<p>So I've been going through decisions threads for HYP, and I noticed that a lot of the accepted applicants didn't have that many leadership positions (2-4). People who had a lot of positions ended up not getting in..</p>
<p>I've been grabbing at opportunities, and before I knew it, I've accumulated many leadership positions. Now it seems like I didn't need so many things, but I don't regret doing any of them. However, can having too many positions hurt you? (as I contemplated from some decision posts..) Every EC I put on my common app has a time commitment of at LEAST 2 hours per week.</p>
<p>In my essay I explained the "why" behind my activities..but do I run the risk of being seen as a resume padding applicant?</p>
<p>hmmm, depends. id say anything over 7 EC’s is resume padding, as they do ask for your PRINCIPAL EC’s. however, having too many leadership positions wont hurt you, but you have to explain what you did in these positions. maybe attach a lil resume or elaboration sheet. its true that if you’re the president of like 4 clubs, its going to be suspicious.</p>
<p>President of 3 clubs, 2 leadership positions in community orgs (one major, one not so major), and president of own student company. Resume padding??</p>
<p>I have a (silly?) question.
What one does in the leadership position would be the same thing as what the club does as a whole right? I mean, it’s not like the President of the club is going to do the stuff alone himself. So how does one differentiate b/w “what you did” and what the club did? Or does one just list all the stuff the club did?</p>
<p>You just need to make it clear that some kind of passion is driving what you’re doing. You don’t necessarily need to OMIT any extracurricular activities from your application, but your application is a lot more interesting and compelling if it’s clear that there is something more behind your activities than just “grabbing at opportunities.”</p>
<p>Exactly what Washy said. It’s all relative. Having five ‘good’ EC’s out of five EC’s overall is better than having one ‘amazing’ EC in a sea of ‘random’ activities, unless that EC involves saving the country from destruction in any shape or form.</p>
<p>Anyways, those with many EC’s who were rejected obviously appeared fake to admissions officers, and I am willing to bet that out of all those rejected, not more than 1% of the applicants were interested in the least in even one of their many EC’s.</p>
<p>In my case, there are Science league clubs that you can only be in for one year, the year you take the class. Is it considered resume padding if I am the captain of three of these clubs over three years?</p>
<p>^maybe you should explain that case…
And in my case, our high school goes from gr. 10-12, so most of my ECs are 3 years…will admission officers see that and weigh the years accordingly?</p>
<p>Yes, there is such a thing as too many ECs. What will matter is not leadership positions or club memberships but accomplishments, and being in charge of too many things can prevent you from accomplishing something significant in any one of them. </p>
<p>Thank you everyone. What are some things to look out for regarding resume padding? My interests are broad and it may indeed seem like resume padding, for about half of my ECs are less than 4 hours per week.</p>
<p>I think omitting activities you participated in just because your EC’s may come across as resume padding would be counterproductive. You should definitely make a resume; the Common Application’s activities list won’t allow you to go into sufficient detail about your accomlishments in your ECs. With a large number of activities that risks seeming superfluous, I think the most important objective is conveying some level of depth in each.</p>
<p>I would agree with the second part of your statement. Still, it can be beneficial to leave those clubs in which you were very minimally involved off an application. They can bury significant ECs in clutter. Remember that college admissions is first and foremost a matter of marketing yourself: Every aspect of the application should help to build a particular image.</p>
<p>I filled up all 12 slots of my Activities section with ECs… (I think 12 is the limit) It just worked out to be 12 things, and they were all things that I had enjoyed doing. It’s not like in doing so I was claiming that I was extremely passionate about each of them. My first few were big parts of my life and the others were less significant. I don’t see any harm in that.</p>