Planning on Junior year activities

Parents Forum
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My daughter is a rising junior (NYC private). This summer she will be attending a STEAM summer program (medium level selectivity), then in August Volleyball training until tryout for returning to her club team and school varsity.

For her junior year, originally she was thinking applying for a more selective summer program (e.g., SSP) for the 11-th grade summer. However, her GPA is 3.7 so the chance of getting in SSP is zero. She will have to develop a new plan.

Any suggestion for 11-th grade activities? For school-related clubs, she has not been actively involved in the past two years as varsity and club take a lot of time. Her main interest at this time is environmental science (but new interest may develop). Advanced STEM courses math/physics/chemistry.

TBH she is a bit lost. Any suggestion highly appreciated.

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So you are looking for summer.

Why does she need to be at a selective program? Why can’t she have a job or help in the community during the year or summer.

She’s playing volleyball - so that’s great. What else does she enjoy? Can she tutor kids? Walk dogs at the shelter? Get a job? She needs to be authentic to herself; not try to fit into something to look good.

Given her advanced math/Science, you might consider Operation Catapult next summer at Rose Hulman or STEP at Purdue. It’s engineering - but they are short term and a great way to see - if maybe that’s a fit. The short term aspect is the beauty.

There is no need to get into a “selective program” and most of these programs will not enhance admissions - especially when you’re paying. But they’re great to get a flavor - to see if there’s an interest. STEP cemented my son’s major in his interest, as an example - as he toiled between four.

Good luck.

Here’s some Environmental Science ones - you might check out Hobart; I’ve read good things.

Last thing - if she ends up in environmental sciences - it’s a tough major outcome wise - the “where” she goes is unlikely to make a huge difference. The outcomes aren’t great - so worry less about “impressing” someone (i.e like a school) and more about finding what’s right for her - both major (although she can go undecided) and school.

Good luck.

Best Environmental Science Summer Programs for High School Students – 2024 - College Transitions

Operation Catapult | Rose-Hulman

Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects (STEP) — Engineering Honors Program (purdue.edu)

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Thank you tsbna44. Great advice!

Currently she is volunteering at local soup kitchen. Nothing much other than volleyball, volunteering, and school work. She was thinking about volunteering in a hospital setting but that idea didn’t realize because she doesn’t have enough time.

At her age, kids are influenced by her peers a lot. Though she managed stem courses well, she has no much interest in engineering. Her friends are doing ECs in environmental science so she thinks that is cool thing to do.

We understand that outcome wise environmental is not looking great but we can’t convince her interested in more hard core majors at this stage.

I will look into the Hobart program. Thank you!

She also wants to develop leadership experience. I don’t know if it’s too late to get involved in school clubs in junior year. If so, she will have to initiate some things.

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Time management is important.

Activities, in my opinion, are about quality, not quantity. And about being authentic to oneself. Tenure is great - so you can accomplish more - vs. hop skotching.

She shouldn’t over do it - it’s not healthy - and you don’t want to over stress now before college - which brings more stress itself.

If she ends up in environmental science, she might find a specific area that some schools have but others don’t.

Many kids get burned out - too many clubs, too hard of classes, too many school visits - so you want to make sure you pace everything right.

First and foremost, she’s a kid - and needs to stay one.

As for outcomes not being great - that’s ok - you have to study what you want. Sure, it’d be great for kids to major in accounting, etc. but not all kids are cut out for that. You have to follow your heart. I made the comment moreso about - don’t worry if she goes to Cornell vs. ESF vs. Juniata. She’s gonna be fine whether it’s a top school or not.

And like anyone in life - she’ll find a path.

But while I think it’s good to talk about life and expenses and budgets and kids don’t understand - you still can’t force them into the wrong thing. My kid loves Atmospheric Sciences/Meteorology - but he then pivoted to Mechanical Engineering. His reasoning wasn’t good - it was money - but he was insistent. He wanted to continue the life he was accustomed to. That’s how we found STEP at Purdue - and as it turns out, it cemented his interest - so it was beyond money. But if he wasn’t interested, I’d rather have had him pursue his passion - no dfferent than I did. It didn’t work out for me but somehow life turned out ok - and it will for your daughter.

As for leadership, don’t forget - you can lead in your role - it doesn’t need to have a leadership title. She’s working at the soup kitchen. Is she taking ownership on herself - maybe food set up or cleaning - without direction. She knows what needs to be done and she makes it happen? Is she cheering on her teammates or directing people to positions in volleyball?

It’s great to have a title - but it doesn’t make you a leader. She can join a club and get a title but she can also develop leadership skills/mindsets within what she’s already doing!!

All these kids are killing each other and probably 90% of them are embellishing (to each other). Easy to say, worry about you and not others - but yep peer pressure is huge and it’s sad - she sounds like a well accomplished young lady.

Good luck.

Environmental Studies Summer Youth Institute (hws.edu)

Islands Through Time · College of the Atlantic (coa.edu)

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You have been given some good suggestions for next summer. In addition to these, she could get a job or increase her hours in the soup kitchen.

It is not too late to get involved in clubs during junior year. She should do the research and join! She needs to figure out what she might like- Spanish club, yearbook, student council, etc.

As far as leadership goes
right now she volunteers in a soup kitchen. As noted above, do not worry about the title. Helping her peers, volunteering to organize/work any special events, setting up and running food donations etc
those are all great leadership skills.

You said she is interested in environmental science. Maybe contact a local politician and get involved in policy? Our local politicians have programs in place for HS students. How about doing some research about programs for HS students in NYC? How about helping to maintain a community garden? Can she speak to one of her teachers and organize an event at a local elementary school about the importance of recycling? Are there any cleanups she could get involved in?

Best wishes for a great junior year!

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Thank you twogirls and tsbna44 for the advice. We will research local politician but I doubt it considering we are in the city.

I am not too familiar with the mechanics of college application, but know that the student has to fill in awards section and activities section. She can’t think of any awards that she can fill in when the process starts. Is there any competition in the environmental science field that she could participate in?

Thank you.

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You definitely do NOT need to fill in the entire activities section, even less so the awards section. AOs for highly selective colleges look for quality and not quantity in those sections, and they understand not everyone does things where there are a lot of awards.

Consistent with some of the above, I would suggest she look perhaps at some very local, smaller environmental groups. They are often happy to get volunteers.

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True. We don’t have anything to fill in the awards that’s why trying to get some ideas. Looking for some examples of environmental science competition.

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The best advice I can give is to think outside the box! How many kids at her private school have jobs? That is probably a rarer activity than participating in some STEM program. Plus will broaden her horizons. Possibly be fodder for a college application essay. Possibly change her life and lead her to realize things she loves – or hates. (Working with the public, eg).

Don’t do the things “everyone” is doing, (unless she has a genuine interest) it won’t pay off. Take the pressure off! This is a marathon :-).

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PS I am not sure the prospects for an environmental science major are as grim as has been made out to be. Two of my kids were/are environmental science majors. One will be teaching math at a boarding school (at a starting salary that isn’t far off his brother’s starting salary at Goldman Sachs – though of course the gap widens exponentially in subsequent years). The other has a paid summer internship doing environmental consulting. So our family’s experience has been very positive wrt that major.

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Most don’t have awards or use fluff stuff like Natl Honor Society.

Worry about what the student does. Not awards.

The person working at the grocery store doesn’t get awards for bringing carts in. My kid never got an award for walking countless dogs at the shelter abd helping some get adopted.

Your student will be fine as they are - they’re already doing a lot.

And ECs needn’t match a major - ie Volleyball is great.

But maybe there’s a local group that cleans trash or helps clear trails, etc. but again not necessary. Volleyball and the soup kitchen are plenty.

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The point I would emphasize is this is not like a test where you start with 100 points and they deduct points for missing or wrong answers.

This is more like you need to have the right sort of academic qualifications, and then sometimes that is pretty much it, meaning they will admit almost everyone with good enough academic qualifications absent something really unusually bad in your application.

But then other times they have so many applicants with the right sort of academic qualifications they still need to reject a bunch. And then basically, you are sort of presumptively rejected unless there is something about you that makes you stand out to them, some case that can be made in some admissions committee about why you are a particularly good bet to fill some particular institutional need or goal.

So your goal in cases like that is to: (A) show them you are academically qualified by their standards, and then (B) do something to stand out like that.

And you have a few different ways of doing that–recommendations, essay, maybe particularly interesting academic interests and credentials, or so on. And maybe ECs or awards.

But maybe not ECs or awards. They might not have contributed at all to why some specific successful applicant stood out and got admitted. And of course in other case some specific EC or award might well have been why some other specific successful applicant stood out and got admitted. But whatever story there might be for why you stood out and got admitted, it is virtually never going to be that you did a good job filling all the slots on your application. It will be because some much more limited thing or handful of things stood out to them in a positive way.

So I think some kids in general spend way too much time and energy trying to check boxes and fill slots when all of that is extremely unlikely to make any sort of difference. You should challenge yourself and do your reasonable best with grades, foster good relationships with your teachers, and then do at least a few other things that are really meaningful to you with enthusiasm and dedication, and then you should write that all up as best you can.

And that’s really all you can do to try to maximize your chances, the rest is up to whether or not they decide they want someone like you, and in fact want you specifically to be that someone.

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Not sure anyone is saying they are from - but if you look, for example at Cornell and UNC, like many of the hard sciences, it’s underpaid relative to other majors.

It may not be your specific experience. Obviously all individual experiences are just that - but when looking at aggregate data, it doesn’t fare well relative to others from a salary POV.

Of course it’s a broad field with so many specialties - whether climate, conservation , etc and that might impact.

If it’s a student true love, I think it’s great. The comment was more about don’t overstress on the ‘where’ - OP is clearly prestige oriented and I’m not sure it’s a major where that matters.

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If she’s interested in working on environmental issues, she should pursue them. No need for a selective program – she can do nature education (i.e., volunteering at a nature center or working as a counselor at a nature camp), volunteer for an environmental non-profit, or pursue other similar opportunities.

I don’t know if her school has an independent science research elective, but if so, she can take that and develop a project in environmental science. (Note: this is not the same as the hyper-competitive science research that some students do, nor is it the same as the pay-to-play “science research” that some students use to pad their resumes lately, but rather just an opportunity to do some independent study guided by a teacher-mentor. My daughter did this in HS, and it was a really valuable experience, even if it was in no way prestigious.)

If she’s not interested in a “hard-core” major, she shouldn’t pursue that. Not really sure what you mean by “hard-core” (though I suspect I know), but most majors come with their own distinctive challenges, so she should follow the path that excites her. No one should pursue engineering or CS or whatever unless that’s what they want to do. But as a rising junior in high school, there’s no need to think about ECs in terms of a major. Her major will probably change 10 times before she actually commits to one in college.

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Money is not an issue for us. For example, Lawrence Berkeley Lab has super strong environmental research. If she could go into academia even with a low salary I would be really proud. Uncertainty resides in whether or not she has the talent. Time will tell.

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Yes, have to admit I am “clearly prestige oriented”. Not a saint. :slight_smile:

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For all of us. That’s what makes life exciting.

She’ll have a long educational path if that’s what she desires.

I get you’ll be proud - but again it’s about her, not you.

It’s hard for a lot of us to realize that - but eventually we come around.

It’s about them, not us !!

Good luck to her.

But in the meantime, relax.

Really !!

If it’s meant to be it will come. And it sure seems like she’s already doing great !!

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“hard core” = high paying CS AI jobs 


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“reasonable best with grades, foster good relationships with your teachers, and then do at least a few other things that are really meaningful to you with enthusiasm and dedication”

really meaningful to her with enthusiasm and dedication

That makes sense. Any more specific suggestions? Thanks.

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Prestige is in the eye of the beholder. We read about some schools on here - some think they are top shelf. Others not.

My kids both turned down prestigious schools for safeties. Their choice.

That is, I find Purdue engineering prestigious and was upset my son declined it for Alabama. Others on this website don’t see it as particularly prestigious, even with its very high ranking.

It’s no different than a Colby, Wake Forest, Emory - some think yes, others no. There’s many high ranked colleges most people haven’t even heard of.

One thing I know for sure - prestige doesn’t matter once you step foot on campus.

Every year we read about miserable kids looking to leave.

They were miserable. They clearly didn’t choose the right school for them. They chose a rank - and ranks also change btw - hence Vandy whined at their lower rank, WUSTL is not a top 20, Wake barely is a top 50 and Northeastern and Tulane aren’t - even though both are frighteningly competitive admission wise.

I knew from our first visit, early on, my daughter would end up at College of Charleston. It ranked 16th of 17 she got into, well below the top LAC and top publics but guess what - she’s very happy. She’s in special Honors programs, has lots of enrichment and the size and environment (very urban but not NYU urban - it has a campus) are perfect for her.

Find the right school for the student, not the best name for mom to brag.

That should be your focus now - narrowing in on type of environment.

You’ll know in 18 months the ‘names’ that will accept her but you want the names to be at an environment she can excel.

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