Can these be considered as ECs?

Applying to College
1

<p>As far as I know, ECs are anything (unique) you do out of your curriculum. But since I'm not a US citizen I can't be sure, so here goes.</p>

<p>Side note: I want to major in Psychology.</p>

<p>Thorough Researches on Psychology and Philosophy (no awards, completely as a hobby)
Writing a book right now
Thorough researches on medieval king's courts to understand human behavior (still as a hobby, I don't have any physical accomplishment but I feel that it has made me a smarter and more intellectual person)
Researches on the existence of a divine being (completely as a hobby)
Community service, helping elementary school students who don't have sufficient finances
Weekly basketball class at school since 10th grade.</p>

<p>I live in Turkey and there is literally NOTHING I can do to participate in more EC activities except for doing stuff on my own. That community service I listed, for example, is super-rare in my country since everybody just focuses on academic stats and no ECs are taken into consideration while admitting a freshman. Best thing I can do at my school to get better ECs right now is just attending more sports classes. We don't even have any EC activity classes for 11-12th grades, and even if we did nobody would care because they are so irrelevant and trivial to the Turkish educational system.</p>

<p>So, can the activities I listed be considered as ECs?</p>

2

<p>Community service can be considered as volunteering though none of the thing you listed really qualify as EC’s. however you can mention your research in your appication</p>

3

<p>I really thought that ANYTHING I do out of school could be considered as an EC - and I got compliments for the writing a book EC as people thought that with considerable evidence it could be a very powerful EC - and that my “research ECs” show passion in psychology.</p>

<p>Anyone else?</p>

4

<p>Writing a book is an EC. Reading up on things you really enjoy isn’t ‘research.’ However, if you have nothing else, there is no reason why you can’t indicate that your hobby is reading. It’s not very compelling, but in the absence of anything else, if this is indeed how you spend your free time, put it down. They want to know who you are and what you care about when you are not being a student, and implicitly what you will add to the campus. </p>

<p>They also know that you are an international applicant and that your opportunities for traditional ECs are limited so I wouldn’t worry about this. Focus on the things you can control: Your grades, test scores, and essays.</p>