<p>Okay, I just realized that I have no EC’s besides NHS and apparently I have no chance of getting into any ivy-league level college without some extracurriculars. I have 6-8 months to get some serious EC’s so anyone have any suggestions about what kind of thing I could do?</p>
<p>How about something YOU LIKE????</p>
<p>yea seriously. don't let college rule your life. there are many more important things. if you decide you want some extracurriculars, do something you like. if it's art or something, you can't possibly get good at it if you don't like it...</p>
<p>The things I like are not the kind of things that would work for ECs. I was wondering what kind of things could be easy to do (little committment) so that I can pad my application with at least SOME EC's. Hopefully my SAT, SATII, gpa/rank, and essays/recs will pull me through.</p>
<p>well model u.n. and yearbook are always good... some sort of school leadership committee is as well...</p>
<p>are you a junior? because I know that they hate "serial joiners", those who randomly join and don't contribute. you need to have some serious leadership in a couple of ECs.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm a junior. So is it better to not have any ECs than have ECs and not be a leader in any of them?</p>
<p>It would be better for you to like better things.</p>
<p>at this point, there isn't much that you could do. there are some things that you can do, but i doubt they are very realistic for you. some of them are:</p>
<ol>
<li>science/math olympiads are the national level (i doubt you'd get far on your first try though).</li>
<li>Intel STS/ISEF or Siemens-Westinghouse competitions. (again, i doubt you'd get far, unless you are some kind of genius).</li>
<li>Get into RSI (yeah right)</li>
<li>Win some other national tournament/award in debate, a sport, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>As you can see for you to make any real difference, you have to do something spectacular, if you haven't been doing much in the past years. Just relax and stop being so obsessive. Don't do things just to get into Harvard or any other school--that is very shallow.</p>
<p>I think there is little hope for you:</p>
<p>"The things I like are not the kind of things that would work for ECs. I was wondering what kind of things could be easy to do (little committment) so that I can pad my application with at least SOME EC's. Hopefully my SAT, SATII, gpa/rank, and essays/recs will pull me through."</p>
<p>You also need a personalized wake-up call.</p>
<p>And you're starting in this process a little late. Good schools like it when ECs start early, because of genuine interest (something you clearly don't have), and start intense and stay intense.</p>
<p>Hmmm, this isn't very encouraging. So the general consensus here is that I have no chance?</p>
<p>That kinda sucks since I didn't really know about the whole EC thing. I came to America from Australia in 9th grade. In Australia the emphasis is all on your grades and colleges don't care about your EC's. </p>
<p>What's RSI btw?</p>
<p>yeah, it's pretty late to get started on some solid EC's
do what you like, and it'll really show through. colleges will see through the BS clubs.</p>
<p>Too many people apply to American schools with identical grades and everything else.</p>
<p>If you want ECs now, you just better be committed. Give up on that "little commitment" strategy, because it'll do you more harm than good.</p>
<p>I can get in without EC's though right?</p>
<p>RSI : <a href="http://www.cee.org/rsi/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cee.org/rsi/</a></p>
<p>BTW, I suggest you to do what you like to do. I think it's NOT late.</p>
<p>I joined the thespian troupe in my junior year and it became my life. I don't know whether the theater is good EC for Ivy whatever(btw is it?). However that's what I like to do and I hope colleges see that too.</p>
<p>Oh also, since you're already in NHS, why dont you try for a president or some other leadership position?</p>
<p>Yeah, I might do that. But you have to be a senior to be in any leadership position so it might not be too late on that count...</p>
<p>Well, what've gotten out of reading these forums over the last several weeks is that getting into Ivy league requires not only having great grades but showing the adcoms that you're a "standout" person. I don't think EC's are the only way to show that. Anybody agree/disagree with that? I'd love to hear people's views on this, since I haven't really seen it discussed at these boards.</p>
<p>And how exactly can you be a standout otherwise? "Oustanding GPA you've got there, khalid, you're one of 2000 applicants with that stellar GPA." I don't know whether to consider college classes ECs, since they're not at your high school but they are very much like your other school classes. I suppose if you don't call college classes ECs, you could be a standout without ECs?? Maybe you don't consider an interesting job an EC? But someone with good grades in high school and without extra stuff can never be a standout.</p>
<p>Okay, so you're saying that I'm screwed? Lemme give you a break down, and then tell me whether I'm screwed or not. Gimme your honest answer, this is kind of important...</p>
<p>Okay, first off. I was born in Sudan, Africa. A year after I was born my family had to leave the Sudan because there was a government coup and my Dad (along with thousands of the country's "intellectuals") was targeted. So we left for Libya, lived there for 4 or 5 years. We left Libya and stayed in Egypt for a year, then we went to Australia where we lived for 6 or so years and got citizenship. </p>
<p>In Australia they have a selective school system. This means that if you want you can take an exam in 6th grade, and if you do well you can get placed in one of the "selective" high schools (In Australia high school is 7-12th grade). These schools are basically full of people who did well on these selective exams (sort of like prep schools in the u.s.). I did well on this exam and entered the best of the selective schools and one of the top schools in Australia -- Sydney Boys High school. In the middle of 9th grade we left Australia and went to the U.S. </p>
<p>So that's a brief rundown of my life so far. I have left all the stuff in the middle (like various awards blah blah), so is that pretty stand out or just some random crap that Harvard sees all the time?</p>
<p>You are NOT screwed at all. I told you it's NOT late at all !
And your life story is very interesting, and a lot more interesting than my ECs and every else combined.</p>
<p>You're fine. Perfectly.</p>
<p>Yeah that was encouraging. Thanks dreaming! Yeah, I'm definetly gonna try and get some sort of leadership position on NHS next year. Hopefully my academic stats will hold up well. I still have another year until college applications so I guess I should prolly stop thinking about it. Then again, it's kind of hard to not think about it when I'm in the middle of cramming for the january 22nd SAT ;)</p>