<p>Are popularity contests for leadership positions like on student government a bad thing for university admissions because adcoms view it more as a popularity thing?</p>
<p>I know that student government can really be a different experience depending on the school you go to. From what I hear from my friends, they have yet to hear of one that actually works. It's just a bunch of popular guys sitting around slacking off.</p>
<p>I kind of find this discouraging because at our school, although the student government is corrupt (like most), I really spend a lot of time on this EC. I am really popular in the school, but at the same time I an in charge of all the clubs in the school and their presidents (around a hundred). I spend hours and hours just organizing everything. Over a thousand students take part in these clubs, so I make sure that I do a good jon.</p>
<p>Will adcoms not care for this because they know about how it is like generally? Should I continue to become president?</p>
<p>In the words of my mother, "It ain't good."</p>
<p>-but seriously, what you do means a lot more than the position...</p>
<p>But your position can determine whether or not you have the power to do anything.</p>
<p>To me, ALL school leadership stuff is total bs and that's why I neither participate in or recognize them.</p>
<p>They way you tell admissions about your ec is in your essays. Explain how the amt of responsibility you had was enormous and the amount of time you spent doing it was extensive.</p>
<p>At our school we don't really have people who are "popular" but there are people that our student body know well and trust to be good leaders. And our student government is definitly not "corrupt" or "slackers" and are amazing. I think that the student leadership at our school (at least for the senior class) is really fantastic. So it really -DOES- depend on where you go. The way you're going to convey what your school and job within are like is through your essays.</p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with being popular. It's abusing popularity that's wrong.</p>
<p>If the people like you and you're doing what you're supposed to, then hey, what's to lose? </p>
<p>And to answer your question more specifically, being class prez or a member of SGA is always seen as a good thing on college transcripts. I can't imagine adcoms punishing you for being a leader. That's what they want.</p>
<p>Being popular and having social skills is an important aspect of life, why would they punish you for it? Business for an example, is to an extent "who you know."</p>