are these strong EC's?

Applying to College
1

<p>Extra-curricular
-arabic school 2 years on Saturdays, same with art school
-violin and piano 4 years, level testing, youth orchestra
-NHS
-tennis team outside of school 2 years
Community service 513 hours (animal and child care & orchestra business related)
-community college: basic physics (to skip into AP) and basic computer programming (to skip to AP Java), also an art class for fun
-I study psychology in my free time (like personality typology)
Chinese speech: 2nd place (sophomore year ^^ yay!)
1st place (junior year !!!!!!!!)
Clubs:
Started 9th: art and chess club
started 10th grade: youth services in America- (treasurer), education empowers, chemistry, volunteer for senior citizens, CSF
started this year: mock trial (secretary) , speech and debate, business club (treasurer), math club</p>

<p>Summer sophomore year
-2 concurrent cal precollegiate programs
-debate camp
-volunteer/internship at Washington
-CSSSA= art scholar
-ASSE: aided those newly immigrated into our area from China (translating, giving advice, etc)
-private math tutor for a 7th grader </p>

<p>Summer junior year
-oxford advanced study program in business
-study abroad in Europe (2 weeks abbey road program) and shanghai china: volunteered as an English teacher while in china
-saint mary’s math camp in moraga
- continued debate camp
-another precollegiate/atdp (academically talented development program) at Berkeley like previous year
-joined youth orchestra</p>

2

<p>You know you Macedonia out your ECs and they’re really good… why do you even bother posting? To show off?</p>

3

<p>It’s really a good long list of extra-curriculars, but I think if you had ones that illustrated a demonstration of leadership you have would also be good.</p>

4

<p>It’s not bad, but it sure looks like a lot of things you signed up for and/or your folks could pay to have you do. I don’t see a lot of initiative or achievement, which is what they look for at top schools. </p>

<p>The question about impressive ECs comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How</a> to Be Impressive](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-art-of-activity-innovation-how-to-be-impressive-without-an-impressive-amount-of-work/]How”>The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save</a> This Grind?](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/09/12/case-study-how-could-we-save-this-ridiculously-overloaded-grind/]Save”>Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.</p>

5

<p>Clearly you don’t do enough :P</p>

6

<p>Nothing spectacular. As long as the list is, it doesn’t demonstrate you accomplishing much or being seriously involved in something significant.</p>

<p>Also, please don’t report your community service hours in anything less than increments of 50 on your applications or resume. It looks absolutely ridiculous and makes the activity look like it’s about racking up hours rather than helping your community.</p>

7

<p>depends where you’re applying</p>

8

<p>I’m applying for Berkeley, does that help?</p>

9

<p>Yes, I wasn’t intending to write my application exactly how I write it on college confidential.
I was posted specifically because I feel there is nothing spectacular, not because I want to show off either. Yes, a lot of money went into this, that’s true. But I happened to not have that many opportunities at leadership activities as those are not immediately available for everybody and I enjoy activities such as studying abroad. Would it help if I started a club senior year and maybe got a job? I need ideas, thanks for the thread it looks great. Also, how many extracurricular activities should I list on the app total?</p>

10

<p>Colleges look for quality, not quantity. They want to see a few long-term, well-developed ECs, not a long list of clubs and lessons. ECs should demonstrate growth, leadership, and commitment. How many of these would you be doing if you weren’t building a resume for college? Choose a few you’re really interested in and pursue them in depth.</p>

11

<p>

That’s just making excuses.</p>

<p>The top schools (not sure if Cal falls into this in terms of ECs) are looking for students that make their own opportunities. Many students, and I suspect you fall into this group, see “leadership opportunities” as something that is provided by someone else such as a school with lots of clubs. That’s one view, a passive one, but the top schools won’t settle for that. The links I gave you earlier have examples of students that went and created something new, and you could have done so too.</p>

<p>Listing expensive ECs will help you at some colleges. While the top schools are need blind in admissions, many schools are not. Listing ECs like you have is a great tip to adcoms that you will be able to pay full freight, and that can help in admissions at some schools. It won’t help at Cal since they don’t care about ability to pay when admitting students.</p>

12

<p>In fact, I didn’t do these for college, I probably would have done most of them regardless. I enjoy taking classes abroad it’s something I enjoy because the college system fits me so much better so I can like it. So do you mean these are good enough for school like Berkeley. Which one’s of these should I list than? As for these I’m only seeing 2 of them as things you just pay for… the precollegiate programs and studying abroad ones… The other one’s have an entry fee that isn’t low but the price is nothing to show off. I guess could try writing a book in my free time.</p>