extra-curricular activities during COVID-19

I'm getting this question a lot, so I want to memorialize my answer


https://www.quora.com/What-activities-can-students-do-that-will-look-good-on-their-college-applications-during-COVID-19/answer/Annalisse-Mayer?prompt_topic_bio=1

Question answered: What activities can students do that will look good on their college applications during COVID-19?

People seem to discount the idea of solitary creative activity: art, creative writing, music, or even solo dance. Maybe you can even submit such things to contests on line or for publication. It would be really cool to get a poem or short story published. People are so focused on “leadership.” Well, everyone can’t be a leader.

Can you perhaps do something for elderly or sick neighbors, while maintaining proper social distance, e.g. shopping or yard work? I have this fantasy that people will organize delivery of care packages for sick people who are quarantined. I’ve been trying to think of what they would need: non-perishable food, gatorade powder, thermometer, blood oxygen testing device, vitamins?

Can you organize a club online, e.g. book club, acting club or debate club? Can you make some creative videos online, possibly with the help of friends? If you could develop some audio or video manipulation skills and make really creative videos, that might be interesting.

How about designing a creative app for smartphone? Or some interesting lenses for Snapchat? My cousin created a lens that ended up being used by over 20 million people!!! If you could get something to go viral, that would look good.

Can you perhaps think of a science project that could be done while maintaining social distance? Or work on a knotty math problem? Maybe you could learn some non-standard math skill like spherical trigonometry or how to manipulate quaternions or octonions. I’ve always thought it would be super cool if someone could create an animation of a Klein bottle or a hyper cube that would really help the viewer to understand it. Or maybe you could create some fractal art. That’s both mathematical and beautiful.

Another thing that a lot of students need to work on is basic writing e.g.: spelling, grammar, proper word usage, and punctuation. I’m seeing a lot of Quora questions on here from HS students that are deficient in these respects.  

------------

Here's an article about a music teacher and his students who made face shields for health care providers, which is just exactly the sort of thing colleges would love to see

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/11/869948638/music-teachers-weekend-project-turns-into-almost-40-000-face-shields?fbclid=IwAR1fb-ieqYpmdDb7uz7QCi-xMLJxk5lNACc6dmZQ1uQGiHMdMi30i5Jj-qs

building up resume and preparing for LSAT for law school

Here's another question whose answer I want to remember

 https://www.quora.com/Is-2-years-enough-time-to-prepare-for-the-LSAT-and-build-up-my-resume-for-law-school/answer/Annalisse-Mayer

Some people go to law school right out of college. I’m not sure why you feel you need to build up a resume.

I personally did take 2 years off between college and law school. I worked as a computer programmer. During that job, I became interested in being a patent attorney — and in computer related law. That was something I wrote about in my essay for admissions. I have no idea what effect that may or may not have had on my admission.

As to preparation for the LSAT, I got a book of practice tests. I worked through one test and identified where I had problems. Then, on the next tests, I focused on those areas — always comparing my answer with the model answer. I didn’t spend more than few weeks on this — but, then, I happen to be good at standardized tests.

Once I got to law school, I found 3 categories of people who seemed best prepared to deal with the subject matter:

• former paralegals and legal secretaries
• CPA’s
• Talmudic scholars

These people all seemed to hit the ground running, because they had substantial exposure to legal procedures, legal thinking, legal research, and legal arguments.

I found that STEM people, like me, were at a disadvantage, because the way were were taught to think was true/false — with concise proofs of what was true or false. Basically, I had to redecorate my brain once I was there. I had to think about things in terms of every side of a question and being willing to argue all sides. I had to learn to be more verbose in my arguments, showing more of my thinking process.

Still, we need STEM people in law.

how to raise GPA

I'm getting this question a lot on Quora, so I want to remember what I said, by memorializing it here.

Here's the link to the post

https://www.quora.com/My-GPA-for-this-high-school-semester-so-far-is-a-2-6-How-can-I-raise-it-by-the-end-of-the-semester/answer/Annalisse-Mayer

It may be tough, depending on how soon your semester ends.

Are you turning in all assignments promptly? It is much preferable to turn in an assignment on time and get 50%, as opposed to turning in nothing and getting zero. It brings down your average much less.

If you don’t understand something, are you asking your teacher for help? Are you being proactive about starting your homework early so you have time to ask for help if you don’t understand something?

If you get a bad grade on an assignment or a test, are you making sure you understand why you got that grade and what you should have done differently? Please ask your teacher — politely and deferentially — to explain it to you, so you won’t do the same thing again.

As the others have said, communication with your teacher is critical. Be polite. Set up appointments to meet in advance. Keep those appointments. Be willing to accept criticism — and even thank the teacher for it. Avoid getting defensive. How your teacher perceives you is going to make a big difference in how she treats you.

Asking for an extra credit assignment to make up lost points is definitely sometimes an option.
Do you have a quiet place to study? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you getting a healthy balanced diet? Are you getting enough exercise? These are all critical to good thinking and problem solving.

Is something going on at home that’s making it impossible for you to do work? If so, communication with your school and your teacher is critical. It’s tough now, with the quarantine, but there might be places where you could study undisturbed. I was just suggesting to my son that he might want to sit in the car and study, so that no one would bug him.