u/perpetuallywater

basically the title!

i'm planning on applying to letters and science undeclared. since there are so many completely different departments merged into L&S, how are my ecs supposed to match up if AO's don't know which major i'm going for?

i currently do research, speech, a sport, journalism, advocacy work, instrument, etc (yeah kinda all over the place haha) with some state and national level awards. imo public health would match up most with my ecs since i do a lot of science/medicine/healthcare stuff combined with advocacy and law. i'm interested in the robinson life science, business, and entrepreneurship program at cal but i'm not sure i'm fully ready to commit to applying as a neuro major. would it still be okay if i went undeclared or would it hurt my chances of getting in since my ecs lack cohesion?

for context i'm a junior right now :)

demographics:

Asian, female, competitive bay area hs, upper middle class

major: public health/global health/health policy/sciences and business administration(?) - i'm still not sure what i want to do later in life so ideally i'd want to commit to a college that offers flexibility when changing majors (switch to bioengineering maybe??)

academics:

3.9 UW (upward trend) 4.7 W

uc gpa: 3.92 uw 4.3 w (some of my honors didn’t “count”)

6 honors from fresh/soph + 1 ap (euro, 5)

this year: ap calc bc, ap lang, apush, ap spanish lang, ap bio (hopefully 4-5s besides spanish!)

next year: ap stats, ap lit, ap spanish lit (?), ap chem, regular physics

1500 sat (retake, aiming for 1540+) 780 eng, 720 math :(

extracurriculars - kinda vague cuz i don't wanna get doxxed!! not sure how i'm gonna condense into 10 yet some overlap

1. speech and debate (4yrs) - middle school coach, speech captain, novice mentor, national/state/toc qualifier, 300+ hours volunteering
2. asdrp (3yrs) - (pending publish) cog sci research (possibly trying epidemiology as well?)
3. jv/varsity swimming + water polo (4yrs)
4. health justice internship - managing finances and outreach (2yrs)
5. board member (hella work) of a nonprofit (that my friends made) to expand menstrual access and increase awareness
6. piano (11 yrs) - playing for senior homes and community events
7. yearbook editor (2yrs)
8. planned parenthood volunteer and advocate (4 yrs)
9. lifeguard (4 yrs) during summer
10. domestic violence/teen dating violence youth leadership program (4 yrs) - organizing events, socials, advocacy work
11. president club that increases awareness abt domestic violence issues
12. co-president of a club that makes soaps and donates them to underserved communities
13. spartan races (4 yrs)
14. community emergency response team (i barely did this but it lwk kinda connects sooo)

this summer, i'm hoping to publish a children's book related to my intended major, get an internship advocating for reproductive health legislation, and publishing my psych research! (if i'm locked) i don't have any summer programs lined up or completed in the past

awards (not sure which 5 i'll use yet)

nsda academic all american (top 1% of members)

t50 in the country for speech

speech tournament of champions qualifier (top 0.04% i think?)

semi finalist at states for speech

mvp jv swimmer lmaooo

some random yearbook award

abrsm level 5 distinction award

community service award (for county)

possibly congressional bronze or silver award

spartan racing awards

maybe some asdrp award??

i got recognized by the mayor??

not really sure what do for awards lwk. hopefully i'll get ap scholar with distinction or billiteracy seal or idk smth else this year!!

bsfr i don't really know what i'm doing </3

Other t30s i'd apply to (outside of the ucs) would prob be stanford, rice, Amherst, jhu, brown, pomona, bu, emory, and georgetown, but i'm not sure where I should EA! While ik that ED yields better acceptances, I'm not ready to make a commitment to any college so I'll only EA and RD

title!

i'm considering applying to ASDRP for the fall session - i'll be a sophomore next year. i don't have any lab experience or notable science achievements, but i'm hoping to gain more experience. i'm interested in the intersection of medicine + law or business but i don't want to be a scientist or doctor or anything like that after college; probably corporate stuff related to medicine! i honestly don't care if i conduct true research, i just need something to pad my resume and show the areas that i'm interested in + have a more academic extracurricular. getting published would be a huge bonus :))

i've heard that they have a lot of trainings which make it unnecessarily time consuming? i live in the bay area but during rush our, it would take me like an hour to get to fremont so i'd most likely apply for online. i'm mainly interested in bio, cog sci, and environmental science!

if anybody has done it, i'd love to hear what you think of it!

title!

i'll be a rising sophomore and was wondering how doable apes would be. i've taken honors biology (pretty light ngl) and will be taking honors chem next year. i'm honestly not super concerned about credit or not, its more for "tell your story" kinda thing. i'm passionate about the intersection of science and policy, so my doubling up on science and social sciences i hope i'm able to kinda convey that! i think i want to major in health policy + biomedical engineering

i'll also be taking:

ap precalc

ap euro

english 10 honors

chemistry honors

spanish 3 honors

journalism 1

would adding apes to my schedule be a good idea? i'm also involved in a lot of ecs outside of school, so i'm not sure whether it would be a good idea for me or not. i'm hoping to take ap bio junior year and ap chem senior year (prob regular physics though).

my school is pretty strict on what aps sophomores can take. i may be able to take ap psych too! but it would either be apes or ap psych - leaning towards apes though; i can't take both since we have a max of 7 classes and i'm also playing 2 sports.

i have good grades but i need to study rly hard to get them :( would the workload be too much? i'm aiming for top ucs and other t30 schools! my school doesn't let us take ANY aps as a freshman so im pretty new to the process

congrats to everyone who finished their examsss btw!! :)

i'm so sorry for everyone who has seen this post already; i didn't get many helpful responses earlier so im trying again, and also included some things that i've just started doing in this post !!

for context i'm a junior right now :)

demographics:

Asian, female, competitive bay area hs, upper middle class

major: public health/global health/health policy (?) - pre law!! my parents aren't super supportive so ideally i'd want to commit to a college that offers flexibility when changing majors (switch to bioengineering maybe??)

academics:

3.9 UW (upward trend) 4.7 W

uc gpa: 3.92 uw 4.3 w (some of my honors didn’t “count”)

6 honors from fresh/soph + 1 ap (euro, 5)

this year: ap calc bc, ap lang, apush, ap spanish lang, ap bio (hopefully 4-5s besides spanish!)

next year: ap stats, ap lit, ap spanish lit (?), ap chem, regular physics

1500 sat (retake, aiming for 1540+) 780 eng, 720 math :(

extracurriculars - kinda vague cuz i don't wanna get doxxed!! not sure how i'm gonna condense into 10 yet some overlap

1. speech and debate (4yrs) - middle school coach, speech captain, novice mentor, national/state/toc qualifier, 300+ hours volunteering
2. asdrp (3yrs) - (pending publish) cog sci research (possibly trying epidemiology as well?)
3. jv/varsity swimming + water polo (4yrs)
4. health justice internship at hospital (2 yrs) - might get a lor from director
5. board member (hella work) of a nonprofit (that my friends made) to expand menstrual access and increase awareness
6. piano (11 yrs) - playing for senior homes and community events
7. yearbook editor (2yrs)
8. planned parenthood volunteer and advocate (4 yrs)
9. lifeguard (4 yrs) during summer
10. domestic violence/teen dating violence youth leadership program (4 yrs) - organizing events, socials, advocacy work
11. president club that increases awareness abt domestic violence issues
12. co-president of a club that makes soaps and donates them to underserved communities
13. spartan races (4 yrs)
14. community emergency response team (i barely did this but it lwk kinda connects sooo)

this summer, i'm hoping to publish a children's book related to my intended major, get an internship advocating for reproductive health legislation, and publishing my psych research! (if i'm locked) i don't have any summer programs lined up or completed in the past

awards (not sure which 5 i'll use yet)

nsda academic all american (top 1% of members)

t50 in the country for speech

speech tournament of champions qualifier (top 0.04% i think?)

semi finalist at states for speech

mvp jv swimmer lmaooo

some random yearbook award

abrsm level 5 distinction award

community service award (for county)

possibly congressional bronze or silver award

spartan racing awards

maybe some research award??

i got recognized by the mayor??

not really sure what do for awards lwk. hopefully i'll get ap scholar with distinction or billiteracy seal or idk smth else this year!!

bsfr i don't really know what i'm doing </3

Other t30s i'd apply to (outside of the ucs) would prob be stanford, rice, Amherst, jhu, brown, pomona, bu, emory, and georgetown, but i'm not sure where I should EA! While ik that ED yields better acceptances, I'm not ready to make a commitment to any college so I'll only EA and RD

basically the title!

this summer i will be devoting my time to community service (i lwk got rejected from all my summer programs ha...) and was wondering how prestigious this award would be on my application. it's obviously not a crazy national title award winning thing or anything crazy like that, but i would still assume it shows commitment and character right? i currently have some debate awards (like toc qual) and i'm working to get more but i definitely need some more awards to fill my resume. i'd appreciate hearing what other ppl have to say!! :)

i'd most likely grind for the bronze award as gold is insane idt i can do 400 hours of community service lol. i'm a freshman right now, so i'm hoping to get some more impressive awards as i progress through hs

basically the title!

this summer on devoting my time to community service and was wondering how prestigious this award would be on my application. it's obviously not a crazy national title award winning thing or anything crazy like that, but i would still assume it shows commitment and character right? i currently have some debate awards (toc qual) but i definitely need some more awards to fill my resume. i'd appreciate hearing what other ppl have to say!! :)

edit: i'm talking abt the bronze award, btw

i'm so sorry for everyone who has seen this post already; i didn't get any responses the first time so im trying again, and also included some things that i've just started doing in this post !!

for context i'm a junior right now :)

demographics:

Asian, female, competitive bay area hs, upper middle class

major: public health/global health/health policy (?) - pre law!!

academics:

3.9 UW (upward trend) 4.7 W

uc gpa: 3.92 uw 4.3 w (some of my honors didn’t “count”)

6 honors from fresh/soph + 1 ap (euro, 5)

this year: ap calc bc, ap lang, apush, ap spanish lang, ap bio (hopefully 5s besides spanish)

next year: ap stats, ap lit, ap spanish lit (?), ap chem, regular physics

1500 sat (retake, aiming for 1540+) 780 eng, 720 math :(

extracurriculars - kinda vague cuz i don't wanna get doxxed!! not sure how i'm gonna condense into 10 yet some overlap

1. speech and debate (4yrs) - middle school coach, speech captain, novice mentor, national/state/toc qualifier, 300+ hours volunteering
2. asdrp (3yrs) - (pending publish) cog sci research (possibly trying epidemiology as well?)
3. jv/varsity swimming + water polo (4yrs)
4. health justice internship at hospital (2 yrs) - might get a lor from director
5. board member (hella work) of a nonprofit (that my friends made) to expand menstrual access and increase awareness
6. piano (11 yrs) - playing for senior homes and community events
7. yearbook editor (2yrs)
8. planned parenthood volunteer and advocate (4 yrs)
9. lifeguard (4 yrs) during summer
10. domestic violence/teen dating violence youth leadership program (4 yrs) - organizing events, socials, advocacy work
11. president club that increases awareness abt domestic violence issues
12. co-president of a club that makes soaps and donates them to underserved communities
13. spartan races (4 yrs)
14. community emergency response team (i barely did this but it lwk kinda connects soo)

this summer, i'm hoping to publish a children's book related to my intended major, get an internship advocating for reproductive health legislation, and publishing my psych research! (if i'm locked) i don't have any summer programs lined up or completed in the past

awards (not sure which 5 i'll use yet)

nsda academic all american (top 1% of members)

t50 in the country for speech

speech tournament of champions qualifier (top 0.04% i think?)

semi finalist at states for speech

mvp jv swimmer lmaooo

some random yearbook award

abrsm level 5 distinction award

community service award (for county)

spartan racing awards

maybe some research award??

not really sure what do for awards lwk. hopefully i'll get ap scholar with distinction or billiteracy seal or idk smth else this year!!

bsfr i don't really know what i'm doing </3 currently writing this while crashing out over calc

Other t30s i'd apply to (outside of the ucs) would prob be stanford, rice, Amherst, jhu, brown, pomona, bu, emory, and georgetown, but i'm not sure where I should EA! While ik that ED yields better acceptances, I'm not ready to make a commitment to any college so I'll only EA

i'm so sorry i didn't get any responses the first time so im trying again, and also included some things that i've just started doing in this post !!

for context i'm a junior right now :)

demographics:

Asian, female, competitive bay area hs, upper middle class

major: public health/global health/public policy (?) - pre law!!

academics:

3.9 UW (upward trend) 4.7 W

uc gpa: 3.92 uw 4.3 w (some of my honors didn’t “count”)

6 honors from fresh/soph + 1 ap (euro, 5)

this year: ap calc bc, ap lang, apush, ap spanish lang, ap bio

next year: ap stats, ap lit, ap spanish lit (?), ap chem, regular physics

1500 sat (retake, aiming for 1540+) 780 eng, 720 math :(

extracurriculars - kinda vague cuz i don't wanna get doxxed!! not sure how i'm gonna condense into 10 yet some lwk overlap

1. speech and debate (4yrs) - middle school coach, speech captain, novice mentor, national/state/toc qualifier, 300+ hours volunteering
2. asdrp (3yrs) - (pending publish) cog sci research (possibly trying epidemiology as well?)
3. jv/varsity swimming + water polo (4yrs)
4. board member (hella work) of a nonprofit (that my friends made) to expand menstrual access and increase awareness
5. piano (11 yrs) - playing for senior homes and community events
6. yearbook editor (2yrs)
7. planned parenthood volunteer and advocate (4 yrs)
8. lifeguard (4 yrs) during summer
9. domestic violence/teen dating violence youth leadership program (4 yrs) - organizing events, socials, advocacy work
10. president of "me too" club that increases awareness abt domestic violence issues
11. co-president of a club that makes soaps and donates them to underserved communities
12. spartan races (4 yrs)

this summer, i'm hoping to publish a children's book related to my intended major, get an internship advocating for reproductive health legislation, and publishing my psych research! (if i'm locked)

awards in question:

nsda academic all american (top 1% of members)

t50 in the country for speech

speech tournament of champions qualifier (top 0.04% i think?)

semi finalist at states for speech

mvp jv swimmer lmaooo

yearbook award

abrsm level 6 distinction award

community service award (for county)

spartan racing awards

not really sure what do for awards lwk. hopefully i'll get ap scholar with distinction or billiteracy seal or idk smth else this year!!

bsfr i don't really know what i'm doing </3

for more context my dream school is ucla, but with my gpa i'm not sure i'll get in. the other t30s i'd apply to (outside of the ucs) would prob be stanford, rice, Amherst, jhu, brown, pomona, bu, emory, and georgetown

ap precalc

ap euro

spanish 3 honors

world lit honors (no ap English 😭 at my school)

chemistry honors

yearbook

how rigorous is this schedule?? my school rly limits sophomores but im trying my best to stay on the path to take 5ish aps junior year (most likely calc, bio, lang, apush, psych or Spanish lang)

i've spent a lot of time of my ecs but honestly i feel like none of them stand out in any crazy way unfortunately. i'm rly passionate about all of them and they've taken a crazy amount of time and effort already and now i'm honestly just lost for what i should do next.

i've just attached my entire app from chance me haha to provide more context!!

demographics:

indian, female, competitive bay area hs, upper middle class

major: public health/global health/public policy (?) - pre law!!

academics:

3.9 UW (upward trend) 4.7 W

6 honors from fresh/soph + 1 ap (euro, 5)

this year: ap calc bc, ap lang, apush, ap spanish lang, ap bio

next year: ap stats, ap lit, ap spanish lit (?), ap chem, regular physics

1500 sat (retake, aiming for 1540+) 780 eng, 720 math :(

extracurriculars - not sure how i'm gonna condense into 10 yet some lwk overlap

1. speech and debate (4yrs) - middle school coach, speech captain, novice mentor, national/state/toc qualifier, 300+ hours volunteering
2. asdrp (3yrs) - (pending publish) cog sci research (possibly trying epidemiology as well?)
3. jv/varsity swimming + water polo (4yrs)
4. board member (hella work) of a nonprofit (that my friends made) to expand menstrual access and increase awareness
5. piano (11 yrs) - playing for senior homes and community events
6. yearbook editor (2yrs)
7. planned parenthood volunteer and advocate (4 yrs)
8. lifeguard (4 yrs) during summer
9. domestic violence/teen dating violence youth leadership program (4 yrs) - organizing events, socials, advocacy work
10. president of "me too" club that increases awareness abt domestic violence issues
11. co-president of a club that makes soaps and donates them to underserved communities
12. spartan races (4 yrs)

this summer, i'm hoping to publish a children's book related to my intended major, get an internship advocating for reproductive health legislation, and publishing my psych research! (if i'm locked)

awards in question:

nsda academic all american (top 1% of members)

t50 in the country for speech

speech tournament of champions qualifier (top 0.04% i think?)

semi finalist at states for speech

mvp jv swimmer lmaooo

yearbook award

abrsm level 6 distinction award

community service award (for county)

spartan racing awards

i would have the presidential volunteer award if they didn't remove it :(

not really sure what do for awards lwk. hopefully i'll get ap scholar with distinction or billiteracy seal or idk smth else this year!!

besides the ivys, my other reaches would be the ucs, stanford, rice, Amherst, jhu, pomona, bu, emory, and georgetown!! :)

i'm so sorry i didn't get any responses the first time so im trying again, and also included some things that i've just started doing in this post !!

for context i'm a junior right now :)

demographics:

indian, female, competitive bay area hs, upper middle class

major: public health/global health/public policy (?) - pre law!!

academics:

3.9 UW (upward trend) 4.7 W

uc gpa: 3.92 uw 4.3 w (some of my honors didn’t “count”)

6 honors from fresh/soph + 1 ap (euro, 5)

this year: ap calc bc, ap lang, apush, ap spanish lang, ap bio

next year: ap stats, ap lit, ap spanish lit (?), ap chem, regular physics

1500 sat (retake, aiming for 1540+) 780 eng, 720 math :(

extracurriculars - kinda vague cuz i don't wanna get doxxed!! not sure how i'm gonna condense into 10 yet some lwk overlap

1. speech and debate (4yrs) - middle school coach, speech captain, novice mentor, national/state/toc qualifier, 300+ hours volunteering
2. asdrp (3yrs) - (pending publish) cog sci research (possibly trying epidemiology as well?)
3. jv/varsity swimming + water polo (4yrs)
4. board member (hella work) of a nonprofit (that my friends made) to expand menstrual access and increase awareness
5. piano (11 yrs) - playing for senior homes and community events
6. yearbook editor (2yrs)
7. planned parenthood volunteer and advocate (4 yrs)
8. lifeguard (4 yrs) during summer
9. domestic violence/teen dating violence youth leadership program (4 yrs) - organizing events, socials, advocacy work
10. president of "me too" club that increases awareness abt domestic violence issues
11. co-president of a club that makes soaps and donates them to underserved communities
12. spartan races (4 yrs)

this summer, i'm hoping to publish a children's book related to my intended major, get an internship advocating for reproductive health legislation, and publishing my psych research! (if i'm locked)

awards in question:

nsda academic all american (top 1% of members)

t50 in the country for speech

speech tournament of champions qualifier (top 0.04% i think?)

semi finalist at states for speech

mvp jv swimmer lmaooo

yearbook award

abrsm level 6 distinction award

community service award (for county)

spartan racing awards

not really sure what do for awards lwk. hopefully i'll get ap scholar with distinction or billiteracy seal or idk smth else this year!!

bsfr i don't really know what i'm doing </3

for more context my dream school is ucla, but with my gpa i'm not sure i'll get in. the other t30s i'd apply to (outside of the ucs) would prob be stanford, rice, Amherst, jhu, brown, pomona, bu, emory, and georgetown

basically the title!

I'll be a rising sophomore and I'm not sure if I should start grinding over summer or not. I got rejected from all my programs lmao so besides a few weeks of volunteering and sports practice, I'm lwk pretty free. I'll have finished alg2, but at my school its genuinely alg1 with a few extra concepts lol. Should I prioritize passion projects and stuff or just GRIND out the SAT so I can take it in august? Some of the schools I want to apply to require all scores so I don't wanna screw up completely lol. In the school year, I'll probably be pretty busy (sports, research, debate, music, volunteering on top of a pretty rigorous course load) but at the same time idk if I'm academically strong enough to even start preparing :(

Hi! Sorry not super biostatistics related but I couldn't get a response out of similar subs... For context in my 1st year of college pursuing a bachelors in health policy :) My goal is to go to law school afterwards and hopefully become a medical malpractice lawyer (or its adjacent). However, I'd love to hear what ppl a bachelors in health policy/public health/etc degrees are doing! Money IS a concern for me. I'm super lucky to be in a position where my parents will support me financially while I'm in school (and that would extend through law school as well). But after that, I'm honestly on my own haha and I need enough money to keep up with the kind of lifestyle I want to live. Any high paying corporate/tech/administrative/etc jobs that can come from just a bachelors in this field? I'm very passionate about advocacy and healthcare specifically, but if I had to sacrifice some of those passions in order to pay my bills, then I would :( Sorry for the rant haha but I'd love to hear!

Should I bother grinding for it? Since I haven't won any major competitive tourneys (qualed at state/toc but never broke :( ) , would this award somewhat compensate for college apps? I need like 200 more points, most of which I could probably get through service, but I'm not sure how prestigious it is as an award. It's supposedly top 1% but not sure if I should actively pursue it ykwm

Hi! After getting cooked at last chance this year lol, I really want to lock in for next year. I live in Norcal, and my team offers travel tourneys with bids but I've never gone to any (besides MLK, Berk, but those aren't rly travel cuz they're so close ykwm). Considering I do POI, Info, and OO, what travel tourneys should I consider going to that'll make me better and also offer bids? I was thinking abt La Costa and ASU but I'm not sure what else I should do lol