Hey y’all!
So today I wanted to share the tips that got me through the 24-25 school year as a junior who took 8 AP classes, was involved in an ongoing research project presenting at GARSEF, involved in both HOSA and DECA to the international level, while also studying for officer applications, interviews, applying and writing a ton of essays to several summer programs, and most importantly, studying for the SAT and ACT.
Junior year is definitely a lot when considering the numerous responsibilities and tasks you have to manage, which makes it easy to lose grip of things quickly. Now, I’m going to talk about some of the niche things that helped me stay on track and ahead of the game, which prepared me to keep my summer productive and relaxed.
For context, I took AP Biology, AP Physics 2, AP Research, AP Language & Comp., AP Spanish 4, AP Statistics, AP US History, and AP Comp Sci A. I definitely didn’t have the best teachers for these classes aside from AP Research and AP Lang, but there was a ton of work for both of these subjects. The summer before junior year I studied for the harder classes that I knew the teachers wouldn’t teach or I would struggle with. I studied unit 1: chemistry of life for AP biology since I’m doing pre-med and I knew I should do well in the class and on the exam, as well as AP Physics 2. I also studied AP stats since math is one of my weaker subjects. I used Khan Academy (an AMAZING resource for AP Biology and Stats), Fiveable, and Knowt. These resources set me up for the fast-paced curriculum that my teachers for these subjects set up in my school, so I definitely recommend being prepared ahead of time before the school year begins!
Aside from courses, I was also involved in research, which I cold-emailed over 50+ professors from in-state institutions over the summer to assist me with the research process, but was unable to get a confirmed mentor. Instead, I had to rely on my own system of coming up with ideas, finding data, and using the tools that I had at the time to help me turn this into a project that I could work on throughout the year without it becoming an obstacle with my schoolwork and clubs. I did the bulk of the research, such as creating a research plan, understanding what kind of data I need to use, and what experiments I should develop in order to attain proper results, over the summer and throughout the months of August and September before schoolwork became too hectic.
I was also heavily involved in HOSA, which I began my project for my event April of my sophomore year knowing that HOSA takes up a lot of my time during the school year. I was also in DECA, which for me was difficult to balance since I did a written event so I had to create a 20 page portfolio detailing activities and formatting it with the rules, which I can make a more detailed post on later regarding these club events!
One of the main things that I wish I handled better during junior year was the summer programs I applied for. I applied to several top summer programs, with acceptance rates for all programs being less than 10%-15%, making it difficult to get into the program and also spend hours a week crafting the essays and filling out the applications. I thik it’s super important to think of these summer programs as a well-balanced college list; you’ll want to apply to programs that you think are a reach, like CMU SAMS, MITES, Simons Summer Research at Stony Brook, NDLS, SSP, and apply to programs that are targets, like NYU G-STEM, HSRA, UCSD BOAT programs, and more, as these have acceptance rates that are a bit higher. Lastly, apply to some safeties, which I am so glad I did since it was one of the internships I got this summer that I thought I wouldn’t get. Apply to local internships, programs, etc, and reach out to local universities, courtrooms/courthouses, and businesses that you think fit best with your major, and see if they have any open positions for you! I recommend finding these local opportunities during your winter break, and actually emailing them during spring break so that you get it out of the way not too early but before exam season begins.
Another tip: COLD EMAILING is your best friend! I know how stressful and frustrating it can be, especially with the amount of emails sent and no responses, but I do recommend that if there are no opportunities for joining labs in your area, try emailing professors in nearby universities asking if you could somehow participate in their lab. It’s a tedious process, but look into the details of each professor;s research, and tell them how it appeals to you. Ask them questions about their research, such as why they used this specific strand of DNA or why they chose to research this particular part of the field. You can also link brief documents of your own work to show your expertise as a high-school student in their field of study, which allows you to stand out more. For me, I emailed about 30 professors using this approach, but being in an area where there are research opportunities that you have to spend a couple grand on was not worth my time or my parent’s money, so I decided to email professors asking for a mentorship opportunity. I’ve emailed over 165 professors regarding my research project, and I’ve gotten several responses but none that seemed to go through. Finally, in July I got the opportunity to work with someone from the Immunobiology department at Yale University! So, my piece of advice is DON’T GIVE UP, because it’s going to be so worth it in the end!
These are my tips to handle extracurricular activities during your junior year, and the next post will be tips on how to handle classes, homework, and a couple of my favorite resources! Stay tuned for more!