finding a spikeAnswered
hi, i'm a current junior in HS and am wondering how i can determine my "spike" for college admissions. i'd like to major in linguistics, poli sci, or maybe both! tagged below are some of the schools i might apply to. my activities, courses and awards are as follows:
-coursework focused on humanities/social sciences: ap us gov, apush, lang, psych, apes, plan to take ap spanish, lit, comparative gov, compsci, macro as a senior
-created a mental health nonprofit. got $700 grant from a fellowship program, covering the cost of nonprofit registration, website creation, advertising, etc. Also hosting panels w other mental health advocates, mental health professionals, etc. Working on implementing a mental health curriculum at my HS and other local schools
-on national board of of a youth politics/voter registration org: doing social media outreach, phonebanking, helping set up college campus chapters of the org
-president of school Junior State of America (JSA) chapter, a politics club at my HS. selected to attend national summit w top 50 students in JSA-possibly considered prestigious? i also hold a regional leadership role that focuses on outreach and promoting diversity in the organization.
-national spanish exam: scored in 99th percentile and got "gold award" as a frosh and soph.
-speech and debate: i hold state titles (1st/2nd place) for politics-related debate and for a speech i wrote myself and performed
-editor for school paper and school magazine
-member of HS peer mentor team that promotes mental health
-member of HS band
i assume my spike should have something to do with the intersection of writing/language and political and social advocacy, but how can i tie my nonprofit into this? also which awards or activities are most impressive to highlight or focus on ? thanks so much!!!
Earn karma by helping others:
1 answer
Hi @zz2024!
Most of your activities (except for the last two) demonstrate a large spike in political science, followed by a smaller spike in linguistics.
Your nonprofit can also be tied into your spike because politics is basically a system of organization. One of the roles of politicians is to get funding for materializing their ideas and policies, something that you've demonstrated through the grant you got for your nonprofit ($700 is a humble start). Hosting panels with other mental health advocates shows your ability to coordinate with others to achieve a purpose. Self-initiative like creating a nonprofit is impressive; it will enhance your application.
The higher the level of an activity, the more impressive it is. Being on a national-level board will be more impressive than being the president of the politics club in your HS. By linguistics, are you referring to English/Spanish/both? The only Spanish-related thing you have is scoring in the 99th percentile on a national exam, so that doesn't seem much of a spike but you do have a spike in English.
Hope this helps!
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!
Thanks so much for replying! For clarification, I'm referring to both Spanish and English. I appreciate your insight!