but also apply to some schools with admissions rates in the 30-50% acceptance range, because you probably realize that stats aren’t everything and you do want to be sure to,have a school,to attend.
As far as really academic institutions, here are some that spring to mind, bearing in mind that you will get great academics at probably every college in the USNWR top 100: U Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, JHU, Northwestern, University of Rochester, UC Berkeley, U Mich Ann Arbor, MIT, CalTech, Swarthmore, Carleton College, Williams, and so many more. You should be proud of yourself. Your ECs are NOT bad.
What can your family afford to pay? As others have mentioned, your record and EC’s are fine. Run the NPC’s on your list of schools to be sure you have a range of affordable matches and safeties. When you get to the point of applying next year, focus on fit (financial/academic/etc) and spend time on your essays. Show the schools what you can offer and why you want to attend. Your EC’s will not hold you back.
Colleges can care about you as a person without the expectation of extraordinary ECs.
These schools, perhaps more than others, would tend to especially encourage scholarship of the type that might most interest you:
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=students-study-most
If the schools on post #2 are still your top choices, you will be fine! Relax.
Most university you don’t apply to a major, I know a lot of students including myself might be planning to study pre law, econ, or cs. However, we might have not taken courses and acitivities in law, econ, or cs but rather courses and activities literature, philosophy, and math. all of which are very important precessor knowledge to the three subjects. We just wrote that we want to study lit, phil, or math in CAS and then if we get admitted we are goin to say we changed our mind and want to study law, econ, or cs in CAS lol. But that is for the more prestigious universities where they don’t admit by major. But I think your stats give you a good shot at these prestigious universities.
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@Desiree2 they still consider the possible major you do note and your prep for that, incl ECs. Of course, you can usually change majors. But first you need the admit.
OP, based on your chance thread, your ECs are fine. But you’ll need to think how to present them on the CA and then your writing. You could use time now or this summer to bump up some math/sci activity or fine tune what you do at the hospital (it’s not just the number of hours and some award.)
@lookingforward Yeah, that is what I am saying. Telling the OP to choose the major that best fit with his or her ECs,since that will increase his/her chance of admit.
Your ECs are roughly equivalent to my kid’s- bio major too. Ended up at a top ten LAC and is now doing a PhD in a bio topic. You will be fine.