<p>Do you think it's true that most people get involved in numerous ECs and do community service just to get into college? I do. I've known people that want to be engineers or go into business that volounteer for countless hours at a hospital just to have some community service hours. Or that go and join different clubs just for the sake of being in a club. I have never done anything like that. I don't want to do stuff just to impress colleges, i don't want to be a dog that is being good so it's master gives it food. If i dont get into college i want to go because i didnt have enough ECs, to hell with it, i'll go to a state school and be proud of myself.
It's not like i haven't done anything. I have a job because i need money, i joined biology club last year because i needed to study for AP test, and academic decathlon because i like it.
Is my position a bad position to take? And what do you think about this?</p>
<p>Volunteering is such bull. You must do it to pay your dues and get into school. I had to as well. But now that I'm almost done with college, I am not working for free another day in my life. I am not going to be exploited just so I could impress somebody. I'd rather do it on my own.</p>
<p>Pleasure .</p>
<p>Yeah, I totally know what you're talking about, all the volunteer hours, but in the end I didn't even bother listing anything about where I volunteered, so I lucked out okay. Also, I had participated in 14 EC's myself, though I actually enjoyed at least 10 of them, and I didn't even list any one of the ones I really didn't care for/ participate much in, so...</p>
<p>Personally, I never did ECs for college. I mean just about every EC I participated in, I started doing in elementary school. When I started playing the drums and violin in 2nd and 4th grade I didn't think, "Boy, this is going to look really good on that college application!"</p>
<p>Any EC I did in high school--I did it because I wanted to. And then I quit them year after year to do other things that I wanted to do. :)</p>
<p>I only did volunteer hours because my school required them for graduation. It was enjoyable though--I worked with kids mostly (a middle school for inner-city kids one year, a day camp for blind/visually impaired kids the next).</p>
<p>Yeah. I have a friend who was involved in like 10 clubs at our school, a member of a couple of sports teams, member of the debate team, learned how to fly planes, and sucked up like none other to our GC to get into Columbia...(he was in the 4th decile at our school). Immediately after he got accepted into college he quit EVERYTHING...well he's still the GC's pawn and now he's repaying his debt by working at her office over the summer.</p>
<p>Only ECs i ever did were sports.</p>
<p>football, baseball, basketball, and track.</p>
<p>they were for pleasure, except when you got hit in football.</p>
<p>I probably did all my ECs for college and all the community service for school (certain hours required each yr) I'm very lazy/antisocial so if I didn't have 2 I probably would have done nothing and just have great grades. i'm not ashamed to admit that</p>
<p>Well I mean I do my ECs for pleasure with the added bonus for college. I mean, I do ECs that I am passionatte about and enjoy, but I do think... well this will help me later! and that gets me through the tough times when I want to quit!</p>
<p>The only ECs I would do for college is volunteering.. and that's probably it.</p>
<p>I really enjoy my ECs, but I also realize that they will look good on my apps. My parents actually made me start my favorite EC but I totally love it and it led to my current job which I also love.</p>
<p>I do them moreso for pleasure but also for college.</p>
<p>I do them for college.</p>
<p>I do it for both and sometimes, when it comes to volunteering, when my friends are doing it too. I wouldnt do it if I didnt like it though.</p>
<p>Most of my ECs I do for myself, but the volunteering was strictly for college. I hate community service!</p>
<p>I think it'd be a lie if I say that I do my EC's solely for my pleasure, but I do enjoy everything that I do.</p>
<p>this is exactly what i was talking about. whenever i see something like "is eager to help his/hes community" or "happily devoted much of his/her free time to help others" on like recommendation letters, lettering ceremonies, or scholarship applications, i just want to say 'oh jezz, cut that BS, will ya?'. do schools and colleges really beleive that people do community service because they are nice like that and they want to help losers that cannot help themselves?
same thing with clubs and activities. do colleges really think that a student would be a member of 4 sports teams and 15 clubs at thesame time because he/she enjoys them ALL so much?</p>
<p>lol dima, i totally agree. those kids who go to guatemala to build shelters for the children there..i mean, there WILL be students that genuinely do these things out of the goodness of their hearts. but i highly doubt that every single student who goes overseas to build a shelter or establish some program does it purely for altruistic reasons. or those kids who create "innovative programs in their community" or whatnot. honestly. thankfully, you dont necessarily HAVE to create a program or someting to get into an amazing school. there'd be no leaders without followers.</p>
<p>Volunteering completely for myself (I'm not going to lie, I love it), but about half other ECs are for college.</p>