Notable High School Activities?

[AUnifiedScene]

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I know the general rule is that high school activities have no place on the AMCAS. However, I was wondering about a couple specific instance. First of all, I am an Eagle Scout, which I got when I was a junior in HS and is something that I feel speaks to my character. Secondly, the summer after senior year, I was part of a team that traveled to the high school division of an international biology competition(teams from several continents) and won Best Poster. Are either of these worth putting on an app? Thanks!

 

[deleted407021]

I would say the Scouts work would be worth it, only if you have kept it up and still work with it in some way. I'm not sure about the biology competition. It sounds like a one time thing and it wouldn't add anything at all to your app relative to what you will do/have done in college.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

I know the general rule is that high school activities have no place on the AMCAS. However, I was wondering about a couple specific instance. First of all, I am an Eagle Scout, which I got when I was a junior in HS and is something that I feel speaks to my character. Secondly, the summer after senior year, I was part of a team that traveled to the high school division of an international biology competition(teams from several continents) and won Best Poster. Are either of these worth putting on an app? Thanks!

General rule of thumb, as you mentioned, is not to include them. That being said, I included a high school activity and things worked out just fine for me, so based entirely on my n=1 (lol), in the end if you can explain why something was formative or especially impressive/telling of your abilities, I say go with your gut.

For me, unless the poster was at a recognized medical conference, I would say it's still against high school competition and I thus wouldn't include it. As for Eagle Scout, I know friends that included it as one of several awards they grouped into one activity on AMCAS - if you've continued work with the organization/have activities that suggest you've continued that brand of service work, I think you have an even more compelling reason to include it.

Good luck - if you did that well in high school, I'm sure you'll have plenty of collegiate activities to present as well.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Definitely a no on the biology poster thing. Lifetime achievements, however, like being an Eagle Scout, black belt, or similar activity are things that I think people should put if it's important to them.

 

[crimsonkid85]

Any international competition in the truest sense deserves to be a lasting line on your CV. For example, if you were Olympic champion at age 16, that accomplishment follows you for life for SURE.

The same goes with all of the science/math Olympiads. To place in one of them in extremely prestigious. Now, I don't know if your biology competition was the international biology olympiad, but if it is, it will always be an asset to you.

Same thing for placing in the Siemens Westinghouse competition, or the International Science and Engineering Fair, or the Intel Talent Search.

 

[AUnifiedScene]

Any international competition in the truest sense deserves to be a lasting line on your CV. For example, if you were Olympic champion at age 16, that accomplishment follows you for life for SURE.

The same goes with all of the science/math Olympiads. To place in one of them in extremely prestigious. Now, I don't know if your biology competition was the international biology olympiad, but if it is, it will always be an asset to you.

It wasn't the Olympiads. Without being too specific, the competition was a combination of a poster and presentation on a microbiology related project (and yes, it was truely international. There were teams from Greece, Turkey, South Korea, Mexico, and Canada.) I'm currently a sophomore, and have been working in a microbio lab on campus for 2 years now, with multiple poster's and a soon-to-be second author publication, so I kind of feel like including an award from a high school competition would not greatly boost my credentials as a researcher... Anyway, thanks for all the replies, guys!

 

[deleted407021]

It wasn't the Olympiads. Without being too specific, the competition was a combination of a poster and presentation on a microbiology related project (and yes, it was truely international. There were teams from Greece, Turkey, South Korea, Mexico, and Canada.) I'm currently a sophomore, and have been working in a microbio lab on campus for 2 years now, with multiple poster's and a soon-to-be second author publication, so I kind of feel like including an award from a high school competition would not greatly boost my credentials as a researcher... Anyway, thanks for all the replies, guys!

It can definitely be part of your story as to how you got into research. It should at least be brought up, by yourself, during your interviews.

 

[RedWedding]

Any international competition in the truest sense deserves to be a lasting line on your CV. For example, if you were Olympic champion at age 16, that accomplishment follows you for life for SURE.

The same goes with all of the science/math Olympiads. To place in one of them in extremely prestigious. Now, I don't know if your biology competition was the international biology olympiad, but if it is, it will always be an asset to you.

Same thing for placing in the Siemens Westinghouse competition, or the International Science and Engineering Fair, or the Intel Talent Search.

Yup, I put all my science fair awards on AMCAS and I was asked about it at all open-file interviews I attended.

 

[Boolean]

Fellow eagle here. Put it. The rank of Eagle has some pretty powerful names attached to it, and it certainly shows a decent bit of leadership capabilities (the project, as you remember, plus I believe for Star/Life/Eagle you needed to be a PL or SPL or something similar). The international biology competition bit would be better if you were the sole competitor, but seeing as you weren't, perhaps you can include it as a "this got me into the swing of things"