EE's Effect on College Admissions

[Adastra]

Hello, 

I am a first year IB student and I have started to consider my EE topic. I want to study Biomedical/Biological Engineering in future; my courses are Chemistry, Physics, Math, Turkish A, English B and ITGS. Keeping my goal in mind, I thought that an extended essay on Physics or Chemistry would look good for the college applications. However writing an extended essay on those is a tough job and I am not genuinely sure if I can hit A with an EE on Physics. On the other hand, Language A is a course that I really enjoy and I believe that a research on Turkish literature would be both easy and fun. My concern is that an extended essay on Language A could be a weak spot for an engineering applicant. Do you think that would affect my application? Should I switch to Physics or Chemistry even if there is a possibility that my grade will not be high? 

Thank you in advance.

Edited October 18, 2016 by neflenesli

[Guest]

Your EE should not affect your application, regadless of where you want to go, but for specifics you'd have to ask someone who knows of the country you want to apply to. Whilst doing an EE in physics may give you something to talk about in any application essays or interviews, which may have its own benefits, your EE is not something that universities look for in particular - in the end, it's the grade that matters.

Personally, I'd say do what you enjoy. Remember, you're going to spend a decent amount of time on your EE, and you'll want to choose something that you most enjoy. Whilst I wouldn't say that research will be 'easy' for any subject, I would say that you should also consider the grades students tend to recieve for different groups. As you said, getting As in Group 4 is often said to be more difficult than for Group 1.

Also, you have to consider that, sometimes, making an appropriate EE topic for sciences can be tricky, especially if you're going to try and link it to a degree which isn't really covered at all in the school curriculum (taking a Biology example, people often want to do genetics but that's difficult given the limitations of equipment, and hence they have to settle for a... slightly less interesting option for them).

Of course, if you plan to do engineering, I'd think that you enjoy, or at least like, Physics, but in the end, you should choose what you'll feel more comfortable with spending months on. Good luck with whichever you choose!

[Guest]

I might be a bit late, but have you considered a World Studies EE? Go find the official EE guide (fairly easy to find on the internet) - World Studies EEs bridge 2 subjects and there may be a possibility of covering something about science in literature.

I also want to reassure you about doing a language ee even if you're applying to an engineering course - doing something in the languages will display that you have varied talents, which is quite important in the changing landscape of uni applications - more and more unis are looking for people with passion, drive and a good spread of talents. lit EEs also imply strength in communication and analysis, which are good soft skills to have.

[Qalopb]

I have been researching universities lately (focused on IT engineering) and I have noticed that most of them simply don't care about EE. So my advice is focus more on the subject you would enjoy rather than the subject you want, you will be working on it for around 2 years so keep that in mind. İyi şanslar kardeş :))