UB Gifted Math Program (7-11): Took Calc 3 and Linear Algebra here. Graduated from the program a year early.
-AwesomeMath Summer Program (10): Olympiad training camp. Took NT3.
-HMMT (11)
-AwesomeMath Year Round Program (12): Online olympiad training.
-UB Advanced College Credit Program (12): Taking Topics in Algebra: Intro to Representation Theory and Lie Algebras
-JHU CTY (12): Complex Analysis
-Coursera (12): Intro to Galois Theory
-Mathnasium Instructor (11-12): Tutoring kids of all ages
-Private Math Tutor (11-12)
-100+ hours of service at various places (9-12)
- Summer Camp Counselor (11)
- 2018 FL State Yoyo Contest Competitior
-2019 World Yoyo Contest Competitor
-Freshman Crew (9)
-Varisty Crew (10)
-Club Swimming (K-10)
-Varsity Swimming (9-10)
I am not clear what you are asking. Your math creds look pretty strong, but a good AIME score would compliment those. You’ve got some non-math activities for roundedness, which is also very good. I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on the sports because you didn’t really stick with them all through high school. T20s are holistic, though, and we are not seeing the rest of your application, nor how you plan to match yourself to those schools.
(edited a spelling error)
The non-math ECs aren’t a tip. It’s basically unspecified vol work (we have no idea if it’s the sort of comm service tipy tops look for,) summer camp (working with kids, I presume,) and 2 sports. No other school activities? Darned close to unilateral.
Nothing about stats, rigor/grades, or targets. Leaves me with a hmmm reaction.If OP is serious, he needs to show more than some glossy activities. He needs to understand how top holistic colleges look for engagements of various sorts. It’s not spike. Miles to go.
Read the MIT blogs.
@lookingforward
Thanks for replying. I could’ve gone into a little more depth with the vol work. Most of my service was just serving food to homeless people. The camp I volunteered at was a summer camp run by the same organization for impoverished city kids. I never really did any other school activities because for the first 2 years of HS, crew took up 3 hours every day after school so I couldn’t get involved in any clubs, and crew along with my math program interfered with club swim practices so I couldn’t do that anymore. I quit crew to spend basically all of my free time to try to qualify for USAMO so I didnt really have time to do anything else, but a few months before AMC I decided that I really didnt enjoy math competitions, so I decided to stop doing that and start doing math just for fun. As a result, I have basically nothing to show for my year spent on math olympiad. Along the way I did try to start a math club and a yoyo club, but they never really worked out since most kids had other things going on.
As for my stats, I didnt include them because I didnt want to make this a chance me post. But I have a 4.0 GPA, 35 ACT, 4 5’s on APs and a 3 on AP Lit, and I’m taking 4 AP classes senior year. Our school is very strict about APs so we really aren’t able to load up on APs until senior year.
I’m planning on applying to CMU ED this fall. I also plan to apply to Yale, where I interviewed this summer, and the interview seemed to have gone very well, MIT, Duke, Chicago, UMich, WashU, Cornell, Rice. I have been told that I have basically no chance at any of those schools though.
Basically it looks like I did nothing during HS, but I was always working on stuff. Unfortunately I have nothing to show for any of it. I never joined a lot of clubs simply because I didnt want to do things that I dont like.
Any tips to make my ECs a little stronger?
@Groundwork2022
If you would like to get some idea of what the rest of my app looks like and where I’d like to apply, check out my response to lookingforward.
You stats are good, pretty strong imo. Most students would be told that their chances at those schools are small just because of their low admit rate. I would not worry too much about your ECs now, you have been consistently doing something that you love, that is really good. Focus on your application/essays, and give Chicago/MIT/Princeton/etc. another look if finance works out. Good luck!
If it’s an organized meal program, good. Then that connects to camp. But you’d want to note any connection between the two and your interest. Doesn’t matter if you came to it through, say, a religious org.
It’s ok to shift gears re: math competitions. You can even commet on that in Addl Info, briefly. But when you dropped that and sports, what did you pick up? The tippy tops need to see the motivation, vision, energy, and openness to things, both in school/with peers and beyond. Not just your core interests or solitary pursuits. That’s a reality for top holistics.
Read the MIT blogs, so informative on the mindset of top adcoms. Are you in NY state? If you’re interested in advocacy (wondering, because of the meal and camp,) there is still time to get involved with some adult organzation. It won’t make up for lack of ECs but could turn into an interesting narrative that holds their interest.