I take care of 4 crested geckos, 1 cockatiel, 1 husky, and 1 bunny at home. They take a good portion of my week considering I have to feed, clean, and habituate/train.
Taking care of pets would not be considered an EC.
Is it okay to put it in the additional comments portion of my application? I feel like the number of pets I have is uncommon compared to other households. I also like to breed geckos that’s why I have so many.
There are many students helping out family that have large numbers of animals to take care of. . . .I had a roommate who lived on a large working farm with goats, pigs, and dairy cows. She was up before dawn doing her chores with milking, and feed/grain. Then, she went to swim practice, all before 7am and stayed as long as she could doing swim and cross-country. My opinion: Taking care of pets is not an extracurricular that benefits others.
Ah, I see. The application said that one of the things that I could list under Activities & Awards are hobbies and taking care of pets and breeding geckos was one of them. Good thing I clarified here, thanks to both of you!
I’m going to dissent here and say if your breeding geckos is time consuming and important to you, to list it. Especially if your intended major is anything related to pre-vet.
The risk is if OP describes it as so time consuming that adcoms wonder if he can leave them behind, for college. And you want to have ECs somewhat relevant to college life.
OP just make your best decision.
@CUTSH0T . . . also, as the prior two persons mentioned in posts #5 & #6, I’m thinking that this begs to be written about in your personal statement.
All the best.
Sounds like something you could write a good essay about. It’s unique and makes you, you.
@CUTSH0T . . . don’t want to lead you down the wrong path, but I thought the new format had a questions-and-answers part and personal-essay section. The Personal Insight Questions have actually replaced the personal statement part, and these – as you doubtlessly know better than I, with your doubtlessly having worked on your UC app – are where you expound on your unique experiences and goals.
Hopefully this new format will enable you to be just as creative, with your answering four of eight questions with each response having a max-word count of 350. (500 is the typical number of words per 8.5 x 11" page, with font 12, New Times Roman; additionally, they must refine it to average characters per word; hopefully they’re not small words.) The eight questions do seem to be general enough for you to expound on your animals, and perhaps where their care leads to your future if it indeed does.
And if the individual campuses need a supplementary essay related to your major, they’ll prompt you for it a bit down the road.
All the best.