<p>I'm a junior (now a senior, I guess), so there is one more year because I will be doing it next year as well.</p>
<p>SPHS Marching Band (4 Years) - 80 Service Hours
-Trombone Section Leader</p>
<p>SPHS Jazz Band (2 Years)</p>
<p>LAUSD All District Honor Marching Band (3.5 Years) - 600 Service Hours
-Anchor Position (Very High)</p>
<p>Founder / President of Philosophy Club (2 Years)</p>
<p>YMCA California Youth and Government Program (4 Years)
-1st year I co-authored and sponsored and passed a bill through the Assembly on hybrid vehicles.
-2nd year I worked as a page, exploring the program by delivering messages things between different areas of the program.
-3rd year I worked as a lobbyist.</p>
<p>People to People Student Ambassador (Summer Program, 1 time to 6 Countries in Western Europe)</p>
<p>USC California Youth Think Tank (Summer Program, 1 time)</p>
<p>AFJROTC (2 Years) - 40 Service Hours
-Rifleman on Color Guard first year, also awarded 10 ribbons if that counts.</p>
<p>Mabuhay Culture Club (2 Years)
Art Club (1 Year)
Armed Forces Club (1 Year)</p>
<p>New stuff I plan on doing next year:
Opening a chapter of Amnesty International at my school
Competing in the Science Bowl
Some other stuff... but thats everything major, I think. I feel like I'm missing something, but whatever :p</p>
<p>I’m also taking some online courses with Coursera, not sure if thats Academic or Extracurricular
All are either with Princeton or U. Penn:
Statistics One
Intro to Sociology
Intro to Pharmacology
Greek and Roman Mythology</p>
<p>It would probably help if you defined ‘good’. Good for your IS public, good for a highly selective private, good for a full tuition merit scholarship at an OOS public…</p>
<p>New stuff I plan on doing next year:
Opening a chapter of Amnesty International at my school
Competing in the Science Bowl
Some other stuff… but thats everything major, I think. I feel like I’m missing something, but whatever</p>
<p>A laundry list of ECs is not impressive and founding a club in your last year is lame. It smacks of resume padding and pandering. Focus instead on the 2-4 things you really enjoy (music and politics in your case) and raise your level of engagement. The purpose of ECs is to showcase talents and abilities that do not come out in your academic record. They allow you to demonstrate exceptional creativity, leadership, empathy, willingness to take risks, and/or “passion.” Simply layering on the ECs is pointless (although there is no reason not to try something new if you want to, just for the fun of it - just don’t expect it to get you points for admissions.)</p>
<p>Also, if you are applying to the UCs - or state schools generally - they are much less interested in your ECs than schools that do a holistic review. They are a lot more ‘by the numbers’ for both legal reasons and because the entering classes are so large that they don’t generally need to worry about having enough trombonists for the marching band.</p>
<p>I founded my school’s philosophy club because I struggled with alot of internal problems. My parents divorced and people in my family were dying, we didn’t have a whole lot of money, my sister ran away, etc.
It was bad. And studying philosophy - reading Schopenhauer or Kierkegaard really help me find solace in the bad things that happened around me.
I was really into this and planned on majoring in philosophy until I realized that I wouldn’t really get anywhere with a degree in philosophy and started thinking about ways to put my philosophical ideals into real practice. I developed an interest in politics, and consequently political activism and human rights movements. I have been waiting months for the next year to start so that I can open up Amnesty International at my school and try to make other students aware while finding ways to help solve international issues or injustices.</p>
<p>Trombone has always been a great hobby of mine that allowed me to not only meet hundreds of talented people who would later go to schools like USC or Georgetown, but also to develop responsibility and leadership skills while giving my community a positive image through something everyone can understand: music. Even when actually playing trombone wasn’t really a “passion,” I knew that band was important to me so I kept on performing - for around 6 years now. </p>
<p>I want to compete in the science bowl because I love science, and as I plan on going into politics after college, I know science is going to play an increasingly major role in future global affairs. </p>
<p>All of my EC’s mean something really important to me, and represent large portions of my personality. I devote hours and hours of my life to these organizations - not because it’s going to get me into college, what a joke that would be. I do it because it is what I like to do.</p>
<p>No blankk, founding a club in your second-to-last year isn’t always lame: If you have shown a consistent passion for some activity and in your junior year, you decide that a club will help you to meet others who share that passion or to expose others who might want to know more about your passion, then by all means found a club. And if you interview with a savvy interviewer or admissions officer, be prepared to talk about what your club does, how it accomplishes this, how many people are involved, how often it meets, etc…In other words, make it real.</p>
<p>What doesn’t work is someone who has founded a club because they have no ‘leadership position’ on their application, so they get together with their 3 best friends, all of whom are officers of the club. Example: S and friends were founding officers of the ‘Statistics and Probability Club’ which met weekly (also known as poker night). Happily, he understood that this was not a substitute for substantive accomplishments in his other ECs.</p>
<p>All of my EC’s mean something really important to me, and represent large portions of my personality.
All those hours, all these words…and, sorry, but no community service? I mean, the sort where you roll up your sleeves and do something because it means something to those you assist, the other guys? </p>
<p>Sorry for that. From the way you descrbe, I suspect you are fine for the UCs, that your commitment and impact in those will show through. </p>
<p>Btw, post 8 has seeds for a great essay, if you can back up your interest in activism and human rights with some compassionate and effective ground level work with the needy, not just other hs friends, in the comfort of the club room. Think about it. Best wishes.</p>