describing nontraditional EC's

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I'm trying to just pursue EC's that I'm passionate about without worrying about looking good on college apps. However, I'd like to know how exactly I'm going to express my extracurricular experiences on the apps.</p>

<p>While school clubs are easy to describe on apps, some nontraditional EC's are a bit more problematic. For instance, I'm really passionate about photography. I shoot for my school newspapers and yearbook, have been published as a freelancer in one national newspaper, am currently working for a chain of 60 suburban papers (my coverage area includes about 15 of these papers), have shot for one political campaign and plan to do the same for another within the next few weeks, and have been recently contacted about the possibility of shooting ads/PR material for both a small non-profit and a fortune 100 company.</p>

<p>I obviously wouldn't be able to write each newspaper or freelance project as a separate EC on an app, but just writing "photography" might not convey the magnitude of my interest in photo. Any advice on how to deal with this?</p>

<p>Thanks,
wmmk</p>

2

<p>From what I remember of the Common App, you can list the EC as "Photography" and then there's a space to elaborate further on your involvement, awards won, etc. If that space isn't enough, you may discuss it in one of your essays, or under the "Additional Information" section.</p>

3

<p>Yeah, the additional information section and the space to describe one of your extracurriculars could come in real handy. Then again, if photography is really what you care about, why not write a whole essay about your involvement and what it means to you?</p>