<p>" want to join the Pie Eaters Club! Although clubs like the Games Club and the Pie Eaters Club might not impress colleges, I'd be inclined to give the kids some credit for starting them."</p>
<p>What's the difference between Pie Eaters Club, Games Club and simply having a group of friends over once a week to relax? Should all college applicants get credit for the stress-busting activities that they do with friends?</p>
<p>There is a heckuva lot of difference between starting a "club" in which people just hang out together and starting a club that has activities that are difficult to organize: fundraisers, speakers, community service projects, etc.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, most colleges give no consideration to ECs (except for varsity sports) in evaluating students for admission, though the colleges may use ECs to determine who gets merit aid. The colleges that do use ECs in admission are places like HPYS, and they aren't impressed by students who do things like start clubs for other students who want to relax and hang out and eat pie.</p>
<p>Now, if Pie Club had been doing something like making and delivering pies to homeless shelters, that could have been something that would have impressed top colleges.</p>
<p>What's wrong with a club that does not benefit society? Some clubs at my school are charitable, but some are just started by a group of friends with the same interest/hobby that want to extend a welcome to the rest of the school.</p>
<p>We have a bridge club, for example, where they hang out in a teacher's apartment (on campus) once a week and play bridge and drink gin...</p>
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I can only speak from my perspective, but it seems like in this college-getting-in-frenzy, everyone wants to do whatever he/she can to get into a brand-name college. At my high school, at least this is true. My high school is filled with people who read SparkNotes and never the actual book, who say that they want to go to Williams or Yale in order to get a real education and ironically do homework at the last minute and don't seem to enjoy any learning in high school, and who apply to big-name schools because they think that doing so will guarantee them a good life, and who, unfortunately, largely through legacies, actually get in.</p>
<p>These people also found clubs just to slap it on their applications. They become presidents of the National Honor Society and Biology club and do a shoddy job, proud that they have something to put on their application.</p>
<p>I don't think that admissions officers will be suspicious at all that someone who founds a club wants to do it just to put in on an application. They've seen it before.
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<p>dchow08 - sounds like you're describing my high school!
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<p>Same here. I've actually asked a teacher if I can join a club only to find out it wasn't real and just to pad a student's resume.</p>
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Now, if Pie Club had been doing something like making and delivering pies to homeless shelters, that could have been something that would have impressed top colleges.
<p>"I've actually asked a teacher if I can join a club only to find out it wasn't real and just to pad a student's resume."
Wow...and dissapointing is all I can say.</p>
<p>It drives me nuts that basically our entire student council does nothing (except the new president, the original president became demoted to rep. when someone finally realized he was doing squat.
URGG...just makes me wanna punch them in the face. I use to be in a yoga club (the founder is basically proffesional, she travels around the world for yoga conferences...and she was only a sophmore then!) only to find out that this year there is not enough "space."</p>
<p>Northstarmom: I totally agree with you about all the 'application plumping' that's going on today. The kids today are: reading the 'guide' books, searching the net, listening to hired help, etc... and thats what they say to do: STAND OUT, BE CREATIVE! It's crazy reading the 'chance me' threads. They all sound the same. I can imagine how hard it must be to find the roses amongst the thorns. My hat is off to you! On another note, I do not believe that every club a child starts needs to be a fundraiser, community service, or even be recognized to be worthy. Example: we live in central California where poverty and drugs are a huge influence on our youth. My son has witnessed our towns gifted students, talented althletes and yes, even his 22 year old brother succumb to these evils. Since we have some country property with a pool/ping pong table, he decided to start a weekend ping pong/pool tournament 'club'. Anyone can sign up at school on Friday. The catch: no drinking/drugs allowed. It goes from Fri. night to Sun. morning at times. With kids sleeping anywhere they can. You can not imagine how many kids show up at our door. I've seen with my own eyes the changes in the kids everyone once thought were 'gonners'. My son is Student Body President, Captain of his baseball team and very popular. This is not to brag, but to show you how much influence he has. Did he mention this on any of his applications to his dream schools? In his words, "absolutely not!". I know for a fact, that there are many parents in this town that would have loved to give him a recommendation. Other than Princeton,(and he would not let me write one) the schools won't accept them, nor would he allow it. P.S. His older brother is now doing better and calls his younger brother his 'role model'.:)</p>
<p>Wow, that's amazing! At such a young age too! I can tell that your son is genuinely concerned with the community and has the initiative to do such a thing. I know that I personally am struggling with a lack of initiative and drive--I come up with ideas, but I have a hard time making those ideas become reality. That's something I want to develop in college--being open to new experiences and becoming more active. This is kind of unrelated, but it's quite powerful what you can learn about yourself when you reflect on what activities you do in high school. Since 6th grade I've been on the school's math team. I've been on the chess team and the Latin club in high school. I learned that I am internally driven to challenge myself academically, but even though I am quite idealistic and have ideas of how to make the world better (which you certainly don't do when you're playing chess and solving math problems!), I've reflected and learned that throughout college I want to diversify my experiences through social activism and study abroad experiences.</p>
<p>So doing extracurricular activites (to tie it all together) should be based on what you actually like to do, and the college application should really be a learning experience.</p>
<p>dchow08: My advice: Relax! Enjoy your youth and be yourself. I know how stressfull your high school years can be. Not only academically, but life in general. My heart breaks for the stress you kids are under today. You sound very wise and intelligent and I know there is a place for you in this world. Just follow your heart and not the "how to get into the Ivy" books. Good luck!</p>
<p>I didn't know that what I wrote made it sound like I was stressed. I actually wasn't stressed at all. I didn't mean to trigger that feeling. Right now I'm pretty relaxed; I don't know why you thought that I was following the "get-into-Ivy-league" advice. Did my thought that college applications should be a time of reflection sound like that advice? If so, I have some money to make! :)</p>
<p>Most of the advice I come up with that I tell on CollegeConfidential is common-sense advice. I try to use as much common sense as possible when people say stuff like, "I got an 1800 on the SAT and I NEED to get a 2300. What do I do?" I was faced with these questions too, but I think the fact that I didn't have parents who attended college made me more independent and forced me to think for myself, which appears to be a disappearing skill, evidenced by all the freaking-out posts here. Everyone will eventually be faced with these questions. People are so used to finding out a direct answer, so that when they're faced with something like college applications, which is mysterious, confusing, and stressful for many obvious reasons, that stress is exacerbated (SAT word!) by the fact that there's no one answer to many things regarding college applications.</p>
<p>Okay, I realize that I've been responding in long responses, probably since I've already done all my applications and feel a need to share what I've learned. </p>
<p>But a college application, to me, is like a self-portrait. It's a meaningful experience that you can and should try to have some fun with.</p>
<p>The Revolution, I think you missed the whole point. No, making clubs won't help you get into college if it's something that isn't very beneficial. I mean, don't just make a club because you falsely believe that that will help you get in (e.g. pie-eating club, which is probably less a club than a group of friends who got together to eat pie and try to mislead college admissions officers).</p>
<p>If you feel a genuine sense of duty that you should make a club/achievement that benefits something in some way (e.g. you started an AIDS awareness week in your school because you learned from a pen pal whose relatives died for aids), you would do it regardless of whether it would look good to colleges. That will probably help you get into college, but you should have humanitarian goals in mind, not the goal of looking good.</p>
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sound legitimate (among other factors).
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<p>lmao. -________________-
its fun to direct things, tho =P</p>
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That will probably help you get into college, but you should have humanitarian goals in mind, not the goal of looking good.
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okay, so you don't call it a pie-eating club. you call it the "Cure AIDS Club." but all you do is eat pie. now how are colleges going to know the difference?</p>
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okay, so you don't call it a pie-eating club. you call it the "Cure AIDS Club." but all you do is eat pie. now how are colleges going to know the difference?