<p>How much weight is given to extracurricular achievements? To my knowledge, this is the prompt:</p>
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<p>What I’m most concerned about is how much ECs play into admission for CBHP. I think I’m pretty perfect for this program personality-wise; I am creative, self motivated, and independent if anything at all. I’m teaching myself programming languages and just finished building a very, very bad search engine, I’ve been doing video editing for I guess 6 years now, I kind of do art (I’m good but I don’t really enjoy it anymore), I’m really good at skateboarding and a number of other insignificant, but self taught activities. I truly love learning and the process of teaching myself new things.</p>
<p>These all seem like small time ECs compared to what I think most other kids applying to the program would have…Does anybody have any insight? My numbers are okay for this program (97 weighted with a huge upward trend, 1560/1600 SAT)</p>
<p>I really want to do it because I’m an EE and I’m very interested in research.</p>
<p>Hey! I’m an entering freshman going into CBHP so I may have some good advice to you in this area. It’s ok that you don’t have one big “volunteered in Ghana” EC. Your whole paragraph about teaching yourself programming and loving learning sounded great to me. Clearly you are self-motivated and creative AND an independent worker. PM for more advice, but I suggest that you discuss in your essay the breadth of your interests and your process when you find a new one. Ex: what sparked your interest in programming, how you went about teaching it to yourself. I could easily see a great essay start off with “I’m a dabbler” but show how you dive into each area you dabble in and how it reflects and/or shaped your personality.</p>
<p>Hey MichaelGScarn! As a senior in CBHP, I can tell you that extracurricular activities do matter. We want to see what type of person you are and what you are passionate about to determine if you are a good fit for the program (and it certainly sounds like you are, on paper at least). You definitely seem to have motivation, focus and a love of learning. Take some time to carefully craft your essays - draw from several activities you are involved in to show who you are in a broader sense. </p>
<p>You don’t need to have already saved the world several times before you apply, we don’t focus on that (though some kids have done things like that). Iterry gives some decent advice. Just take your time and really try to tell your story of who you are and why you do the things you do, then relate that to the ideals of CBH. Also, be sure to explain why CBH would help you in your professional goals. Take your last sentence and turn that into a paragraph.</p>
<p>You sound like a strong candidate. Just take your time when writing your essays and express your interest and motives clearly. And visiting Dr. Sharpe and campus would definitely be a boost.</p>
<p>I highly suggest visiting campus if at all possible. I don’t know where you are located in New Jersey, but I’ve booked airfare from Birmingham to EWR (Newark) for $240 roundtrip and the price sometimes goes lower than that.</p>
<p>The advice given above is very good and I’ll emphasize that you should be yourself in the application process and essay. Some people have the tendency to try too hard to be the perfect applicant and hide their true selves. Don’t do that. It appears to me that you are a strong candidate for CBHP and that your ECs are perfectly fine.</p>