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4 years ago
Admissions Advice

What extracurriculars or projects could I do that make me a stronger applicant in music and/or engineering? Internships?
Answered

I'm a sophomore in highschool and I'm very interested in music and engineering. My current extracurriculars are band/drumline, National Honors Society/volunteering, jazz band, and outside of school band (my band has music on Spotify and plays shows around town). As I said, I'm also interested in computer science and engineering. I'm currently taking AP Computer Science. What could I do to improve my current extracurricular activities and do need more? If I do, what are some strong ideas for extracurricular activities for music and engineering? I'm looking to get an internship this summer as well, how would I find one that would accept a high school student in the fields that I am interested in?

Additionally, I have a 3.85 unweighted gpa (4.45 weighted) and got a 1210 on my PSAT as a sophomore. I'm not sure how good of a score this is. Is this a good start? What can I do to ensure I am able to get at least a 1400 on the actual SAT and get into a school of a higher caliber? Thank you so much in advance!

internship
sophomore
majors
extracurriculars
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Accepted Answer
4 years ago

It sounds like your interests in music are pretty well covered, so I would say that maybe you would want to add some more engineering activities into your schedule (if you can accommodate them, of course)! Perhaps you may be interested in joining the robotics club or even endeavour to found a club of your own! If you know anybody with similar ambitions, especially if they are older, talk to them about what they did, or even talk to your counselor. I would definitely say that you have the perfect number of extracurriculars!

In regards to your question about the internship, I'm assuming it's for engineering, correct me if I'm wrong, you may want to start off with researching engineers or even businesses that use engineering. You may have to contact the owners of the businesses/or whoever is appropriate to contact. If emailing/talking with them, be sure to provide your grade and age, as some internships have age restrictions. Also, explain your goals for the future and how you think this internship will benefit you. Don't be afraid of rejection, you may have to reach out to many different people before you can get a yes!

On the note about your GPA and testing scores, you definitely are on the right track in regards to your GPA. I have not taken the PSAT, but the Prepscholar blog does categorize any score over 1180 for a Sophomore as excellent, so it sounds like you're excelling! Again, I am not fully qualified to answer this because I've never taken the SAT, but I have taken the ACT, so to prepare for the SAT, I would procure some practice test books and definitely study those! Good luck with everything!

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Duke University
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UCLA
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Your chancing factors
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
200
800

Extracurriculars

Low accuracy (4 of 18 factors)

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