I’m a junior and I’ve joined a few more clubs this year which have a lot of time commitment at my school atleast(FBLA, Model UN, etc), along with officer positions in some of them. i do these because I enjoy it, but I don’t want it to look like I’m resume padding. I have about 4 ECs from freshman/sophomore year, but 3 that I joined this year either because I became interested in the topic this year(became interested in business end of last year) or the club was started this year. I understand I shouldn’t do stuff just for college admissions, and I’m not, but it’s hard to convince someone of that after starting an EC halfway through high school. From someone else’s point of view, does this look bad?
Probably not. You’re better of than me; I have a LOT of senior year resume fluffers and I’m pretty sure that will look bad…
You do have a few that you will have done for all 4 years, right? I don’t think they expect that you will have done all of your activities all through high school, but it is nice to see a few on there. I think you are set up very well for your applications, in terms of ECs.
I have one good EC from ninth grade and 2 so-so from ninth, one starting in tenth(tennis), 2(FBLA/Model UN) starting this year and possibly a third one, and tennis volunteering the summer after junior year. I’m not sure if officer positions help, but I have some and I’ve moved up quite a bit in our tennis positions on varsity from second doubles last year to third/second singles this year.
I’m not trying to make a rate my ECs thread or anything, just wondering if it looks like I joined for the sake of joining from someone else’s point of view.
Oh I’ve taken piano lessons and practice for about 3 hrs/week for 5-7 years now, but I don’t play for the school or have any awards. I’m not sure if that even counts as an EC, its more of a hobby
Padding is a College Confidential idea. Fortunately, you aren’t applying to CC. We’d have to know more about your goals and activities to evaluate. But in general, many kids add new opportunities in jr or sr year. Not all activities are always available to Freshmen and sophs. The question you should ask yourself is what those ECs show about you, whether it’s what your college targets want to see. Take a look at what you’ve done that isn’t just about your hs.
Is writing a seperate resume for extracurriculars common or is it seen as a burden to read for admissions? One of my ECs isn’t something done at most schools and I can’t really explain everything in one line.I know this is a seperate question, but I didn’t want to create a new thread just for this.
@Classof2017 Only add a resume if it adds SIGNIFICANT information that you isn’t contained anywhere else in the application. Don’t attach a resume that’s just a repetition of your common app activities.
Many students can only start participating in activities their junior year due to transportation restrictions. (Ie before that you can’t drive, don’t necessarily have parents that can leave work to drive you, and/or live in an area without public transportation.)
If it’s something you enjoy then who cares how it looks to adcomms? Whether you start something freshmen or junior year is not going to be the deciding factor on an application.