<p>On the same note, is it possible that not having many ECs your freshman year will hurt you? I just joined math club, but I have a good excuse: both of my parents are doctors, working every other day, and there are no people I know that take part in the clubs I want to participate in. Will the Ivies and other presitigious colleges look down on this? Thanks so much.</p>
<p>An EC isn't so much a club. Colleges want well-rounded freshman classes, but they don't really want well-rounded students. You want to be an unique applicant. Try to show long-term commitment and "passion" in one/two activities. You don't want to have a long list of clubs/activities without much involvement in any. A EC isn't so much a club, but rather a special interest that you have.</p>
<p>Thanks, dufus3709. What would you recommend I do though, since my parents barely have time to take me anywhere?</p>
<p>It is true that Princeton doesn't calculate frosh grades in your GPA and I doubt they give them much consideration, if any. I had 4 or so Bs in freshman year (3.5ish), improving to a 3.8ish soph year and a 4.0 junior year, and I got into Princeton ED, so you never know. They love to see marked improvement. However, my school doesn't rank, and low frosh grades can hurt you if they lower you in the ranking.</p>
<p>Basically, which years are the most important? btw, when colleges look at your transcript, do they look at your second semester of senior year? There's this class I really want to take, that's regular, but I don't want it to hurt my gpa, so.</p>
<p>i'm trying to take it the end of my senior year.</p>
<p>say i got a B+ in a term but I had A at the end as a cumulative year grade, colleges only care about the A, right?</p>
<p>Do you mean you got a B+ after the first 18 weeks of school?</p>
<p>cooljoe: A good EC can be whatever you are interested in so long as you have long-term commitment and "passion" The word "passion" is always used in the college guides. Very, very strong EC's are playing concert piano, doing scientific research in the summers, having articles that you've written published in magazines. For practical purposes, a good EC is something that you are really interested in and can write about in an essay. This could be drawing, Karate, writing, or whatever. Don't think of it terms of schools clubs, though. Actually a long list of school clubs is not very good.</p>
<p>i disagree with dufus's analysis. an ec is an Extra-Curricular activity (spelln?) and it is anything you spend your time on outside of class. so in this regard sitting on the couch playing video games is an extra curricular activity (but it's certainly not one you want to put on your apps!) strong EC's are ones where you succeed or excell in. they include concert piano playing yes, but they can be things like being president of your club, or a step up the ladder, founding a club. still, they can see through a bunch of wimpy attempts to make yourself become pres of a bunch of clubs. join clubs that interest you. im in a ton of school clubs just because in my small town there is nothing to do. </p>
<p>so anyways, school clubs are EC's but unless you are pres/founder, they are weak.</p>
<p>oh and awards are great too.</p>
<p>thanks, sharkbite</p>
<p>Anyway, what kinds of awards do you mean? Should awards obtained in middle school be put on a college application?</p>
<p>everything you do in middle school is basically irrelevant for admissions. Do your best in HIGH SCHOOL. Only that chunk counts.</p>
<p>whjat's considered hard/selective AP classes? there's many of them, list what you think are top hardest ones.</p>
<p>I agree about schools being lenient about freshman grades. But I have a twist that I believe one person mentioned: class rank is extremely important at the most selective schools. Generally a lowish class rank (even if caused only by freshman year non-A's) can take someone out of the running at a top school, or at least put them at a huge advantage. There were kids with lower GPAs accepted, but the class rank tends to linger sky high.</p>
<p>stambliark41, that wouldn't be fair to us transfer students. despite the fact i took all ap/honors offered at my old school, at this school, they simply offer more. the class rank is weighted. they even count minuses. it's a whole different system.</p>
<p>i think we should abolish class rank.</p>
<p>Voodoovince's post made sense out of all of the overachieving posts I've read this month (in this board)</p>