From writing about statistics as a journalist to managing massive databases for the largest companies in the world, data science offers a wide variety of career paths for students looking to enter the field of understanding, analyzing, and generating data that helps us make sense of the world. If you’re interested in using data to learn new things about how everything that surrounds us functions, from the deepest parts of the oceans to urban traffic patterns, data science could definitely be your ideal path in college.
Many of the big data science schools, like MIT and Carnegie Mellon, are really competitive, maintaining acceptance rates in the single digits for most of their freshman classes. These aren’t the only places you can study data science, for sure, and just because they are big names doesn’t mean they may be your perfect fit. That said, they might be, and we’re in the business of helping outstanding students get into the absolute best colleges they can. So, if you want to get into a high-tier college or university and get the massive head-start on your career that a high-profile degree can provide, you need to start planning well in advance of pressing ‘submit’ on your application.
We usually start talking to students about their college goals in their sophomore year so that we can be part of their course planning and extracurricular strategy, but it’s not too late to get started as a junior. In fact, we consider the 11th grade year to be the last big chance to make major changes to your transcript and resume that you can use to impress admissions counselors. Early Decision application deadlines are, after all, just around the corner. So, if you’re a junior in high school interested in data science and trying to strategize for the best college application outcomes possible, keep reading to learn more about how you can catch the attention of your dream school and boost your chances of getting in.
Discovering Your Niche in data science
We usually refer to what a student focuses on as their “niche.” By niche, we just mean that we’re identifying and defining what your individual skills and academic interests are, and then we use those skills and interests to create a clear picture of who you are for application readers. Your niche will never fully encapsulate who you are, because humans are complicated! But defining your niche makes it easy for application readers to understand and envision how you’d fit into their academic and social communities. They can see what role you’d play, how you’d contribute, and what you might pursue. Admissions offices know that your interests may shift once you are on campus, but solidifying a niche for your application makes a huge difference in your admissions outcomes.
Ultimately, understanding what you want to study, how to use your strengths and passions to your advantage when writing your applications, and then kickstarting your academic future by investing time in courses and extracurriculars that are related to your academic path, is really important during the college prep process. So, whether you want to handle massive databases, help design security protocols for big companies, or turn piles of illegible data into visual displays that connect people to complex ideas, knowing what your passions are is huge.
When we meet with students, we help them figure out what their niche is. For example, we might start with the broad topic of data science and funnel things down into a more specific area. From data science, we might narrow things down into building databases for large companies. From there, we might look into the specific ways the databases might operate, and how they are made. This focus might narrow even further, leading the student towards deciding they want to work in database management for a scrappy start-up company where they’d be able to be part of creating the system itself. That’s the niche! We’ve funneled it down into a specific topic for the student to study, and a career interest that can help point the student towards potential activities and extracurriculars, like maybe an internship at a startup while still in high school.
Putting In The Effort
We don’t just settle for our students deciding what they want their niche to be and leave it at that, though, and neither should you. Once you’ve determined your niche, you need to become an expert in it — and you should want to! It’s your niche, after all, and the most important thing is that it is something you want to spend time studying. Whether you’re looking up resources online, taking a trip to your local library, or talking to a parent of a friend about their career path, doing your homework on your niche is really important. We want you to be an expert in your niche, and to do that, you’re going to need to put some effort into it.
The good news is that doing research about your niche should be a lot more interesting than regular homework because you’re learning more about your passions. Just because it’s work doesn’t mean it has to be boring! When we work with our students, we help them build an individualized curriculum of books, resources, internships, videos, and even supplemental classes through online programs, summer programs, or a local college to help them learn about their niche in a way that works specifically for them. The more personalized your exploration of your niche is, the better your chances of success when it comes to college applications.
Get Smart With Your Extracurriculars
Having general knowledge from books and online resources about your niche is great, but we want our students to have some real-life experience in their niche by the time they are writing their college applications. Schools like to see that applicants have engaged with their interests outside of the classroom. For you, that might take the form of an internship, a job, or joining a club related to your niche after school. If your school doesn’t have a data science club — start one! We also recommend looking at opportunities in your community like volunteering at a nonprofit or working with a local professor supporting their research. Remember that you don’t need to be doing something earth-shattering to be learning, growing, and improving your application. Colleges know that students start small, and they want to see you taking those small steps confidently toward expertise and understanding.
But how, you may be asking, are you supposed to find time for this? That’s a fair question. Students today tend to be overbooked, and you’ll need to carve time out of somewhere to explore your niche — and it shouldn’t be when you would otherwise be sleeping. While we know that extracurricular activities like sports and band are important and valuable, we ask our students to consider shifting their focus towards their academic interests unless they truly love the stuff on their docket that’s ‘just for fun.’ If playing soccer or being in the school play is deeply meaningful to you, we’re not trying to take that away. But if you’ve been filling your afternoons with Junior Varsity Ultimate Frisbee, it may be work reallocating that time. By maximizing your time doing things that are more related to your niche, you’ll be prioritizing the stuff that’ll carry the most weight on your college applications.
Making The Most Of Summer
The summer is awesome, and not just because it’s warm. Having over 60 days of free time to do whatever you want (within reason) is a great opportunity to get a leg up on the competition. When we work with students, we help them figure out how to make the most of their time off by recommending summer programs and other ways to get some experience and knowledge about their niche, from educational opportunities to employment.
Summer programs are a big way to do exactly that. They offer students ways to learn more about their niche and even get some hands-on experience in the field by working on projects in a controlled environment or shadowing a professional. Many summer programs are sponsored by colleges, so they give opportunities to get your foot in the door for your dream school. This doesn’t mean you’ll get in as a college applicant, but it certainly doesn’t hurt your chances if you perform well in the program.
In addition to structured summer programs (many of which have scholarships available), we highly recommend looking to get a summer job. The job does not need to be in your niche, but should, ideally, relate to it. If you’re interested in business and data science, work for a local small business. If you’re interested in journalism and data science, work for a local paper or news organization. You could find an internship position, do some research for a nonprofit professor, or you could take a class or two over the break to really make the most of your free time. Taking the opportunity to go above and beyond looks really good to admissions counselors.
Filling Out Applications
With our juniors, we have them begin working on the Common App essay around June or July, in advance of supplements coming out later in the summer. Once that’s finished, we then move on to Early Decision applications for our high priority schools and then work down the list based on upcoming deadlines. We do this in the summer after junior year to free up time for the craziness that senior year can bring and to lower the overall stress that students might feel about getting everything done. When their peers are rushing to the finish line, our students are enjoying senior year.
Junior year can feel really busy, but make sure to dig your heels in and put in good work because it’s your last big chance to work on your niche before sending out applications. Make the most of it!
Figuring out your niche and exploring it can be complicated. Reach out to us if you need help. We’re pros and helping students realize their potential.