From pursuing life-saving cancer research to studying tiny organisms, biology is an extremely broad subject. Because biology is such a diverse field that encompasses so much, it attracts a lot of attention from students. Whether you are considering a pre-med track with the goal of going to medical school or just want to spend time outside studying bugs (or marine life, or perhaps a variety of mosses), biology might be the major for you.
Bio is a popular major, which means it’s a competitive major. With most of the top-rated schools for biology, like Johns Hopkins and MIT, having single-digit acceptance rates, you really need to gain every advantage possible as an applicant if you want a chance of admission when you apply — and you need to start ASAP.
We consider junior year to be the last big chance to make major changes to your candidacy before senior year comes around and you have to start sending out applications. So, read along as we go in-depth into what you need to do to impress admissions counselors and what you can do right now to improve your chances of admission as a prospective biology major.
Figuring Out Your Niche
Your niche is essentially your ~* personal academic brand *~. To find it, you need to identify your unique interests and skills and pinpoint how to tie those interests and skills into what you want to study. Then, you’ll need to figure out how to package that story to admissions counselors in your application. Sounds easy enough, right?
Whether your interest is lab work and research, or you really get a kick out of reading (and maybe even contributing to!) medical papers, knowing what you want to do is really important to the college prep process. It helps us steer you in the right direction when it comes to summer activities, extracurriculars, and electives.
When we first meet with clients, we help them determine what their niche is — and we especially focus on getting as specific as we can with it. We might start with the broad idea of biology, but we’ll funnel it down from there. We’ll have you take some online courses and read a bunch of articles (more on this in the next section). It night turn out that you really don’t like oceanography, but you’re super into botany. But botany is still broad, so we have to go even deeper. With a recent student, we figured out he was most interest in how different soil compositions affect the end resulting taste of the food that is planted. That’s a niche, and that’s the level of specificity we’re looking for. See? Funneling!
Classes and Books
To fully explore your niche through the funneling process, you’re going to have to do some research. We’ll help you find articles, videos, and courses, and we might even, gasp, have you go to the library irl. It’s important for you to research what it is you are passionate about so you can fully understand your niche and all the different opportunities available to you.
When we work with our students, we build them a customized curriculum including books, podcasts, and online courses to help them learn about their areas of interest and narrow down their passions. As they dive into the materials, they become unquestionable specialists in their niche.
Extracurriculars
While having book smarts is great, we want our students to build some real-world experience in their niche as well. Colleges like to see that students have made an effort to get involved in their interests both in and out of school. In school, this might take the form of joining a biology or science-related club or mentoring younger students through a tutoring program. The major portion of your extracurriculars, though, will likely involve what you do outside of school with independent projects.
We recommend our students avoid loading up on extracurriculars that aren’t related to their niche. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have diversity in what you do. If you’re passionate about chess club, football, or musical theater, that’s awesome! But it’s important to stay focused on spending the majority of your time outside of class doing things that communicate your focus.
Summers
While we don’t want to entirely deprive our students of their well-earned summer months, but having over 60 days of time outside of your normal daily routine is a major opportunity to learn some new skills and get experience. That’s why we work with clients to plan their summers around exploring their passions.
Summer programs are a common way for students to start getting involved in their topic of interest, again, funneling down on their niche. Whether the program involves an immersive class (even for credit, maybe!) or possibly shadowing a professional in the field, getting experience in your niche strengthens your application and clarifies your interest. A lot of summer programs also give you the opportunity to spend time at colleges you’re interested in.
If you want to push beyond structured summer programs into less-charted territory (which we strongly suggest doing), then jobs, internships, and research will be your best bets. These types of extracurriculars show a more advanced exploration of your potential major and heightened responsibility.
Applying to College
With our juniors (who, at this point in the game, are rising seniors!), we start working on the Common App essay in June or July, at least a few weeks before the school-specific supplements are released. Once supplements are released in August, we will start with the Early Decision application and move down the (balanced!) list of colleges in order of deadline. Starting the essays in the summer is the best way to make sure you get the stress of applications done before the ramp-up in work senior year. While your friends are stressing about supplements, you can be focused on getting the best grades possible!
There’s a lot going on during junior year, and it’s the last opportunity to make progress on your niche before sending out college applications.
Need help figuring out how to make the most of your niche? Let us know. We specialize in helping students realize their potential.