what extracurriculars and things can I do to apply for US universities

I'm in Year 12 and hoping to apply to a couple of Ivy League schools. My extracurriculars aren't very strong—while some show leadership skills, not all do, and I only have a couple of awards. I would like to eventually pursue computer science, and I'm currently taking Physics, Math, and I.T. at A-level. Could you please suggest some ideas for activities or competitions I could get involved in that would help strengthen my application and stand out, particularly in areas related to computer science or STEM? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Reply 1

fvc123

Hey there, theres quite a few things you can do to strengthen your application, if you can, take the SAT as this can be really I think registration has closed for October but November should still be open. In terms of extra-curriculars try take an EPQ if your school offers one, Ivy league universities like students who do research in high school. If your school participates defo make sure to take part in the Senior UK Maths challenge and try to get silver or gold, theres also the Bebras Computing challenge coming up in soon so do try to do well in that.

Outside of those the Rise for the world challenge is a great idea as this can help you to start up a passion project which is great for the Ivies, deadline is in January though so do make sure to get started ASAP. If you're applying next year you could start looking into summer programs and internships, particularly selecitive ones for Maths and Computer Science, Stanford, MIT and Harvard offer several of these. If you havent already its good to find a spike or niche in computer science, e.g. Quantum computing, ML, Cloud Computing etc so you can really specialise in one of these potentially making apps or basing some larger project around one of these. I'll have a look for links to a few of these things and send them here when I do.

Reply 2

CapsCodes234

Original post by fvc123

Hey there, theres quite a few things you can do to strengthen your application, if you can, take the SAT as this can be really I think registration has closed for October but November should still be open. In terms of extra-curriculars try take an EPQ if your school offers one, Ivy league universities like students who do research in high school. If your school participates defo make sure to take part in the Senior UK Maths challenge and try to get silver or gold, theres also the Bebras Computing challenge coming up in soon so do try to do well in that.
Outside of those the Rise for the world challenge is a great idea as this can help you to start up a passion project which is great for the Ivies, deadline is in January though so do make sure to get started ASAP. If you're applying next year you could start looking into summer programs and internships, particularly selecitive ones for Maths and Computer Science, Stanford, MIT and Harvard offer several of these. If you havent already its good to find a spike or niche in computer science, e.g. Quantum computing, ML, Cloud Computing etc so you can really specialise in one of these potentially making apps or basing some larger project around one of these. I'll have a look for links to a few of these things and send them here when I do.

Thanks fvc123. Buhh, I am outside the US & UK, so how would I be able to participate in the program you talked about, and please can you give some examples of the summer programs at the Ivies and MIT, and do they offer remote programs as well?
Well, I will be waiting for those links, thanks again.

Reply 3

fvc123

These are all open to int'l students outside the US and UK, pre-college programs can be quite expensive though, so I'd avoid those if money is a problem. The Rise challenge and Tedi's upcoming engineering program though are free to participate in.
Pre-college programs:
https://sce.cornell.edu/precollege
https://summer.harvard.edu/high-school-programs/

Competitions & career related stuff:
https://www.risefortheworld.org/about-rise/
https://tedi-london.ac.uk/collaborate/thinking-ahead-taster-programme/

If you're still interested in applying to Ivies for computer science you will need some sort of spike, think competitions or research. If there are any sort of robotics, computing or math Olympiads going on in your country make sure to try to really well in one or two of those, if you can get an internship at a tech company or research placement at a local institution that could also be something to look into. Hope this helps!

If you have any more questions feel free to ask!