If you love physics, chances are that you love physics. We find that students with an interest in physics tend to be deeply passionate, curious, and driven. What they aren’t always doing automatically, though, is laying the groundwork for a successful college application experience. That’s where we can help.
Our students apply — and get into — the best schools for physics in the country. MIT, Stanford, the California Institute of Technology, Princeton, and Harvard, are all physics heavy hitters in our regular roster, but there are so many other exceptional places to study physics in the country that we support students in applying to. And for the strongest outcomes, we start early. In this post, we’re going to give you a peek at how we guide sophomores through crafting an extracurricular strategy that sets them up for success, leadership, and outstanding admissions outcomes.
The activities and extracurriculars you do, especially as a sophomore, are often overlooked as a crucial piece of strong application. STEM students, and especially physics kids, tend to focus on what they are doing academically, potentially to the point of ignoring the activities section of their application. This is not the way to win. Instead, you need to be even more intentional about how you spend your time outside of class to bolster your applications. This is how to do it.
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Below, we’ve broken the types of activities you should be doing down into four big ‘buckets’ that absolutely must be addressed. As a sophomore interested in physics, you need to be doing something for each of these categories. You’ll be investing different amounts of time into each, but they are all important to put some time into.
A PHYSICS-FOCUSED CLUB
The first thing on this list shouldn’t surprise you: you need to be part of a physics-focused club at school. Ideally, this would be focused in even further on a specific area of physics you are interested in, such as astronomy or astrophysics. If such a club exists at your school, join it immediately if you haven’t already. It’s critical that you be on a leadership trajectory for this club, too. We don’t expect you to attain this leadership role until junior or senior year, but your path towards it should start now.
If there is not a physics-focused club at your school, or the only physics club is focused on an area that you aren’t particularly interested in, this is an amazing opportunity to put your foot on the gas pedal and start something. Starting a club is possible — every club started somewhere and was started by someone — but it can also take time. If you begin the process of starting a club now, expect it to take six months to get to school approval. This may mean starting informally before getting school recognition, or it may mean waiting for a first meeting until you have all your ducks in a line. Either is totally fine, and we wouldn’t be shocked if the club isn’t official until your junior fall. The whole point is that you are not only the club founder, but also the club leader.
A GENERAL STEM CLUB
In addition to being part of a physics-focused club, we need you to be building a strong track record with a broader STEM club, with the goal of moving towards a leadership role. This may be a robotics club, a rocketry club, a Science Olympiad team, a Quiz Bowl, a STEM tutoring group, or anything else that puts you in the room with classmates from different fields and with different focuses. This provides a depth and a breadth of experience, and builds relationships that can support you through your other endeavors in high school.
As we’ve mentioned already, a goal for this club also needs to be leadership. You could become the club co-head or captain, or lead a group within the club, like the code squad on a robotics team. Don’t just be a member coasting along until senior year, though. Claim some space and work towards a big goal!
RESEARCH TOWARDS INTERNSHIP
As a sophomore, we know that you are young for an internship, but we also know that you are capable of a lot. To kick things off and put you in a position for an amazing internship junior or senior year, we recommend that you take on an independent research project with the goal of publication or presentation at a science fair or through a science competition. To do this, you want to treat yourself as a professional. You are capable of so much, and pushing yourself this early in high school will launch you towards a wildly successful high school experience and equally successful college application outcomes.
And if you do have an opportunity for an internship already, take it. Ideally, any internship as a sophomore would be at least two weeks long and include at least twenty in-person hours working as part of a small team on something relevant to your physics interests.
SOMETHING OUT OF LEFT FIELD BUT LONG-TERM
Okay, that title is a mouthful, but we wanted to be super specific. As a physics person, it’s really easy to get so focused on the subject that you risk becoming one-note. We want to see our students, especially as sophomores, developing a side of themselves that has nothing to do with physics but that informs your worldview and builds your character. The key is that you have to be doing it at a high level, even as only a sophomore. This could be a starting position on a varsity team, a penchant for winning county-wide baking competitions, a part-time job running a local tutoring business, or a passion for photography (with real film cameras, not only your phone). The point isn’t what you are doing here, except that it is not directly related to physics. The point is that you are excelling at something that you love that integrates another aspect of who you are into your application. By applying this lens on top of your physics passion, your application will have nuance that a straight physics application simply can’t. Also, it’s fun to do something fun.
As a sophomore, you have the opportunity to take bold actions leading to exciting impacts that roll out between now and the end of your senior year. We hope you will jump at this opportunity to make the most of the time that you have to deepen your passions while building your resume for the future. And, if you want an added boost, get in touch.
You are a strong, passionate, and driven student. We know college admissions. Let's work together.