High school students worry about competitive college applications
11 posts in the last 60 days, all from r/ApplyingToCollege.
“I keep seeing high school students who have supposedly founded companies, raised thousands of dollars, published advanced research, started nonprofits, and somehow managed a huge list of community activities alongside demanding classes. Do people really do all this? Where do…”
“I go to a VERY, VERY competitive school where everyone did research. Legit everyone did some research competition, and as someone with no legitimate research (I did ThinkNeuro + independent wet lab research but uh its not original and no paper) and idk if I should try to get one…”
“so im a engineering applicant, and all these dudes around me have published papers in IEEE conferences and journals (actually idk abt journals i kind of forgot). like i mean litearlly all of them. am i fried 😭 . my only research experience is doing some sci fair projects where…”
Students at competitive high schools feel pressure to achieve exceptional academic and extracurricular profiles to be successful in the college application process. They are concerned about how their achievements compare to peers and whether factors like hometown or course rigor will negatively impact their chances.
SOURCES (11)
“I keep seeing high school students who have supposedly founded companies, raised thousands of dollars, published advanced research, started nonprofits, and somehow managed a huge list of community activities alongside demanding classes. Do people really do all this? Where do they find the time? I’m…”
“I go to a VERY, VERY competitive school where everyone did research. Legit everyone did some research competition, and as someone with no legitimate research (I did ThinkNeuro + independent wet lab research but uh its not original and no paper) and idk if I should try to get one rn. Idk if I’ll be able to put it on my application but I can put it in additional info?? Also I’m looking to become a biology (pre-med track) or environmental science route submitted by /u/FlurryWasTaken [li”
“Hello! Im a rising senior applying to top universities for computer/software engineering and I'm not sure if my application is strong enough to get in anywhere. I completed research over the summer with a professor from a T30 university in the Computer Science department. They thought me CS topics and we did live programming lessons. Alongside, we built a game together in terminal that was sort of a 20 questions esc game based on capturing user input and translating it to an answer. I also c”
“so im a engineering applicant, and all these dudes around me have published papers in IEEE conferences and journals (actually idk abt journals i kind of forgot). like i mean litearlly all of them. am i fried 😭 . my only research experience is doing some sci fair projects where i won some shit awards and also helping a professor as an assistant doing some data analysis stuff( basic stuff) for context i go to a high school in san fransisco (not super comp, but the top group of students is prety c”
“I wanted to know what weightage do ec's hold for applications? who would have the upper hand between a person having great academics and average ec's against someone with average academics and great ec's. I have 4.0 UW gpa, am gonna give the sat, act, psat all within next 8 months (practice score for SAT-1530, ACT-35), i have shifted to US in grade 11 and have taken 4 AP's this year, next year will take 6-7 more, also doing 3-4 DE courses (also got a 96% in my grade 10), however”
“so first off, can someone explain the massive hype around high school research? i'm a sophomore and it feels like everyone and their mom is suddenly writing a research paper. i get that for stem, making it to isef, sts, or yau awards makes your application look good, but what about for non-stem majors? i'm an econ/public policy/history applicant, and i wanted to know how aos actually view humanities and social science research. does it carry real weight, or is it just seen as fluff compa”
“I'm have lots of experience in Math and Computer Science. I've taken Calculus 3 and gotten a B+ and an A in Psychology at my local community college. I also have 3 years teaching math K-12, and training people to work as teachers. I've taken a beginning course in Computer Science at my local community college. I'm wondering if I should contact my old professors about doing research projects. I'm not interested in them, and if they don't significantly boost my chances of g”
“Many videos, whether on Instagram or YouTube, say that Research under a professor or PI is something that “guarantees” or at the very least greatly boosts your chances at a college, but how does it do that? Apart from showing academic maturity, how can (or rather how should) research be framed in a way that appeals to admissions officers? submitted by /u/OverAd2253 [link] [comments]”
“title. every year of high school i've been maxing out my schedule, but senior year i dropped to just 4 aps in my schedule because i wanted to focus on my college apps. other people i know are taking like 7 aps senior year. i think i've taken about 15 aps in high school (school offers like 30), whereas other people might have like 18 to 20 aps on their app. will this affect my course rigor rating? submitted by /u/Natural_Regular7471 [link] [comments]”
“so I wanted to join a club that was getting created and I filled out the application form, and usually if your application was good enough you would get an interview. However, the founders (pres and vice presidents) were my friends, and I was really passionate about this topic, so they directly accepted me without an interview. When I was there, I helped filled out the club documents for my respective position and the club ended up getting accepted. However, someone pitched the idea that since I”