<p>Just as the title says, I'm wondering whether or not long term commitment is absolutely necessary for extracurriculars. The general consensus that I concluded upon is that dedicating oneself to 4-5 extracurriculars for 3-4 years throughout high school is absolutely necessary for admission to top colleges, assuming one has the grades to match. But what if (this is true in my situation) you were to truly find something you are passionate in and decide to pursue it intensely throughout the remainder of junior year and the beginning of senior year before college app deadlines? (The remainder = 9 months) Since I have more time now than I did in freshman year and my parents allow me to be more independent, I will be able to commit to these activities as much as 7 days a week, 3-4 hrs. If a person were to commit to an activity for 4 years and work at it for 2 hrs, 3 days a week, would that person look undoubtedly more favorable than a person who worked 9 months to a year every day for 3-4 hrs? Is long term commitment an absolute necessity or can short term commitments look equally favorable given that much time and dedication is put into them?</p>
<p>If that’s your option, being a junior- then Yes. But you must get something out of it. Perhaps you can accomplish something, get an award, move high up in ‘ranks’, be well known, featured, etc. You should consider doing something with this passion that will prove you take it seriously, and are not just doing something for college admissions, I should think.</p>
<p>What’s important is to show that you actually have commitment. For obvious reasons, that’s a lot harder to do when you only start something junior year, but it’s not set in stone that you NEED to do things for 4 years straight.</p>
<p>I’d go for the long term commitment, it says more about your personality, but why not try to do both? I mean have some smaller project that you dedicate yourself to for a few months at a time while at the same time having one main project that you work on continuously… I mean having only one EC is hardly gonna sufficient anyways, thats my opinion at least…</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your insightful responses.
Just to make it more clearer where I stand extracurricular wise, the following are things that I have done over the past few years:
- Tennis - a major passion of mine which I have pursued for over 10 years consistently and I have played at a competitive level albeit not on the school’s varsity team—I was truly serious in progressing quickly but that becomes difficult when the coach is less of a true tennis coach and more of a manager of expenses and what not. The players themselves end up showing the ropes to the younger members which is fine but it eats away at the time the players have to improve. </p>
<p>2) Computer Programming and Repair - I am completely unashamed to call myself a computer nerd because it breaks my heart to refute it. 
Since early middle school I immersed myself in building computers from scratch with no prior knowledge, programming in a variety of languages for completely original video games, and studying college level topics on my own out of pure interest. Despite having several years worth of projects to show for my hobby, it was again pursued outside of school and I am fearful in wondering whether or not colleges would accept this as a true extracurricular if I were to attach some of my projects upon request. Does hobby = extracurricular in certain circumstances?</p>
<p>3) Astrophysics INTEL Research Project - Just a little something I decided to do on my own this year due to being inspired by the subject matter after attending a few talks at the local science museum. Most INTEL students have begun in 10th grade but I’ve been working on it pretty diligently this year. </p>
<p>As you can see the first two are hobbies that I’ve worked on for a long period of time and have a couple of competitions and projects to show for them but I do not have the rec of a varsity coach or an advisor to reinforce them as most would usually have. Is sending projects sufficient?</p>
<p>Since the first two are activities that I have chosen to pursue on my own and the INTEL project is currently a short term commitment I had wanted to supplement with something more interesting. </p>
<p>As luck would have it I found an opportunity to (1) do work as an intern focusing on paleontology, (2) marine biology, and (3) wildlife conservation … ALL IN THE FIELD! I don’t know about you that I think that is really cool and I couldn’t pass up such an enriching experience. Quite frankly it matters little to me whether this 9 month endeavor will improve my college admissions but I would be delighted if it did. The problem becomes that this would be my fourth extracurricular and if I am to become really involved in this (which I have to be in order to participate), I still am missing that fifth extracurricular…would it be dishonest to break apart this commitment into several commitments given that I am working in three diff. fields?</p>
<p>Again, sorry for this long post as you all probably have better things to do, but I would like to get some feedback to help me sort out this mess of mine.</p>
<p>plz forgive this shameful bump</p>
<p>Astrophysics Intel research is impressive. Followed by the interns. Keep computer repair as a “smart” hobby, and <em>I</em> would drop tennis- It may be long term, but it seems you’re not varsity, and thus not recruitable for it. Plus you mentioned a mentoring time-suck/lack of serious coaching for the sport.</p>
<p>Stick with Intel/Interning and Computers. :)</p>
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<p>Then do it! Please do it. One or two very interesting ECs you are passionate about are worth 10 that are average.</p>
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<p>Yes. Say you build computers, and have made your own videogames, as well as self-studied computer languages. This is an EC.</p>
<p>There is no magical number of ECs–you seem to have pinpointed 5 as the necessary amount–so I wouldn’t worry about splitting your new EC into several things.</p>
<p>You said yourself that you’re going to do this new opportunity regardless, so I hardly think our responses will matter, but to add my two cents on the general question you posed:</p>
<p>I think the general idea behind long term commitment regarding ECs is to avoid the laundry-list applicant who skips from club to club without ever making an impact. In your case, you have several long-term commitments, so the addition of a new commitment isn’t likely to hurt your chances–it’s just a cool new opportunity that happened to crop up late in high school. But for those who have been devoted to something like computers or science for a while but haven’t necessarily become president of Science Olympiad, I think it’s worth pointing out that late-blooming awards and opportunities often signal long-term effort. So the junior who is an Intel winner or a Scholastic Gold Key medalist without three thousand clubs they’ve been in since freshman year isn’t necessarily at a disadvantage for college admissions, since these accomplishments are the results of long-term labor, even though that labor may not have club membershisp attached.</p>