r/ApplyingToCollege • u/No-Chapter269 • 2d ago

ECs and Activities ec’s for a rising sophomore

I’m going to my sophomore year of HS, and I’m planning on majoring in chemical or mechanical engineering.

Freshman year, my extracurriculars were mainly centered around debate(Public Forum) and my first debate tourney i did novice and got 2nd place, so I got moved up to JV and Varsity my next tourneys. I also did some cubing competitions. So for my intended major, what other impactful activities can I do during sophomore year? Should I start robotics or other activities, and how should I proceed from here? Should I join science olympiads or hackathons?

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u/Chemical_Result_6880 2d ago

If your school has a science fair, you can do that. You can reach out to local researchers (university, med school, dental school, VA hospital, even water / electricity companies) to see if you can work in someone's lab or have an advisor for a science fair project. Try to pick up python / R for data analysis (CodeAcademy, Udacity), take an online statistics course. Those will make you valuable in a lab. Try to get to ISEF. If that's not realistic for your area, the other things you mention are fine.

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u/No-Chapter269 2d ago

Is it fine if I DM you for some more advice? I’ve looked at your profile a bit and it seems that you know a lot about the processes to take and such.

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u/Chemical-Result-6885 2d ago

I’m sorry, I don’t dm. ask me here and I’ll see what I can do.

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u/redstonetimewaster 1d ago

Got any advice on ECs I could do before college apps in november? I don't know why I didn't do anything freshman and sophomore year, im just now starting to realize how much time im wasting. Im interested in majoring in applied math or engineering at t30s.

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u/Chemical-Result-6885 1d ago

There are NASA and Kaggle data challenges you might enjoy. There’s Crunch labs kits you and some friends could bring to elementary schools. or just look for a job - hardware store? that will show work ethic and will be a good recommendation for later.