<p>Hi guys, so I am currently a junior in HS. It seems as though as i will have the grades, sats and teacher recs. I really want to go to penn and i also have a decent amount of legacy. One thing that I am not sure of is my ECs. I will have a few leaderships (probably around 4) but not many compared to people on this site. I go to a high school ranked in the top 50 in America and its really competitive. Everyone runs for an officer position of every club and getting an officer position is hard. Will penn see that my high school is really competitive and that is a reason I dont have many leaderships because everyone wants a position and getting a position is very competitive? I am in a ton of clubs though, just not many leaderships. Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I’m sure Penn as well as any other university looks at you in context with your high school and situation. </p>
<p>So don’t worry about that too much, and please don’t forget your original purpose of taking up an officer position-- to serve the club, not to put the title on your college apps.</p>
<p>You still need some good ECs to impress the Penn admissions staff. If you can’t find leadership roles in school explore outside of school. Join a community service group or start a club, etc. You still have time to shoe that you are a leader.</p>
<p>Leadership is not just about occupying a certain position/title, it’s about how you contribute. Rather than focusing on becoming president of four clubs, you should focus on committing yourself to things that interest you. I literally held no leadership positions in high school; that’s just not who I am. Instead, I spent a lot of time doing two activities that interested me. I really think there is a misconception that in order to get into an Ivy League school, you must be the president of six clubs. If that were true, then our student body wouldn’t be very interesting, it would just be a bunch of type A personalities arguing over positions. There is plenty of room at Penn for people who like to contribute in a group setting like in an ensemble or on a team, or people who like to do things by themselves, like become involved in research.
In high school, I always felt tons of pressure to do more extracurriculars. However in the end, I am glad I stuck with the things that were important to me rather than spreading myself too thin. I think I was able to reveal my interests and potential through my essays. I actually think that these are more important that extracurriculars.</p>