<p>I've got pretty good academics, but pretty much no ECs, and senior year is quickly approaching.</p>
<p>Major: Undecided--engineering, physics, math, or comp sci
Location: Michigan</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 UW (with A = 4.0, B = 3.0, etc.--it's probably 3.9 if A- = 3.7 and so on)
ACT: 35 (36 Math/36 English/36 Science/33 Reading)
SAT Subjects: 800 Math II, 800 Physics
APs: Stats (5), Psych (5), Lang, Lit, Calc BC, Physics C, Micro, Macro, Chem, Comp Sci A</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: Varsity Bowling, Piano (12 years), Science Olympiad, some math tutoring
-Other than a couple medals for regional competitions and a music festival, I don't have any significant accomplishments within any of those.</p>
<p>When I look through these chance threads and see people with dozens of leadership positions and multiple state awards, only to have people reply with "well, your ECs are a bit weak...", it freaks me out just a little. Do my ECs pretty much screw me over when it comes to college admissions? Is it worth it for me to apply to a school like UC Berkeley or CMU? And what are my chances at University of Michigan? Thanks.</p>
<p>yeah, i’ve found that many people (including myself) have been told on here that we do not have enough ecs. but i’m pretty sure that colleges aren’t looking for a laundry list of meaningless activities only completed for someone’s resume, but rather a few ec’s that someone is really passionate about. if it’s any help, my brother got into yale and his only activities were football nhs and youthgroup, and my sister got into princeton with only dance and nhs. but both made sure in their college applications to stress their passion for each individual activity. anyways i think thousands of ecs are pointless, and your grades are pretty freaking amazing. please chance me for tulane!</p>
<p>“Extracurriculars: Varsity Bowling, Piano (12 years), Science Olympiad, some math tutoring”</p>
<p>You lied! It’s not that you don’t have any ECs, it’s that your ECs lack a focus. Why don’t you pursue something in greater depth this summer? Colleges aren’t necessarily looking at quantity but quality.</p>
<p>I have actually pursued a few things in great depth. The problem is that none of it is “official”–it’s all been independent, so none of it can really be written on a college application. Is there anything organized that I can do over the summer to demonstrate my interests to college? I feel like most of the summer programs worth attending have already hit their application headlines, not to mention that it would be difficult to find one that fits around my family’s sporadic traveling schedule. </p>
<p>So I guess I’m really not asking “what can I do to fix this?” but rather, “how much will this hurt me?” though if anybody has any potential solutions I’d gladly listen to them!</p>
<p>Whoa, we’re in almost the exact same situation - same major interests, high SAT/subject tests/GPA, physics C junior year, few ECs. (Except that I don’t do bowling or scioly, and I’m from California. xP)</p>
<p>Good luck to us both, I guess. Where do you think you’ll apply to? I’m not optimistic about my chances at the top schools, but those are really the only places I want to go to (and that my parents would approve of over Berkeley/UCLA…).</p>
<p>Speaking of Berkeley, you should have a good chance of getting in, since they need OOS students for more money. I’m applying to CMU too, and I think our chances are decent there. Do you think you’ll apply to the CS school or math/science school (MCS)? I’m thinking of just applying to MCS for math because I’m not very confident about getting into SCS (given its acceptance rate)…</p>
<p>Engineering schools are stereotyped as caring more about flat scores and numbers than the “intangibles”… that said, your flat scores and numbers are awesome. I’d kill for them
The EC thing may stop you from a MIT or a cornell… as for the other best in the world (maybe even CMU) it shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>You would be IMPRESSED with my unique Ec’s seriously. Very Unique and very strong ecs. 3.8 gpa, 2210 SAT and still…rejected from 16 schools, no, im not kidding SIXTEEN!!! So ECS are VERY over rated</p>
<p>^Wow… that sucks. Did you just apply to 16 out of the top-20-or-whatever USNWR schools, or did you get rejected from a wide range of schools? Scary.</p>
<p>^^Hmm… Maybe Berkeley EECS might be nice to me (and/or the OP)? :/</p>
<p>Are there any admissions profiles of seniors that are kind of like us (high scores/grades but lack of ECs)? I’m curious to see how they fared.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as ya’ll, with a few variations. I’m beginning to think more and more that CC is populated entirely by super-freaks engineered specifically to get into a prestigious college. ECs are important, but in my tiny high-school alone, there was a half-dozen or so people accepted into Ivy-league caliber places without any varsity sports or refugee trips to Darfur. One kid was a drummer with a passion for Jazz, and not many other unique ECs (he was in NHS and all that stuff, I’m assuming). </p>
<p>What I’m saying is that I suspect the above poster(s) are correct in saying that passion in a few areas is way more important than a quantity of ECs. It doesn’t even really matter what you have the passion for – you said you couldn’t write it down because it wasn’t official. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Without knowing specifically what you’re talking about, I would say that any extensive tinkering you’ve done in an academic-ish field is worth telling about. I’m obviously not an expert, but that’s more-or-less what I’ve been told by counselors and the like.</p>
<p>energize: I’m applying to MSU (safety) and Michigan for sure. I’m probably applying to Berkeley as well, and I’ll probably look for a few other good math/science/engineering schools that I might have a shot at. I’m thinking of applying to Carnegie Mellon, although the only school I would actually be interested in attending would be the SCS, so my chances aren’t looking very good.</p>
<p>sketchpad: Wow, that’s very disappointing, and a bit troubling. Were those the only schools you applied to? </p>
<p>fdeb35: I hope you’re right. I feel like if I just say something like, “well I’ve spent a lot of time programming/doing math/etc. and I’ve gotten pretty good at it” then it won’t really mean anything unless I’ve got awards and whatnot to back it up…and I don’t really.</p>
<p>Less selective techy schools I found during my search include Rose-Hulman, RPI, WPI, and Case Western. From reading, though, all of them felt too focused towards engineering/applications for me; I think I’m more on the theoretical side. On the subject of CMU, I heard that it isn’t that hard to transfer from MCS to SCS if you do well in the appropriate prereqs for CS, and since I’m planning on a math/CS major, that’s probably how I would do things.</p>
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<p>This is how I feel about doing math/physics stuff outside of school… I’ve never taken a physics class and I won’t have precalc or Calc BC on my transcript. Not to mention that I didn’t make USPhO semifinals or the AIME (which I was almost certain of getting into) this year; what kind of person who claims to be good at math doesn’t make AIME at this level? (It gets worse; my school has a lot of people who make both, relative to other high schools.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, techy colleges seem to agree that just taking the AP exams for calc/physics/other “core” subjects is less preferable than taking the classes - I sent a bunch of admissions offices an email explaining my situation, and their replies confirmed this. (I’m still taking the physics and calculus AP exams on my own, though.) So I feel pretty much forced into taking physics at the local CC next year, which is actually supposed to be quite difficult, in addition to my medium-high workload (AP English!) at school. At least I can take multivariable calculus at my school; thank you, whoever decided that 3+ on the AP exam is fine!</p>
