<p>Are you a current college student (or a high school senior recently admitted to college) who threw all (or almost all) your energy into just a single extracurricular ... something you were clearly passionate about (and possibly very successful at doing) but which took up so much time that you were staring at a lot of blank spaces when it was time to fill out the "Activities" section of your applications?</p>
<p>With hindsight, do you think being a "one-trick pony" was a plus or a minus at admission-verdict time?</p>
<p>My son had 3 or 4 EC’s(NHS,Started Tutor Service, Student Gov, sport) but was really passionate and engaged in his tutoring. I don’t know if it helped but it didn’t hurt as he will be attending Yale in the Fall. I think they liked the focus & leadership instead of a shotgun approach.</p>
<p>A senior at my school who fared very well in the admissions process (finalist for Duke AB scholarship, accepted to Amherst, Columbia, full ride NYU, early write Williams) had only one real extracurricular: writing. He was editor of lit mag, president of writing club, etc–really, writing was the only thing he put his weight behind, though he did have a smattering of smaller school clubs. I absolutely think this had a positive affect on his admissions, and I imagine the work he did to turn our school’s lit mag around was remarked upon in recs.</p>
<p>I think that admissions “experts” overstate the importance of focusing single-mindedly on one thing that you become THE BEST at as opposed to being good or very good. By definition, only a small handful of people can be recognized on a national or international level in one activity. I would venture to guess that the majority of people accepted at Ivies and other top schools have a few ECs that they do at a very high, if not national champion or equivalent, level, and that most of the one-extracurricular applicants are NOT people who carry one activity to international prominence, but rather students who just have unimpressive resumes.</p>
<p>Personally, I weeded out a few activities after sophomore year when I realized that my heart just wasn’t in them and chose to spend my junior and senior year taking the helm of a few school activities and rising to a point of state, and to some degree, national, prominence in those activities. But at the end of the day, while I am proud of my accomplishments, they were still fairly mainstream high school activities, and received a brief write-up in my small town newspaper, not a front page story in the New York Times. Nevertheless, I still managed to be accepted to several highly selective reach schools.</p>
<p>So in short, I think that there’s room for all kinds of activity lists in the “accepted” pile, regardless of the institution.</p>
<p>I often get “Ask the Dean” queries from high school students who work long hours at after-school/weekend jobs and are worried that not having enough time left to pursue other extracurricular endeavors will hurt their admissions odds. But, in fact, most admission folks have enormous respect for students who hold paying jobs.</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, employed high school students shortchange themselves at application time by not fully explaining their job and its responsibilities. Some students, for instance, run a store by themselves, open or close a restaurant, or have been promoted to shift supervisor, etc., but the application doesn’t highlight these achievements. Granted, there’s often insufficient room on the application itself for such detail, but most colleges will allow a supplemental resume or annotated activities list, and the “Additional Information” can sometimes be apt for this purpose, too.</p>
<p>I did JROTC, sports, and worked 15 hours/week. My coaches were extremely understanding about my work situation (I needed to help my family out) and with a lot of motivation, I was able to stay on varsity in my sports and work to support my family.</p>
<p>JROTC taught me superior leadership skills and the ability to succeed under pressure.</p>
<p>On top of this were all AP/IB/Honors classes. I also made time to tutor some close friends and my sisters in math when they needed it. </p>
<p>The only thing I really excelled in was JROTC. I became second in command my second year (which has never happened in all of the ten years of the program). In sports I worked super hard just to BE on varsity. I never made it to state or anything (well, my cross country team made it to state but I didn’t win anything) and I didn’t qualify for state in track. I am only the top 5% of my class, but my grades sometimes suffered if I had to close the night before a test or a paper was due.</p>
<p>I honestly only had one thing on my “Activities” section and that was managing the dance team for a single year. But at the same time I put down community service my school had made me take for certain classes, and put down summer jobs I’ve had. But I was accepted into every school I applied to which consisted of Montana State University, Oklahoma State, Georgia Southern, and Auburn University.</p>
<p>I only really had art as a significant EC and then some other common activities. Got into Stanford and Yale. I think demonstrating passion is most important for top schools.</p>
<p>It absolutely does. An “EC” is anything (including a paid job, no matter how menial) that a student does that isn’t a part of his or her school curriculum. Granted, taking classes outside of school (online, at community colleges, at summer school, etc.) would really fall under the “academic”–not “extracurricular”–rubric, even when the classes are voluntary and for enrichment not just credit. However, research can certainly be considered an EC … as are hobbies, even if they’re personal pursuits (e.g., sewing, cooking reading all the books by a favorite author) and not formally organized activities.</p>
<p>One 4-year varsity sport, one academic type team, none of the ten clubs/instruments/volunteering I see on this forum. I’d say I performed pretty much exactly as my numbers alone would have predicted.</p>