Extracurriculars for NYU?Answered
Hi! My name is Julie and I’m looking to apply to NYU. I’m a sophomore, so I have a lot of time to improve on certain aspects of my application. I’m looking for advice on how to make myself seem more impressive, so here are some of the things I’ve done so far:
1. I am currently the vice president for a non-profit organization that works to educate others on the importance of mental health education and advocacy. I work with the various teams, create social media posts, reach out to other organizations for collaborations, and have started working towards fundraising money. I also petition for environmental legislation to be passed in person and online, and I have hosted webinars that help others understand how to get involved, as well as educating others on current events. I’m active in my student government and I was a class officer in my freshman year. I also helped organize a voter registration drive for my county!
2. I do a lot of theater, and that’s been stunted by the pandemic, so I haven’t been able to do as much as I would like to, so I’m taking on more in that aspect. I usually get good roles (not leads, but not featured). I do theater at my school and local major theaters. I’m working to start the National Thespian Society back up at my school, and was wondering if it would be impressive to start that. I have done tech crew for 2 shows, and I’ve performed in 4. I also volunteer with a local theater to gain directing experience. I play four instruments, guitar, ukulele, piano, and trumpet, and actively take lessons in 2 of those. I also take vocal lessons and do dance.
3. Some extra stuff is that I know five languages, English, Spanish, Russian, German, and Italian, and I plan to get tutors to further my education. Are languages impressive to colleges? I’m thinking about starting an art magazine at my school because we have a PVA program, and the art would all be from women, and the profit from it would go to a charity. I’ve heard that passion projects are good, but I’m not sure if any of these really count as passion projects. I would just like to know how I can improve my extracurriculars to look better!! (Preferably in the artsy-political field cause I’m really interested in these types of things)
Besides that, I’m in the IB program, I’ve taken 2 APs this year (I transferred schools this year and my last one didn’t offer any honors/AP courses), I have a 3.8 GPA, and I’m class rank 70ish/586! Will it be impressive to colleges that I’m going to take 2 IB electives (theater & film), opposed to the recommended 1? But yeah if you have nay advice on how to look better for NYU I would really appreciate it!!! It’s my dream school, and I plan to apply ED1. If you’re currently in high school like me, pls tell me some things that your school does that I could start up at mine!! Or any advice on how to study for PSAT & SAT/helping my academic stats would be really appreciated! Thanks for reading :D
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3 answers
For it only being your sophomore year, that's impressive! Starting an ITS chapter at your school would definitely boost your resume, and would give you access to even more resume-boosters (and fun activities) such as Theaterfest. My schools doesn't follow IB, but going above and beyond always is more impressive.
To address number three, starting a magazine could be seen as a passion project, and would not only benefit your school but your chances as well. Also, my biggest academic piece of advice is to start studying for the PSAT and SAT early, it makes a world of difference. And if your scores come back and you're not happy, just remember that you can always retake them, and that schools are starting to put less emphasis on standardizes testing. Good luck!
Your extracurriculars are already very strong! Colleges absolutely LOVE to see you are involved in leadership roles, so the vice-president position is very impressive. Also, the fact that you know five languages (and your desire to further your fluency in them) will set you apart from other applicants. Your involvement in theater is also a nice touch, and it goes well with your interest in the arts.
However, since you want to improve your extracurriculars and have an interest in art/politics, I would highly recommend getting involved in some sort of political campaign. It's extremely easy to do so; political campaigns are almost always looking for volunteers! If you're interested, you can email the candidate of your choice (or go to their website, if they have one) and inquire about volunteer opportunities. But since your extracurriculars are already extremely strong, this isn't necessary.
GPA-wise, colleges take into account whether or not your schools offer AP and honors courses (so your previous school won't harm your chances). Anyway, a 3.8 unweighted GPA is very good. The two IB electives you are taking will impress colleges because IBs are high-level classes.
Hope this helped a bit :)
All of your extracurriculars will look very impressive to colleges! I think that the only improvement you need is to tie them together into one cohesive academic and professional direction, which you could build upon as you progress through high school. For example, you could continue to participate in ECs which combine your interests in the arts, advocacy, and politics, and then you could write an essay about a career interest in political marketing.
Your ultimate goal with your ECs should be to develop a "spike," or a demonstrated passion for a specific area. This CollegeVine blog post explains spikes in more detail. Hope this helps!
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Awesome!! Thanks so much I didn’t even think about political campaigns! That would really help to boost my experience in political/government things AND would look really cool! Thanks so much, this did help!!