Extracurricular Advice Answered
I'm aiming for the Ivy League and planning to major in biotechnology, but another one of my passions (and my main focus in extracurriculars) is visual art. I've been in both science inspired competitions as well as very difficult international ones, but I'm not sure which I should focus on in applications. I know it would be good to tie it into my major but creating a sense of impressiveness is important too and I don't know where to put my focus.
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2 answers
I would actually disagree. Unless you are putting you are passionate about 10 plus things to the point you can't accomplish anything notable in any due to time I would say only having one type of EC is a downside. Leadership and tangible rewards are ideal for ivys but if you focus you application on one thing/field admissions counselors only get a one dimensional view of your interests and what matters to you. If time is a problem I would first focus on what is in the field of your intended major and then do some things of a smaller caliber in visual arts. If you find a random club that seems interesting along the way I would sign up to. The important thing to them is the quality of the EC and that you show initiative.
If you have these 2 passions I would focus less on the Ivy League exclusively and research universities that have both amazing STEM and Arts programs.
A few come to mind.
You can apply to Brown University and RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and get a dual degree.
You can also apply to Carnegie Mellon's 2 schools, the Mellon College of Science and the School of Fine Arts, and get 2 degrees.
And I read somewhere that Stanford had various dual degree programs which allow you to get 2 degrees with 225 college credits, which is like 45 more than the standard BA/ or BS degree.
I think you can also Dual degree at JHU, but their Biotech program I believe is a Masters Degree program.
I'm not sure whether the Art passion turns into a second career or you incorporate that into your career in BioTech but if you want to pursue both, you shouldn't limit yourself.
My dad did a dual degree in Architecture and Finance. He said it was a lot of work would have done 1 degree at a time if he had to do it all over because both degrees are very difficult and his GPA suffered and so did his social life. Just some things to think about before applying to college. If you load your plate too high you might suffer some consequences.
Good Luck.
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