<p>Hello, everyone! With all the hype surrounding the importance of having at least semi-focused extracurriculars, i have begun worrying about mine. could you please glance over my list, and see if it appears that i have been "padding" my resume?</p>
<ol>
<li>mayor's youth council</li>
<li>class treasurer</li>
<li>Habitat for Humanity President</li>
<li>German Club Board Member</li>
<li>International Relations Club Board Member</li>
<li>German Exchange Program organizer (with sister school in Germany)</li>
<li>Academic Team 2-year Captain</li>
<li>NHS Officer</li>
<li>Tutor at my school and downtown</li>
<li>Captain of Baseball team (not good enough to be recruited :/</li>
<li>Captain of Cross Country team</li>
<li>Work at DQ in summer</li>
</ol>
<p>I joined the clubs that interested me, and in no conscious way tried to pad my resume. I'm just worried I'll come off as just another crazy-busy high schooler to the big schools. My three biggest passions are German, government, and community service....is that clear? Should I delete NHS and Tutoring? Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>ok, thanks for your insight! I think I’ll try to group them a little more effectively…i.e. german stuff first, government stuff second, then community service/work stuff. Would it come across as shallow if the community service stuff is last?</p>
<p>Highlight all ECs where you have shown leadership - captain of anything, tutoring. Leave out anything where you are just a member.
Work at DQ is work experience, not EC. Did you get paid for tutoring? If so, then that’s work not EC.
I don’t think your ECs are too many. Being the captain for baseball and cross country, they are during different seasons.<br>
For each of those ECs, don’t you have to put down number of hours per week over a period of time. Captain of baseball - 10hrs/week, for 3 months.
List your ECs in the order of importance.</p>
<p>@oldfort–thanks for your insight! to answer your question, the common app extracurricular section includes work experience as possibilities, so I will include my work at Dairy Queen in that section. And yes, it also asks for hours per week.</p>
<p>Stat padding is saying that you were a “coordinator” of some club you didn’t show up in. That being said, it can’t hurt - the activities essay is where you can show how you prioritize certain extracurriculars. Furthermore, when you input the estimated time spent doing an activity, you implicitly tell readers how important some activities are to you.</p>