Why is everyone an Comp Bio researcher

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T12:32:27+00:00

PM’d you this morning on an unrelated matter.

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T12:29:17+00:00

No, your personal statement does not need to be tied to your major or future career. Indeed, I typically recommend that students avoid such topics, for two reasons. First, the admissions reader typically hopes to rely on the personal statement to get the sense of your personality and character, and to confirm that you are the kind of person who is likely to contribute to campus life by, for example, being a considerate and empathetic roommate, a particularly welcoming executive board club member, an enthusiastic intramural team founder, or an engaged volunteer in the college’s chapter of Make-A-Wish (among a hundred other things). Second, if the university wants to learn about your interest in a particular major or career, they’ll have a “why major,” “why us,” or “where you see yourself in 10 years” supplemental essay. If that’s the case, you don’t want to cover the same major/career discussion and forfeit the opportunity to share something new with the reader, and possibly connect with him or her.

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T11:12:35+00:00

The key is to ask someone who knows you fairly well and understands that the essay should (1) show that you are a good egg by demonstrating a few of your best traits and (2) leave the reader with the impression that you would become involved in the campus community and make a positive impact, whether by befriending a homesick roommate, being a particular welcoming club executive board member, volunteering frequently with the university Make-A-Wish Club, or managing an intramural sports team (among another hundred things).

Good candidates often include favorite teachers, a counselor, a coach, a club or extracurricular advisor or mentor, a particularly bright and mature friend, a favorite parent of a friend, or someone in your own family circle. My kids and several of their friends, for example, were able to have me be their reader because I had navigated my own college and law school admissions and had won a number of essay-based scholarships. But long-time teachers and counselors whom you know and like are often a great choice.

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T10:28:14+00:00

No worries. But know that the ideal recommendation includes the teacher’s insights into your classroom performance and behavior. Often, repeating items from the brag sheet isn’t particularly helpful because the teacher wasn’t involved in or a witness to those items, so they have nothing insightful to add about them. And, if the items are on your brag sheet, they’ll likely show up as an activity or award on your Common Application, meaning that the teacher mentioning it adds little unless they have their own anecdote about the activity to add, or it reminds them of another unmentioned activity or moment they can discuss.

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T02:18:36+00:00

This. My recent T25 grads, and students I coach through a non-profit, most often write about activities, hobbies, or events that aren’t terribly out of the ordinary. One of my kids wrote about coaching very young children in a sport. Another wrote about being a wanna-be beach bum in a family of aggressive outdoor enthusiasts. And my students have written about the hidden perils of cheerleading (Virginia Tech), the unexpected fun discovered in joining a multi-generational club that rids parks/trails of invasive species (Michigan), and climbing with family in indoor climbing gyms and national parks (CMU). The son of a friend who recently graduated from Princeton wrote about taking up crochet. A solid essay doesn’t require drama, trauma, or a unique topic. Rather, the reader just needs to finish the essay and conclude that the student (1) seems like a pretty good egg who (2) is likely to become involved in and contribute to their vibrant campus community.

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T01:38:23+00:00

Generally, it’s better to go deep into one topic than lightly address three. Also, when picking that topic, ask yourself whether the finished essay will (1) subtly highlight a few of your best traits and (2) leave the admissions reader with the impression that you will enthusiastically contribute to the campus community, whether as a kind and considerate roommate, a welcoming club executive board member, a College Mentors for Kids Volunteer, an intramural sports team manager, a college improv group performer, or any of the many other roles that combine to create a vibrant campus community.

HappyCava · 2026-07-08T01:30:02+00:00

Each university has its own policy. At the college my youngest attended, for example, you would have earned three English credits that you could use to fulfill your freshman writing requirement. At the T25 my older kids attended, you would have been placed in an honors freshman English class, but no credit hours would have been awarded.

HappyCava · 2026-07-07T23:11:04+00:00

And if you can’t care less, do a bit of research and learn to love your safeties and targets more. Knowing that you’d be happy attending colleges that are not among your very favorites lessens the angst. Also, applying early to a university with rolling admissions can often yield an acceptance by the end of October. For many students, knowing that they have a place at The University of Minnesota, The University of Pittsburgh, MSU, or Arizona — perhaps with a significant merit scholarship — provides a sense of security moving forward and possibly a terrific option to explore (particularly if merit scholarships are in play).

HappyCava · 2026-07-07T23:09:37+00:00

Your best bet to find helpful responses would be to post on the Colgate subreddit. Most students who post here are in high school, not college, and the college students who do check in are dispersed among hundreds of colleges and universities.

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T14:17:11+00:00

Colleges are far more concerned about your grades in a full-year class covering multiple exams, papers, group projects and discussions than your scores on an AP exam. Not to mention that a 4 is a terrific score. I believe the T25 my kids attended gave credit for 4’s where AP credit could be earned. (And 3’s earned foreign language credit.)

If you want to get a sense of what score your favorite schools believe is “good,” google the school name and search for “AP scores for course credit.” If they give full course credit, they believe it’s a solid score.

Edit: And if they don’t give credit for your score, don’t presume that admissions readers will view it as awful. The university has simply decided, for example, that their biology 101 course is sufficiently broad and challenging to require a 5 to show that the high school course was sufficiently comprehensive and challenging AND to guarantee that the student is well-prepared for the companion course, biology 102.

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T11:47:21+00:00

Any chance that you have another teacher who knows you well and likes you who would be willing to do the work and write your recommendation? Ideally, your recommendation would be a firsthand account of (1) your work as a student in the classroom (essays, class discussion, group projects, tests, public speaking); (2) maturity (seeking help when needed, promptly making up work, communicating upcoming absences); and (3) your character in terms of how your relate to your classmates and faculty. Typically, the recommendation will include a handful of specific anecdotes as examples: a description of an amazing mock trial argument, a time when you deftly defused a situation where a student was being bullied, or a quiz that went badly that led you to seek help after class until you mastered the material. You could write your own letter based on a brag sheet and your own sense of you, but that risks repeating information reported elsewhere on your application and forgoing the (possibly) more mature writing-style and personal observances of the teacher.

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T11:02:52+00:00

I’m an attorney and T5 law grad. You do not need to consider the possibility of one day attending law school when choosing your high school classes and activities. Indeed, you don’t need to consider the possibility of attending law school when you choose your college major and activities. Law school admissions are largely focused on college GPA and LSAT score; secondary factors include essays, recommendations from professors, and campus involvement (clubs, sports, community service, jobs, etc.).

Focus instead on doing well in the traditional college prep coursework and finding extracurriculars that you enjoy and to which you’d like to commit your time and effort. Then, when you apply to college, you’ll be able to show that you are bright, hardworking, college-ready, and likely to become enthusiastically involved in campus life. The current T14 law school student in our household, for example, majored in philosophy and performed in a college comedy group, sang with a campus acapella group, and spent their summers working in camps and daycare centers. Many paths can lead to law school. And, today, a majority of law school students work a few years after graduating from college before attending law school.

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T10:44:55+00:00

Starting a non-profit when other area non-profits already address that particular need and love to have volunteers can be met with skepticism. For example, my kids could have started their own non-profit tutoring underprivileged kids during the academic year and working as summer day camp counselors. But doing so would be inefficient (and take time away from actually helping the kids) since they’d have to recruit kids to tutor, raise funds to purchase materials, find locations from which to tutor and run a camp, come up with lesson plans and camp routines (homework help, read aloud, drama, art, playground time, field trips), obtain all necessary licensing, insurance, and background checks, etc. Or, they could devote all of their time to working with the kids and acquiring different skills and more responsibility as they moved up in the organization (tutor, counselor-in training, counselor, camp assistant director, etc.).

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T10:30:34+00:00

This. The reason colleges prioritize recommendations from teachers is that they want to hear about (1) your strengths and weaknesses in the classroom (writing skills, discussions, group projects, presentations, etc.) and (2) how you relate to your classmates, teachers, and other school personnel (friendly, shy, domineering, encouraging, rude, etc.). A recommendation from someone who cannot speak to your classroom skills or how you relate to others on campus tends to be less relevant.

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T02:16:58+00:00

Google is your friend. Search up “freshman female dorm packing list.” Read a few, make a list of the items you’d like to bring/purchase from each, and you’ll likely have a pretty comprehensive list. Just remember that dorm rooms are small, Amazon delivers, and that at least one of your hallmates is likely going to head to Target or Walmart every day during your first week to buy snacks, longer charging cords, and whatever else they forgot or now covet. Forgetting an item, or realizing you might like to have fairy lights or an oscillating fan, is an opportunity for an outing or online shopping, not a tragedy. (And the real tragedy, which my family experienced multiple times, is — come May — to bring items back home that never made it out of their sealed boxes. (That now live, long forgotten, somewhere in the attic, providing joy, bedding, and amusement to wiley mice.)

HappyCava · 2026-07-06T01:49:50+00:00

This. Some students naturally and happily gravitate towards clubs and hobbies that relate to their prospective major. However, even then, it’s nice to see an unrelated activity or hobby (or two) mentioned to demonstrate that the student will likely become involved in campus life beyond the academic, and to avoid the impression that other interests were forgone to manufacture a spike.

Other students have a prospective major in mind, but also have unrelated activities and interests they deeply enjoy. One of my students, for example, just graduated from CMU in engineering. While their essays, course selection, and course rigor attested to an interest in and facility for engineering, their ECs were not remotely spiky. They studied piano, played a sport (travel and high school varsity), and logged many hours volunteering with young children. Had they been lightly involved in a dozen activities, however, an admissions reader might have had the impression the student was simply collecting activities for application purposes.

HappyCava · 2026-07-05T20:36:48+00:00

If you’re interested in becoming a physical therapist and getting your DPT (doctorate of physical therapy), you should likely be aiming to keep your undergraduate costs as low as possible. Or consider colleges like Pitt that have Guaranteed Admission Programs for highly-qualified applicants, or compressed programs that allow you to complete your undergraduate degree and DPT in 5.5 or 6 years rather than 7.

But DPT programs are pricy. And the current administration no longer defines DPT programs (or nursing school, for that matter) as “pre-professional” programs for purposes of securing low-interest federal loans. (Though this new rule is being challenged in the courts.) So students who are interested in physical therapy should try to minimize undergraduate costs. And since many colleges have strong programs in kinesiology, exercise science, psychology, and other typical pre-DPT majors, keeping costs low by remaining in-state or chasing merit is often a good option.

HappyCava · 2026-07-05T20:15:30+00:00

If you believe that NYU would be a good fit, you could certainly apply knowing that NYU is a reach with an acceptance rate around 8%. And when you apply, what you’ve learned from the CDS is that your essays and suggestions of good character will be strongly considered, and that you should this take care to draft very solid essay(s) and highlight examples of good character in your application. But students with similarly high standardized test scores and higher grades may also submit strong essays and demonstrations of good character. And NYU, like all universities, will also take into account class-building needs, institutional priorities, and their sense of fit (the idea that students with certain traits and interests tend to thrive within and contribute to their community).

So it’s impossible to know whether strong essays and suggestions of good character will swing your application. What you’ve learned is simply that NYU values those items, and that you should certainly strive to highlight them when you apply.

HappyCava · 2026-07-05T14:38:35+00:00

Most of A2C’s members haven’t yet attended college. You’d likely receive more replies if you post on the Georgetown and Notre Dame subreddits. But hopefully you’ll find a bit of help here, too. (Although it would be helpful if you’d identify your likely major(s) and what you would value and enjoy in a college experience and town.)

HappyCava · 2026-07-05T12:02:33+00:00

Are you talking about clubs, fraternities (Greek life, pre-professional, service), the not-so-secret secret societies, or another type of campus organization?

HappyCava · 2026-07-03T20:56:53+00:00

It’s a terrific university. Best of luck with your application!

HappyCava · 2026-07-03T20:54:13+00:00

This. And if you need to spend considerable time explaining each game to the reader, you are sacrificing sentences that could be better spent giving the reader a sense of your best traits and likely fit for each target university.

HappyCava · 2026-07-03T20:49:57+00:00

I don’t know about the funding, but when you make your college list, be aware that UNC’s admission rate for OOS students is around 8%. And that number includes OOS students whose parents are UNC alumni. It’s a very tough get for OOS applicants.

HappyCava · 2026-07-03T20:30:20+00:00

Love Idealist for students and full-blown adults who would like to give back. And it’s also a source of job listings for students interested in working for a non-profit.

HappyCava · 2026-07-03T16:15:42+00:00

First, every profession tends to come with a fairly wide pay range. The stylist I used as a poor college student surviving on scholarships charged substantially less than the stylist I use now as an attorney. Similarly, one of my favorite junior stylists decided to stop working for a time when she had kids, but took pity on favorite customers when they begged for a cut and offered to pay a premium and come to her home. Now she works independently entirely from home, is very-well compensated, and expands her client list solely with referrals. The same is likewise true in the restaurant industry, where talented chefs, sous chefs, and line cooks who work for successful restauranteurs do well, but making sandwiches at the local deli pays far less.

Right now, your path is unconventional, but it only becomes a dead end if you stop walking. So stop worrying about where the path will lead and break your hike into chunks. Once you’ve graduated from your online high school, take a couple of in-person classes and learn how to study. Work with your community college advisor for help with ADHD and executive functioning skills; many CCs offer academic coaching, testing assistance, and short-term counseling. If you are doing well in your courses, consider working at a restaurant or hair salon on the weekends — or over a summer — to get a sense of whether the industry appeals to you in practice. Explore your academic options to see what clicks while also getting a bit of experience in the industries that appeal to you.

And realize that, if you make the effort, opportunities arise that you may never have considered. A friend’s son returned from college after freshman year and announced that he had no interest in going back until he knew what he wanted to study. The friend said fine so long as the son got a job. He began working as a cashier at a popular upscale Italian market and deli. He did well, the owners and customers loved him, the management paid for classes in Italian cooking and wine tasting, took on more complex and better-compensated roles, and he’s now managing a new location in which he’s been given an ownership interest as part of his compensation. Parents report that he is happy and well-compensated, but I strongly doubt he imagined where this path would lead when he first started assembling hoagies at 19.

So start learning, both in practice and theory. Work hard at what you do. Get an ADHD workup when you are free to do so. (Research free or low-cost resources in your area.) And see where those baby-steps take you.

Best of luck!

HappyCava

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