u/Effective_Food_7515

Hi, I just started my junior year of high school, and quite frankly I am disgusted by my state’s education system. It’s abysmal, requiring massive policy upheavals. Nobody is given the opportunity to live up to their full potential. So, if possible, I’d like to do something to change it. The problem is, I’m a bit stumped because I feel absolutely powerless.

For more direct context, I live in New Mexico. It is one of (if not the) lowest ranked states education-wise in the country, and from what I’ve seen is only getting worse. I know that this is also largely due to poverty, but one can’t help but feel like schools are designed to nip attempts of escaping impoverishment in the bud. I, myself, work with a tutoring group to help serve elementary school students who are behind, but my impact is small and it’s hard to make progress when (and I can’t emphasize this enough) they’re missing YEARS of content. I’m very worried for what the future might hold if things continue to trend downwards , and the American public just gets dumber and dumber until we can’t function without the government’s oh-so-benevolent handholding.

That said, if anyone has experience with stuff like this or tips in general, I’d really appreciate it.

Also, I didn’t take too long to write this (it’s mostly just train of thought) so if you need some clarification on anything please ask. I could spiel for days.

Hello, I’m about to finish out my sophomore year as a low income high schooler in a rural state. My goal for pretty much my entire life has been to attend a prestigious university, and I’ve been working hard for as long as I can remember to do so. I’m particularly interested in medical research, so that’s what I’m building my college application to cater towards. However, I’ve found that no matter what I do, it’ll still pale in comparison others’. My school is subpar, I’m taking all of the AP and Honors classes that I can, but it’s still not a lot and my GPA has only been boosted to around 4.2 despite maintaining straight A’s, and I’m not feeling challenged. I’ve also won state science competitions, but because I’m from a sparsely populated and even less competitive area it really isn’t that impressive, and my school has no shot at going to nationals.

So, naturally, my train of thought jumped next to fun things I could work on outside of schoo. I noticed that many of the best college applications had published research and clinical hours within them, and that’s an idea I’m very interested in, which leads us to my big question: WHAT DO I DO??!??!????!

Would I be able to provide competent research all on my own, without equipment? I’ve thought it out, and it was a resounding “no” for any medical field. That aside, would there be any other fields that I could do good for?

I’ve also been thinking about passion projects like nonprofits, but I’m not sure how I’d get one off the ground, and I have nobody who would be willing to help me with it.

Overall, I just want some advice on how to make myself into someone who is able to compete with the kids who grew up surrounded by opportunities. Do I even have a shot in the first place, or should I keep truckin?