ECs: May I ask for your humble opinion?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I am currently a junior. These are my past and projected ECs. Any opinions? Just curious what people might have to say....</p>

<p>•Key Club (9th, decided it was very unorganized and meetings were inconvenient)
•Model UN (10th, 11th and 12th Varsity Team)
•NHS (10th, 11th, 12th)
•NEHS (11th, 12th)
•NFHS (12th)
•French Club (10th, 11th Secretary, 12th President)
•School Newspaper (10th Copy Editor, 11th News Editor, 12th Editor-in-Chief)
•Speech and Debate Club (11th, 12th)
•"---" (A personal organization I'd rather not disclose the name of-11th, 12th President and founder to send packages to children in poverty)
•Archist at local Archery club (setting up appointment for lessons very soon)</p>

2

<p>Sounds good. I kind of wanted to join Model UN this year, but decided to do the SCAEL team (Like an academic decathlon) instead.</p>

<p>What IS Key Club? I hear about it all the time, but yet, I don<code>t know what it is. My school doesn</code>t have one.</p>

3

<p>I love Model UN! Key Club is essentially just a community service club. High schools can start their own chapter, which is why you’ve probably heard about it. The “leaders” of my school’s chapter don’t seem to really have a good focus, though. I distinctly remember the first walk we did. We literally sat around for 5 hours after arriving at 6 in the morning.</p>

4

<p>My only take is that if you’re looking at top tier colleges, these come out as just generic clubs that you have a position in. I know you probably work hard and I’m not trying to knock that down, but there aren’t any real stand outs here.</p>

5

<p>Model UN is awesome. Especially in March conference, where internationally 3000 students join. But it’s only awesome because of the party where you get to grind countless number of people :)</p>

6

<p>Honor Societies really don’t mean much unless you do some meaningful work in them.</p>

7

<p>@ATP</p>

<p>I’d been stressing about the “wow” factor for so long. I just recently realized that I don’t particularly want to load myself up with things I don’t care about. I’m creating my own organization for a reason, not solely to impress admissions officers. And you didn’t offend me. :)</p>

<p>@nothingto1</p>

<p>Yeah, last year my school competed at Georgetown and Harvard. I NEED to be a part of that this year!</p>

<p>@wavetech</p>

<p>Yeah, I know about the honor society thing. Still, I’ve always loved the idea of NHS, I love English (NEHS), and I am in French so I feel joining NFHS just would make sense. I draw the line at Mu Alpha Theta, though; no math honor societies for me…</p>

8

<p>@ ATP </p>

<p>Might I ask what you consider to be a “standout”?</p>

9

<p>Ahh, OK now I understand about Key Club. I hear Model UN is fun…last year, we had 2 people from my youth group who are both on Model UN go to Chicago.</p>

10

<p>You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do, but there are kids that have hundreds of volunteer hours, others play sports at the highest level, some are dedicated members of a robotics/math/science team. You just need something that makes people go, “Wow he is really passionate about that.” It can be under-water BB stacking for all I care, but you don’t have anything that would make me stop flipping through applications for.</p>

11

<p>Key Club can be more than just a community service club (depends on your subdivision of international and the officers (which may appoint more leadership roles for others) because it is student run). You can be involved in bowling nights to awakeathons to spirit competitions to theme parks to raffles to scholarships to traveling across the country every month to water balloon fights and summer BBQs. Many unique events to participate in and time to hang out and make friends from your school and many other schools.</p>

<p>Now NHS. What do they do before I just criticize them because I don’t like them very much…</p>

12

<p>My quick, and brutally honest, impression as an adult reading your list of ECs:</p>

<p>Mentally I lump the Key Club and the honor societies together. French Club would go with them as a sort of low-impact club without heavy lifting (As an aside, in my high school the shorthand for a desperation “I have nothing else to put on my resume” filler was “Vice President of the French Club”. I “earned” a similar position for my junior year by being one of only 3 people to show up to an and of the year meeting in 10th grade. It was my first meeting!). Recognizing that some honor societies do real work but many require you to do nothing more than show up for an hour a month and do the CS you’re already involved in, I would wonder whether your involvement in so many indicates an EC grubber. If participation in these clubs involved heavy-duty CS I’d want to hear about that. Perhaps this would be a good topic for a short essay or you could break out your CS in some way.</p>

<p>Model UN and speech and debate make up another category. Strong ECs that indicate you are probably an articulate speaker. BTW, is there a JV model UN team or non-competition level or is listing yourself as being on varsity when everyone automatically makes varsity meant to impress? If it’s the former, in the space on the Common App to elaborate on this EC you’d want to write something like “One of six out of twenty students chosen to compete…”</p>

<p>School Newspaper is another strong EC and one in which you have successive levels of responsibility. I would put this closer to the top of your list.</p>

<p>“Archist”. I think you mean “archer”. As a long-time archer I’ve never heard the term “archist” and couldn’t find it in any on-line dictionary. Archery is an interesting hobby but unless you get good at it very quickly you won’t be impressing anyone with it, although you could use an essay to show how your involvement in a new sport at this late stage shows your willingness to try new things. If it’s something that interests you ignore whether or not it will look good and just have fun with it.</p>

<p>Your charity club. Again, won’t impress me unless you can convince me you did this for reasons other than filling a resume or being forced to by the terms of your honor societies. Can you show me that this was more than you and a couple of friends filling boxes one or two weekends a semester? What got you involved? Is there a story there?</p>

<p>I think what other posters are trying to tell you is that on the whole your ECs are conventional. There isn’t much here to differentiate you from the many great “class president, varsity soccer senior year, mathlete, founded a club I’ll forget about as soon as I get my letter from Brown” kids out there. Nice well rounded kids without a particular focus or passion. </p>

<p>On the other hand, few kids really do have ECs that stand out from the crowd and most have far less than your level of involvement. The long and impressive resumes you see here on CC are on the whole anomalies posted by the rarified few with Ivy aspirations.</p>

<p>I see that you’ve responded to some of these questions but I thought I’d give you my initial impressions anyway because you should be aware of how your resume comes across after a first quick read.</p>

13

<p>@ATP</p>

<p>I see what you mean. And, just to add, I do have several hundred service hours, including some I earned oversees, some that I earned through NOPE (a local organization discouraging overdose of narcotics), and consistent work with two non-profits. I understand what you mean about “passion” as well; I only discovered mine last year and have involved myself accordingly.</p>

<p>@tangentline</p>

<p>You know, that is a good question. I know we fulfill a community service requirement, but we haven’t met since last year. Our next meeting is Wednesday, so I guess I’ll find out for sure. Lol.</p>

<p>@Sue</p>

<p>Thank you for such a lengthy response! My charity is not merely a filler at all; I wanted to make a difference-actually DO something I knew would have an impact-unlike many “volunteer” groups at my school. A close relative of mine founded and directs a legitimate agency that works in Haiti to build churches, schools, and provide food and clothing to those who need it. I’d always given her my old clothing, but I felt this was not sufficient. I am now seeking the help of my school’s Leadership committee to promote our project-an extension of my relative’s organization- and gather bags of supplies, which are based off a monthly theme. Each month, my relative’s group will collect the boxes of goods and ship them over; I am ensured our supplies will actually reach those we want to help!</p>

<p>As for Model UN, it is strictly Varsity or “members”. I just learned about it last year, but I think I proved myself good enough to join the Varsity team. I participated in a local conference, and the overseer was very impressed with my formal position paper. I believe the Varsity team only has around ten people that go and compete; so, the size of the Team is relatively small and earned.</p>

<p>I decided to try archery for something new, just because I can. :)</p>