Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
In high school the best students often use to the fullest the resources available to them. There are stories of Bill Gates, along with his friend Paul Allen, hacking into the computer system at Lakeside high school. Tales of students who begin on the school newspaper as freshmen and gradually expand their responsibilities to managing editors are legion. These are the type of applicants many of the most selective schools seek.
For those of you who enjoy strapping on your Rossignol Avengers and skiing down a slope just minutes after leaving your class in physics, or shouting in German, or any of the other 10 languages taught, across the slopes where the Adirondacks and Green Mountains shoulder up on either side of Lake Champlain, or just sitting in meticulous marble and limestone quads viewing alpine vistas on a clear autumn day, Middlebury, whether you’ve heard of it or not, is what you’re pining for.
