Good Extracurriculars during International Vacation (TL;DR: read the first 3 sentences)Answered
I am traveling to China during my entire summer break to be with my family. Many of my teachers and friends have advised me to do something special while overseas to stand out in the college admissions process. However, I have no idea what to do.
- I've got the grades (GPA 4.0, class rank 1)
- AP classes (planning to take 15 out of the 19 offered at my school; this is literally the maximum I can take because of required elective and wellness credits, and also students aren't allowed to skip some basic non-AP classes)
- decently active (tennis team, 2nd singles)
- volunteer quite a bit at a local food bank.
- chess club
- Key Club (sophomore representative)
- honor society
- academic league
However, none of these really relate specifically to my dreams of majoring in computer science/engineering/software engineering in college. I was told that colleges look for specific activities that show your interest and commitment to your interests, and I do not believe I have done that. I have already taken AP Computer Science Principles, (AP Computer Science A is not offered at my school) and my teacher told me I have a knack for programming. To make things even more interesting, I've only coded random JavaScript projects to help me study or just for fun on code.org! (I don't have an actual laptop/PC to make big projects, just a Chromebook) However, I do know how to code in Python and am learning how to code websites, apps, and more through free resources on the internet.
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1 answer
That sounds so fun! You have a very strong academic profile, and I agree that the main thing you need now is a focused EC. I'm not super familiar with coding or computer science in general, but you could create a website with travel advice or a travel blog for your time in China. You could also create some sort of game that is focused/themed on your experience travelling or in China. It would be really easy to write about or photograph your travels; coding is a bit trickier. I don't have a whole lot of other ideas for you.
Just in general, you could start a coding or robotics club at your high school to show your interest in this area, assuming you don't already have these clubs at your school. My friend wants to be an engineer and she just founded a robotics club. It's a lot of planning and inventory but it doesn't seem like too much work to organize if you have a teacher sponsor to help you.
Sorry I can't help you very much, I hope this helps to some extent!
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No, you DID help a lot. Any advice is appreciated