<p>So I have been told that if I don't join every club and help poor people colleges won't accept me? So because I have friends and play soccer and I am happy with how I am living my life I won't get accepted into the schools I applied too.</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t consider ECs as admission factors. In the case of most colleges, if they consider ECs at all, it’s for merit aid consideration.</p>
<p>Virtually the only colleges that care about ECs as admission factors are places like HPYS, which have an overabundance of high stat applicants that other colleges would be delighted to accept. Since HPY and similar colleges have a wealth of high stat applicants, the colleges can use ECs to select from their outstanding applicant pool.</p>
<p>Those few colleges that care about ECs care more about depth of ECs than breadth of ECs. What matters is what one accomplished in the EC, not how long one’s EC list is.</p>
<p>just wondering i have the most random assortment of ecs-- from unicycling to habitat… and ive switched schools three times [school only went up to ninth grade, had to go to boarding school for a year b/c of paperwork, etc] i just havent found my passion, and oppurtunities for volunteer work are limited in my compound. will this hurt me in the application process?</p>
<p>Unless you’re applying to highly competitive places like Harvard, Amherst or Stanford, your ECs won’t affect your admission chances.</p>
<p>soccer: as NSM as stated, very very few colleges give a flip about your ECs. All the resume-padding bunnies around you looking for an “edge” in college admissions actually have it wrong. The ultra selective colleges sift through the laundry list resume ECs pretty quickly. They look for things beyond NHS or 200 Library volunteer hours. Believe me, I know. I interview for one of them and the resumes of the kids I see are rather long. However, it’s rare for me to see someone who is actually a mover and a shaker. It’s from these kids that generally, I see offers of admission.</p>
<p>My own EC list was meagre compared to what you see kids today bust themselves to accumulate. I washed dishes at a restaurant and rose to top level of leadership in one student organization in my urban HS. But I felt I had no peer in academic hunger and ambition – and my course choices showed this. I was admitted at all schools applied, some Ivies and top engineering schools.</p>
<p>Soccer: don’t sweat it. however, if you do happen to be applying to the tippy top schools, don’t be surprised that they are looking for the most accomplished and most involved kids as potential freshmen. But also know that probably 90% of colleges just want to educated qualified students and won’t care one iota about ECs.</p>
<p>“My own EC list was meagre compared to what you see kids today bust themselves to accumulate. I washed dishes at a restaurant and rose to top level of leadership in one student organization in my urban HS.”</p>
<p>This still would stand out now. Any high school student who’s working as a restaurant dishwasher and has the stats to apply to top schools is showing a very high level of motivation and a strong work ethic, including a willingness to do whatever it takes to earn the money to attain the education they want. Being a restaurant dishwasher always would make an applicant stand out more than their doing expensive academic or volunteer programs that their parents paid for.</p>
<p>you don’t have to volunteer things. I prefer to, but my friend was accepted everywhere (cambridge, havard, yale, etc.) without any volunteer work.
She loved latin and school. So that’s what she did: latin and school. She also played a sport for exercise and did debate for fun.</p>
<p>Well…they definitely care more about grades and such, but to say EC’s aren’t factored in is a huge exaggeration. The point is, they want someone on their campus who’s not going to be sitting in their dorm room all day playing video games; they want someone who will be out volunteering, participating in clubs, working, and enriching the community.</p>
<p>Soccer is an EC, you know. Just throwing that out there.</p>
<p>you don’t have to join every club or help poor people. You just have to win stuff,</p>
<p>ECs are extremely important because they give the admissions committee a window into who you are and what’s important to you, just like the essay does. Sure, some non-selective schools that utilize much more formulaic admissions criteria might disregard EC’s, but I bet most decent private schools will look at them closely. The key is not to just pad your resume and join as many activities as you can, but to focus o what’s important to you. If soccer is truly your passion, then stick with it and try to be the best you can be at it. And try to show your passion for soccer outside actually playing it; maybe write an account of games for the newspaper?</p>
<p>That said, community service/voluntarism is very important, because it shows colleges that you care about the wider world and are not self-absorbed. If you can find a way to use your passion and talent to help others, you’ll be set. If possible, I’d recommend you try volunteering as a coach or referee for a soccer team at a local community center.</p>
<p>If you could work in the summers as a paid coach, that would be great too. Working shows maturity and responsibility, and provides a good way to make money. So don’t dismiss EC’s; they’re very important because they show who you truly are. If you honestly get involved in those things you care about, it just shows the admissions committee how much time and energy you’re willing to put into your passions, and it makes you a very attractive candidate.</p>
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<p>I disagree. Most of the top private schools care about ECs. Virtually all the top LACs do, perhaps even more so than larger universities. And it’s not just a sorting function. They have small student bodies. They don’t want to get caught short on people to play on their volleyball team or perform in theater productions or join a cappella singing groups or whatever. They have vibrant, diverse, active campuses, and they want to keep it that way—which they can do only if they select vibrant, diverse, and active students reflecting in the aggregate a wide range of interests and activities, well matched to campus life and college traditions. They don’t necessarily require that you be a world-class athlete, actor, musician, or whatever—though being accomplished doesn’t hurt. And it reflects well on your academic achievements if you performed academically at a high level while also being engaged in, or even excelled at, other activities. But I think you should select ECs that reflect who you really are. I think some of these adcoms are pretty good at spotting phonies, people who acquire a long list of ECs and “leadership” positions like club presidencies solely for the purpose of impressing the colleges. That may work sometimes, but it might also backfire by suggesting that you’re disingenuous—not a quality they’re looking for. One good EC that you pursue relentlessly and “with a passion” is better than a half-dozen that you pursue grudgingly or half-heartedly.</p>
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<p>Wait, I don’t see how this makes them pointless and unfair. You’re just complaining because…?</p>
<p>While I’m sure a few CCers don’t do anything BESIDES prep for the Ivies, with so many ECs you think they’d <em>still</em> be bound to make friends. </p>
<p>Maybe you ought to readjust your outlook on these things. “Helping poor people” is volunteer work, but you don’t have to degrade the activity just because you choose not to do it. It comes off quite flippant and spoiled for you to phrase things this way. Colleges are looking for productive citizens who will work to make their communities a better place, and yes, that does often mean helping those who need it most. </p>
<p>I personally told myself I was going to do only the things I truly enjoyed, and it would end up being whatever it was. I still volunteered, it just ended up being at an elementary school library daily. Reading and literacy is important to me, so I went in an area I was passionate about. I did this with ALL my ECs, and I am quite happy with ‘living’ my live the way it is. </p>
<p>Therein lies the difference. You seem to be quite happy with just playing soccer, and others are quite happy working at Soup kitchens, running clubs, and winning competitions. The fact that a college would choose someone more productive and less self-oriented “I am happy with my life…” isn’t unfair or pointless.</p>
<p>" Most of the top private schools care about ECs. Virtually all the top LACs do, "</p>
<p>I agree. That was my point: only the very top colleges care about ECs when it comes to making admission decisions That’s a very small group of colleges. The majority of colleges in the country don’t factor ECs into admissions decisions.</p>
<p>It is very unfair if it is something I don’t want to do then why should I have to do it. I shouldn’t penalized because I want to do thong just to make myself look good, if I wanted to do things like that then I would but I won’t do it just to look good.</p>
<p>You don’t have to do ECs. You don’t have to apply to colleges that consider ECs as admission factors. You can go to colleges that are good fits for you: colleges that don’t highly value ECs, and that’s the majority of colleges in this country.</p>
<p>NSM: only the very top applicants care about college admissions enough to visit CC. That’s a very small group of applicants. The majority of applicants don’t care enough to visit CC day and night.</p>
<p>another viewpoint…</p>
<p>A few questions: </p>
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<li><p>I see people on this forum talking of getting into Ivy League schools with SAT scores below 2000–and to some extent with equivalent GPAs–and yet nobody gives anyone applying to the same schools a chance if they have few ECs. Why the discrepancy? </p></li>
<li><p>When you say that only the top colleges care about ECs, what are you classifying as “top colleges?”</p></li>
<li><p>To what extent is a sport considered an EC? If, for instance, I devote about 15 hours to a sport per week but am just short of a college’s recruiting standards, am I essentially out of luck?</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>Again, plenty of people enjoy doing those things, or don’t enjoy them, and do it anyways. As others have said, you can apply to schools that just won’t care what you do with your free time. </p>
<p>But you ought to learn now, that the people who go above and beyond what they ‘have’ to do are always going to be the ones that do best in life, regardless of what you want to do, or don’t want to do. That’s not being penalized, that’s life.</p>
<p>Colleges that put an emphasis on ECs don’t want applicants who do things they don’t want to do in order to make themselves look good. They want applicants with a variety of interests and passions. The ECs are just a way of measuring that value; they’re not the value itself.</p>