Any ECA suggestion before NovemberAnswered
Hi. I am an American citizen and a rising senior who is about to apply for college in USA. Currently I am thinking mostly CS and engineering majors, good at programming and making retro and indie games, and am hoping to have a decent chance in ED for Cornell, at least according to what people have been telling me. I have a good gpa, good projected score for sat by the end of this month, and strong essay according to my advisor, along with a solid list of ECAs. However, due to difficulties faced by my family, lots of activities in school as well as the fact that my school doesn’t offer AP courses… the first and only time I took the AP test I scored 4 in Computer Science A, 3 in Physics 1, and 2 with subscore of 3 in AB in Calculus BC. Because of this, my application lacks a “challenging yourself” edge over other applicants and also because of Indian Board not being recognized often by admission committee. With this is mind, does anyone have any idea how I could improve my application regarding this? Any suggestions for an ECA, competition, quiz, etc. that can be done before November that can really boost my chances to the best I could make them? Thanks :)
P.S. is there a way of showing your digital portfolio to colleges, such as programs and games you have developed? Will they even look at it? Is it worth putting in the application?
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1 answer
I'm a little confused about a few things in your question. First of all I'm assuming that when you say ECA you mean extracurricular activities and not educational credential assessment or something else? I'm also not sure what you mean by "Indian Board" and it not being recognized. Last, you mention something about 'lots of activities in school' - I'm wondering if you meant to say that lots of activities were cancelled due to COVID? Or maybe your school doesn't offer so many activities?
I wouldn't worry about your school not offering AP courses. As long as your guidance counselor explains this on your school report and as long as you took the most difficult courses your high school offers and did well in them, you should still be in good standing. That said, I definitely wouldn't submit any self-studied AP test scores in the 1-3 range. A 4 is probably fine to submit.
Regarding extracurriculars, I'd recommend anything related to your primary interest areas! Examples include joining or starting a robotics club, entering a robotics competition, doing competitive coding or cyberpatriot competitions, entering or organizing a hackathon, creating a gaming website where people can play the games you develop, designing an app and publishing it on the app store, etc. The more people who visit your website, download your app, or interact with your games, the more impressive these activities will appear. For specific club, competition, and program ideas, check out our relevant blog posts here: https://blog.collegevine.com/extracurriculars-for-high-schoolers-interested-in-studying-engineering/
https://blog.collegevine.com/extracurriculars-for-aspiring-computer-science-majors/.
Some engineering schools may ask you to submit a portfolio for certain majors, but most likely will not. Some schools may allow you to submit a resume, and you could include links to your resources there, if you wish. You could also email admissions offices directly and ask if they'd include some specific information in your file. That said, these methods aren't likely particularly effective ways to influence your admissions decisions. The more standard way to go about this is just to describe your activities in an impressive way in your CommonApp activities list and in your college essays.
Best of luck!
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