<p>My ECs are:
Soccer (2 years JV, 1 Varsity)
Winter Track (1 year JV, 2 years Varsity)
Spring Track (1 year JV, 3 years Varsity, probably captain for 1 year)
Spanish Club (4 years)
Model UN (4 years)
Research in Molecular Genetics Club (1 year)
Pole Vaulting Team (does this count? its separate from school entirely)
Dos Amigos (1 year) (a program where we tutor hispanic kindergardeners and teach them how to speak English)
National Honor Society
*probably in some specialized nhs groups too, but we dont get accepted until senior year i think</p>
<p>Lifeguard over the summer (4 years, 400+ hours)
Soccer referee (5 years)
Volunteer at Food Pantry (60 hours)
Volunteer at church (food drives, clothing drives, setting up nativity scene, etc) (40 hours)
Volunteer EMT (500+ hours)</p>
<p>I don't really have any leadership positions. Will that hurt me a lot?</p>
<p>How high have you vaulted before? </p>
<p>It looks like you’re fairly balanced, but you need to show more “oomph” in some areas. Are you the president/founder of any group? Have you gotten any state/international recognition for you extracurriculars? If not, then you need to take more leadership positions. (To answer your question, yes, it does hurt. It won’t kill an application, but it certainly won’t help much.)</p>
<p>You volunteering/work experience is quite good.</p>
<p>What 1 or 2 ECs do you like the most out of all? Focus on them. That is how you improve; participating in more and more ECs does not help.</p>
<p>I just started and I’ve done 8 feet, but my coach said I should be several feet higher by the end of the month. The most important ones to me are definitely my EMT volunteer service and pole vaulting. What do you mean focus on them? i pretty much already spend as much time on them as possible. Do you mean I should write about them in my app? I think I’m going to make my essay about being an EMT</p>
<p>How much do you care about each activity? Which ones are the most compelling to you? If you care about a few and dedicate time, as you have, you will be fine. Those ECs are very good.</p>
<p>the most compelling are being an EMT and pole vaulting. I care a lot about pretty much everything, minus the clubs I listed (i.e. anything to do with spanish). thanks</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of needing more, it’s a matter of needing activities to which you’ve made a more meaningful contribution.</p>
<p>Pole vaulting definitely counts - ECs don’t have to have any connection to your school.</p>
<p>What you need to do to make your ECs stick out is to emphasize the contribution you’ve made to one or two of those activities. If you’ve deeply committed yourself to an activity and have made an impact on your school, community, or organization, that activity would be an excellent common app essay topic. Another activity that you’ve made a strong commitment to would then work well on your activity short essay.</p>
<p>Essays about your ECs really help bring them to life and show that you’ve actually done something with them, rather than doing just enough to add them to a list. Lists without true substance are not impressive.</p>
<p>Leadership positions would help, but only if they’re meaningful and you’re actually doing something with them. The advantage of leadership positions isn’t in the title, but what you do with the position (even if it’s not an official position).</p>
<p>would EMT qualify as something that has made an impact on the community? I’m literally saving lives. what are the common app essay topics? do they change from year to year?</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether the common app essay topics change from year to year, but you can write about anything you want, as the last topic option is always “topic of your choice.” The other topics are really just to give ideas to people who have no idea what they should write about.</p>
<p>IMO, your work as an EMT would make an excellent essay. You seem to have a strong interest in it and it sounds like a meaningful experience that’s actually helping people in a serious way. I’d say go for it. You can always get your counselor, parents, English teacher, etc. to read it over for their impressions and suggestions (and should, even if you only do that for the common app essay, as that one’s the most important).</p>
<p>okay thank you so much. i’ll be sure do that</p>