Do EC’s just pad your resume or they do actually help in any other sense
If you do something you enjoy and care about ECs will help you to grow as a person and gain new and different expereinces which is IMO much more important than creating a resume for college.
Thank you for your feed back happy1 I will definitely take that into mind when I sign up for EC’s.
Being a leader of an EC helps a lot
Other than the Resume boost, you become more of a role model, assertive, and organized.
Many colleges are interested in the whole person, not just their grades and test scores.
thank you all for your feedback i am sure it will help me a lot
“Many colleges are interested in the whole person, not just their grades and test scores.”
True but most colleges decide based solely on your transcript and test scores. Way too often, HS students over-estimate the weight of ECs. Basically, only at pretty competitive schools do these even matter.
Don’t be a resume padder
By and large what @T26E4 says is correct, IMO. It is when you get up to the most competitive schools, that the stats really do start to blur together. A lot of kids with 34 ACTs, 4.0uw GPAs, class val, etc. How does the adcom differentiate between those kids? That’s when the ECs can make a difference–but obviously in that case they are looking for passion, depth, and high levels of achievement, not padding.
It can also make a difference at some LACs that are not the most elite, however. Because their freshman classes are relatively small (as compared to state flagship U) they might have gaps that need to be filled. For example, when we visited Earlham they had just completed a beautiful new art building. They are also trying to grow each class size by about 50 per year. Putting these two things together would there be a slot there for a B student with a demonstrated extracurricular involvement in art? I would think maybe so.
It depends on the kind of school you want to go to. If you want to go to your State U or your local CC, then probably not. They are more numbers based. If you want to go to very selective Universities, then yes. Like others said, there are many with the same numbers applying. How to differentiate?
Thank you all for your feedback and taking the time to assist me in this topic. If there is any other feedback anyone wishes to post whether it be good or bad please feel free to do so. 