<p>bearsforlife</p>
<p>you are in-state too. that means A LOT.</p>
<p>I think the idea is not that joining clubs is a must in order to get into college, but that it makes you a much more competitive candidate at schools where the entire applicant pool has 4.0+ GPAs, amazing SATs, awards, etc. They want you to contribute to their university and not sit holed up in your room the whole time, and your extracurriculars will reflect your assertiveness.</p>
<p>there is a kid at my S's HS whose parents have hired a bigtime "packager" for him to get into the Ivies. I'm waiting to see what happens to all their packaging. Mummy is a high priced lawyer--you see the type played on tv all the time: strident shrieker. Dad is a mouse.<br>
It will be the height of irony if this kid is rejected everywhere.</p>
<p>Harvard admissions officers and alumni interviewers despise applications that seem packaged. I interview in a relatively small city far from the NE, so that phenomenon took a while to get to my area. I first heard of it from the alumni interviewers in places like New England and NYC. They assured me that it's not hard to figure out who's packaged.'</p>
<p>When the phenomenon reached my area, I found that to be true. The students' interviews sound canned and if one asks follow-up questions, it's clear that their ECs were done as resume dressing, and had little real impact. For instance, students who take classes and do ECs out of genuine interest will be able to speak easily and interestingly about what attracted them to those activities. Students who did those things simply to get into college will name the activity and assume that it will speak for itself. When asked follow-up questions, they draw blanks.</p>
<h1>1) Public school admissions is much different than private schools. PSU, Illinois, etc, don't care about extracurriculars very much. A comprable private school, Case Western, cares a lot about extracurriculars. Not all people can succeed in huge schools and thus extracurriculars are necessary for those students to be able to go to a good college.</h1>
<h1>2) You're proud that you went your high school career without clubs and community service? I have loved the many extracurriculars I have participated in. I did not do them for college, I did them because they're hobbies! I would not want to spend all my time sleeping, eating, doing schoolwork, and socializing. It makes life more interesting to have things to do. And community service is something that a good citizen will want to do regardless of college. I like to help people. It's great to use what you have to help others. How can you possibly be proud that you did not help people when you could have?</h1>
<p>Clubs don't do **** for your resume. Excuse me for my language, but it's people like you who have a warped sense of what gets you into college. </p>
<p>It makes you a better person? Maybe, but how does that help you with your future job search? How does joining a club help you do that? It doesn't. </p>
<p>Look at the big picture.</p>
<p>When I'm in college, I won't be sittin in my room all day doin nothing. I'll be going to class, and hopefully playin sports, hanging out, and doin stuff. </p>
<p>Just cause u don't do clubs in high school don't mean you won't do anything in college. </p>
<p>For my case, I'm jus not motivated to do clubs in high school. Just not my thing. A lot of people don't do clubs.</p>
<p>I was just responding to the 1st person who posted a reply when she said something about people in the Northeast having a sterotype of state universities and the fact that they think they suck. </p>
<p>I just made a reply to that. I think it's entirely true. </p>
<p>I even see it on these boards. So many people are obssessed with applying to Ivy League schools and all these top scholar schools, WHEN YOU CAN GET A SIMILAR EDUCATION AND HAVE TO PAY LESS MONEY. I BELIEVE IT IS PARTLY THEM LOOKING DOWN ON PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WHO GO TO A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY. </p>
<p>IT'S A PROVEN FACT THAT PRIVATE SCHOOLED STUDENTS ARE SNOBBY AND THINK THEY ARE BETTER THAN THE REST OF US. </p>
<p>Hey, take it or leave it. I'm expressing what I think is true.</p>
<p>No it doesn't. I had a college counselor in my school tell me that I didn't have much of a shot of getting into the Univ. Of Illinois, it'd be a stretch. </p>
<p>They've gotten a lot stricter with their admission standards the last few yrs. so I'm damn lucky to have been accepted to go there. </p>
<p>Being in-state has nothing to do with it. IN FACT, I'M EVEN MORE LUCKY, CAUSE ONE OF MY TEACHERS TOLD ME THAT UNIV. OF ILLINOIS IS LOOKING TO BROADEN ITS HORIZONS, LOOKING TO FIND PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT SCHOOLS CAUSE PROBABLY A GOOD 300-500 PEOPLE APPLY FOR UNIV OF ILLINOIS IN MY SCHOOL EACH YEAR. </p>
<p>Plus, In-staters pay less than out-of-state kids do. So that logic makes no sense. They are looking to find more out of state kids to go to their school because they bring in even more money. </p>
<p>It's even more amazing that I got into there. With all that competition, just in my own high school.</p>
<p>"IT'S A PROVEN FACT THAT PRIVATE SCHOOLED STUDENTS ARE SNOBBY AND THINK THEY ARE BETTER THAN THE REST OF US."</p>
<p>With language like that, they might have a point with regards to you, specifically.</p>
<p>Oh, and I go to a public school.</p>
<p>I'm glad you to are assuming things about me. </p>
<p>So that puts us on the same level now. </p>
<p>lol. oh brother.</p>
<p>How does this GPA look?</p>
<p>Freshman: 3.9uw (2 honors, 0 APs)
Sophomore: 3.5uw (0 honors, 0 APs)
Junior: 3.7uw (1 honors, 2 APs)
Senior: ??uw (1 honors, 3 APs)</p>
<p>Transcript GPA up to Junior Year: 3.76uw/3.92w. Rank: 34/375.</p>
<p>I got a good GPA with a harder courseload, but a low GPA with an easy courseload. I guess I feel lazy when the im in regular classes. It is less challenging...</p>
<p>How does this look for a Big 10 school like UIUC? Does it look favorable? Or am I screwed?</p>
<p>ur in pretty good shape, of course depends where you wanna go within UIUC, business, engineering, etc..</p>
<p>But the 1 deal is that you dropped from freshman year. That's the only con I see on your resume so far.</p>
<p>bearsfolife: What, exactly, did I assume about you?</p>
<p>I made no assumptions. I merely judged you based on your comments. I suggest that if you can make such sweeping, negative generalizations, you are not deserving of the respect of most people.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I did not ask nor do I need the respect of you. </p></li>
<li><p>I simply state my opinion</p></li>
<li><p>No generalizations are being made. People who go to Ivy league schools give asbolute no consideration to state/public universities, b/c they have a percieved thought about it not being as good. THAT'S CALLED BEING A SNOB.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Very well. </p></li>
<li><p>As do I.</p></li>
<li><p>The first sentence and the second sentence contradict each other here. "No generalizations" is immediately followed by a generalization.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Perhaps some who go to Ivies or other private schools are snobs. But you can't reasonably claim that "people" in general who go to Ivies are snobbish.</p>
<p>Wow. This is absolutely rediculous.</p>
<p>I am going to Carnegie Mellon University this fall. I was accepted into Penn State, U of Illinois, and U of Michigan, 3 wonderful public schools. I don't think those schools are worse than CMU (especially not Michigan, they are very comprable). But they are extremely different. I liked that CMU was in a city, that it has a very nerdy/quirky student body, and many other factors. My parents were willing to pay the extra money. How does that make me a snob? I have no problem with public schools!</p>
<p>You make it sound like the school someone ends up at tells all about them...</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Counterexample #1.</p>
<p>Ok, I worded it wrong. I shouldn't have said all people who go to a private or Ivy league school are snobs. </p>
<p>But I mean, you must agree that there are more snobs in those types of schools who look down at people in public universities. </p>
<p>I shouldn't have made a complete generalization like that, but I still feel like there are many snobs like that.</p>
<p>For example, I jus learned today in my Govt. class that the only colleges that the chief justices of the Supreme Court went to were Harvard, Yale, Oxford, etc..Prime example of snobbish actions.</p>
<p>Cool. We actually reached a middle point.</p>
<p>I agree that snobs will likely be drawn to private, "elite" universities. I don't fault the schools for this, of course. It's just how things play out. </p>
<p>Good debate.</p>