<p>I see a lot of people asking if they should take the one extra AP course or if they should join club 'x' (which sounds like a really scary club if you ask me, maybe they are pirates?)</p>
<p>Anyway, It really disappoints me that so many people aren't doing things because they want to. If you don't like sports, don't play one. If you don't like our foreign language, don't take AP and then try to make yourself interested in it. School should be challenging, you shouldn't take something too easy or you'll get bored (and you may end up doing even worse than if you took an AP!), but life is too short to work yourself to death.</p>
<p>You should try to think about other creative endeavors beyond work or school.</p>
<p>I don't know, maybe I'm nuts, but seriously, sometime you need to just relax.</p>
<p>Also, don't volunteer helping old people if you don't like old people.</p>
<p>Well, if what the person "wants to do" is get into a certain college, what's wrong with enhancing the way that college views them? Whether that be join club X or take AP X, if they think that THAT will help them do "what they want to do," is there anything wrong with it?</p>
<p>It's a shallow way to approach admissions and there is a good chance someone in admissions will see right through it. Passions are easy to spot. There is a track record and the interests extend into other areas of the students life. A laundry list of hours spent on an EC, doing a sport for a year or two, joining Student Government senior year just to be president, (when you haven't been a part of SG all the prior years) and being VP of two clubs and P of two clubs (with no real depth) just doesn't cut it.</p>
<p>I still think that someone with a laundry list of ECs of which he has little passion on still stands a better chance compared to someone who "passionately" plays video games (XBOX,WoW,etc.) everyday with all other factors being equal. </p>
<p>I've heard alot of people saying: "oh but playing video games everyday is a waste of time etc. etc. there are better activities that would highlight your XYZ qualities" Wouldn't that be the same as telling people what to do? That is, to do something that you are passionate in that would shine in the adcom's eyes?</p>
<p>There's always a caveat in letting someone do what they want to do. Sometimes they don't know what is good for them, be it in the short term or in the long term.</p>
<p>Logical thing is find a balance. Do activities tht ur passionate tht does helps ur resume. It is possible. Call me a tree hugger if u want but most of my EC commitment is centered on environmental issues and a AP in Environmental Science :).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Of course a laundry list of ECs is better than video games...video games isn't an EC.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How so? Firstly, what constitutes an extracurricular activity? Literally taken, it is an activity outside of the formal school curriculum. Is it an activity that is officially recognized by the school? Yes, but its not simply limited to that. Club involvement outside school can also be recognized as an EC and put down on your resume. What if you are part of a professional gaming club? It's also an "EC" right? FYI my school (not in the US mind you), does have a professional gaming club officially recognized by the school.</p>
<p>This is precisely my point. Certain activities, be it official or not, will be perceived negatively most of the time. I suppose most people in CC know that to succeed in admission you will need to build a good resume. If you really have passion for playing video games but realize that doing it as an EC doesn't confer you any advantage thus resorting to your second choice EC that is more recognized, then hey, aren't you doing what you think will be better-looking to the adcoms? </p>
<p>Or.. take it this way. Some people think that adcoms will see through those padded resumes. Then they would want to be different by focusing your passion on some ECs that really conveys your interest. Isn't that the same as doing what they think the adcoms would want them to do?</p>
<p>Always take the advice of "doing what you want to do" or "being yourself" with a caveat. Sometimes they can disadvantage you. Use common sense.</p>
<p>I just remember the quote by one admissions officer or alumni interviewer in some article I read:</p>
<p>"These kids don't have lives, they have resumes."</p>
<p>Getting into a good college is viewed as a matter of survival and I understand that, but ultimately connecting with what makes you happy and at the same time provides you a life and a living is the ultimate form of survival and thriving. Through life, our goal is to ascend Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs -- to move from survival to a kind of thriving that absorbs ourselves. </p>
<p>If we always shoot just for surviving, sometimes we don't even get that. This is partly because a person who spends his or her whole life faking passions often, at some point, has to face the fact that they've been fooling themselves and other people. Well, often or at least sometimes. It is true that some people don't actually need to feel passion towards what they do or their lives as much as others. I suppose people like this can carry on forever going through the motions. I can tell you, though, there's nothing sadder than to see someone who just go through the motions of a life they despise or that brings them no joy. Don't live your life such that you become that guy/gal.</p>
<p>Well personally I would love for the chance to build a laundry list of activities! I'm international, and curriculum/studying takes up so much time for us that it's impossible to join everything we want to. (My ECs make me happy, but yeah there are a bunch more that I've always wanted to try!!) Maybe some people do want both the AP class and the EC? (: I don't know.</p>
<p>Tomo88 - you describe my son to a T! He would like nothing better than to play video games all day. I insist he do one school EC (speech/forensics) and stay in Boy Scouts, which he likes some aspects of and has to be prodded to do others, but video games are his passion.</p>
<p>Now that gaming club sounds like an interesting idea, but I bet the administration would reject it based on game violence.</p>
<p>I'll feel qualified to express an opinion on this topic when I've got a kid or two safely in a college that they like. My oldest has Asperger's Syndrome. I'm very lucky that he has found even one EC about which he is passionate and which has accepted him with open arms. He's never going to be elected as an officer of an organization. He is my "what will be will be child" - there's no forcing this square peg into a round hole.</p>
<p>But I can see where kids may freak out if they don't have the "laundry list" of ECs. I was looking on line at a scholarship application for Eagle Scouts. The scout is to literally check the box of all their ECs. The list of possible ECs went on for 2 pages. A child who has devoted himself to one or two passions may be only able to check one or two boxes, out of the dozens and dozens that are listed. I can see where that could make a student panic or give up on the application all together.</p>
<p>"Now that gaming club sounds like an interesting idea, but I bet the administration would reject it based on game violence. "</p>
<p>Depends on the school. My D's school (small, private, central Texas) had a senior class fundraiser last Friday afternoon and evening: A HALO tournement held in the senior lounge at their school.
For those that don't know, HALO is a popular video game. I think the computer club and the AP computer science groups pitched in to help. Not sure how this would go down in a public school setting.</p>
<p>I know this is slightly off-topic, but it is an example. Certainly winning this tournement would be a joke on a college app, but organizing the fundraiser and running the tournement is noteworthy.</p>