Trying to be the next Marie Curie or Robert Bunson (yes… THAT Bunson. No, not the Muppet. The guy with the burners.)? Maybe you dream of being a pharmacist (a very stable job!) or a CSI tech. Or maybe chemistry was just your favorite class this year. Or maybe you don’t even know exactly what you wanna do, but you know that you like science and want to study it in college. You’re in the right place.
Chemistry, like most STEM topics, is super interdisciplinary. Chemistry goes hand-in-hand with a ton of other fields, including but not limited to biology, geology, botany, forensics, pharmacology, and even astronomy! We just learned the study of moon soil is called cosmochemistry and that sounds so unbelievably cool.
As a sophomore, you need to start thinking about what you want to study in college and start coming up with a strategy. We know it sounds early, but we promise it’s not. Sophomore year is the perfect time to start planning for college and figuring out exactly what it is you want to do within chemistry. So, let’s talk about what you need to do as a sophomore to set yourself apart as a potential chemistry major.
Identifying the Niche
One of the most important things you can show through your college application is that you’ve explored your potential major and found something specific within it that you really connect with. We call this your niche. It’s not enough to say “chemistry” because that’s not a niche. A niche would be like “studying the organic molecules found within meteorites” or “pharmacodynamics, specifically membrane carriers.”
However, you’re not getting to that topic overnight, because it takes time to figure out what your niche is. Which is why starting as a sophomore is important! We work with students one-on-one to figure out what exactly it is about chemistry that they’re excited about and what exactly they want to explore further.
So how do we do that? Great question. We ask a ton of questions, get to know our students, and start leading them down a funnel that brings them to specific subtopics. One chemistry student was really interested in pharmacology but also in social justice — she ended up developing a device that helped detect date rape drugs in drinks by using light-based technology. By taking her various interests into consideration, she was able to create a niche.
Classes and Books
One way we help students down the funnel is by creating a personalized curriculum of classes and books that help students learn about chemistry further because you can’t know what you like if you don’t know anything about it!
We might start by assigning very intro-level chemistry online classes, but after that class you might really connect with Biochemistry. After we throw some biochem stuff your way, you might realize you’re really interested in testing — especially because your aunt went through the breast cancer screening tests and was able to prevent a cancer battle because of it. So now that you know you are interested in BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing, you can start to get really in-depth in your hands-on work. Which is a great segue to our next section.
Extracurriculars
While you’re in the process of niche-building, you also need to start engaging with meaningful extracurriculars. As a sophomore, you might not know that specific thing you’re passionate about yet, but you do know that you’re interested in chemistry. You can do things like join (or start) a chemistry club at school and enter into science fairs.
And let’s talk about meaningful extracurriculars for a second. If a top-tier school is your goal, you need to be a little bit ruthless with your schedule. This means that you need to make sure you have enough time to actually explore chemistry in depth. Extracurriculars that take up a lot of your time and don’t contribute to your goal of studying chemistry at a top-tier school are not worth it. These include things you might have just added to be “resume builders,” like sports (unless you have an actual shot at recruitment), theater, excessive community service, joining every club at your school, etc. Be realistic, reevaluate your schedule, and figure out if you need to cut anything.
What we like to prioritize are out-of-school extracurriculars. This includes things like research with a professor, paid jobs, summer internships, fellowships, and a lot more. There is no one-size-fits-all guide for chemistry extracurriculars because every single student is different. When we work one-on-one with students, we are able to help them figure out the right extracurriculars for them. For example, our aforementioned chemistry student got a research position at a medical tech company while she was developing her own medical device. What you do with your time should fit into what you’re telling schools you want to study.
Summer Plans
The next big thing is your summer. As a sophomore, this summer is your largest uninterrupted block of time in high school. The summer between junior and senior year you’ll (hopefully) be working on your college apps, so the summer between sophomore and junior year is incredibly important. We know you’d rather lounge around, but you need to dedicate this time to internships, research, personal projects, summer programs, or a job!
You’ll be spending a lot of your summer on extracurricular development, but it can also be valuable to do summer programs. Especially at colleges that you’re really interested in attending because a lot of them track demonstrated interest. And what better way to demonstrate interest than to participate in one of their summer programs? Most top-tier schools offer pre-college programs where you can stay in a dorm, take college-level classes, and other students who are excited about chemistry. And don’t worry, a lot of them have online programs, too, if that’s something you’re looking for. Your summer should not just be back-to-back summer programs, but a lot of students find value in going to one or two during their summer.
We know we’ve said it a million times, but sophomore year is truly the best time to start. Chemistry is a popular major, which means it’s a competitive major, which means you need to start working on setting yourself apart now so that when you apply to colleges, you have the best shot possible. The added bonus? The earlier you start, the quicker you figure out if this is the topic for you. Better to find out that chemistry is not your jam now than two years into your degree.
If you want to start strategizing for college, sophomore year is the best time to start. Reach out to us today if you need help with your college prep plans.