<p>I have a ton of ec's, but I actually don't do them for resume "fluffers," I do them because I actually care about a lot of causes and want to make myself as versatile as possible. </p>
<p>How can I prove to colleges that I truely care about my ECs, other than an interview, and don't do them to look good??</p>
<p>well if you do all those ECs, can you really excel and devote 100% of your effort to each and every one of them? imo, it is better to have a few that you're really making a difference in</p>
<p>They look at how many hours/week and weeks/year you devote to them.</p>
<p>w00t trig! That's what I do. I only participate in activities that I not only love, but that I know I can have awesome success in (e.g. regional, state, national awards, etc.) I never do any activity as fluff</p>
<p>^^^I have a question as to how to calculate that. I am a director for plays, and I spend about 4 hours a week actually directing, but I spend 3 or 4 more outside of directing preparing for the practices. Do I list the official work I have done, or the other "prep work" I have done as well?</p>
<p>And to answer the question, essays are usually good places to talk talk about involvement in a specific EC. That or guidance recommendation area.</p>
<p>competitive artistic roller skating- 20 hours a week, all year, 10 national and regional awards and teach classes 3 hours per week
michigan humane soceity- 1 hr/week
volunteer at hospital- 4 hr/week
2 after school clubs- 3 or 4 hr/week
help in chemistry lab- 1 hr/week during school year
write for school paper- 8hr/week during school year
tutor French- 7 hr/week, only in the summer</p>
<p>lol i don't have a life</p>
<p>Go with the ones where you got national/international awards.
Include ECs which show your humane/caring side as long as the
activity is substantial - i.e. > 5 hrs/week.</p>
<p>The number of rows on the initial common App should give you an idea
what to limit your list to.</p>
<p>(club all the <3 hr activities into groupings by categorical title so they
do not look splintered)</p>
<p>Adcoms will look <strong>very grimly</strong> at your app if you convey the impression
"you do not have a life"</p>
<p>so should i not put the chemistry thing or the humane society on my application, since i do those two only an hour a week??</p>
<p>Your EC's are fine, and just becuase you only do 1 hour a week doesn't mean those aren't useful.</p>
<p>Regarding Post#8:</p>
<p>You could club under a category of:
teaching- your teaching for 3 hrs/wk + French tutoring + chem tutoring
Volunteering- Hospital activity + Humane society</p>
<p>It is important to have "clusters" of activity that speak to who you are.</p>
<p>Doing a gadzillion splintered activities that are not clustered will
convey a bad impression.</p>
<p>Does anyone have an answer to my question as how to list the number of "unofficial" and "official" hours?</p>
<p>Thanks. Sorry to hijack the post. And I second MIT 012's advice on clustering activities.</p>
<p>for IR09: both your actual directing and the preparation counts as actual hours.</p>
<p>not to sound like a crook, but do people lie on the application? i mean, if they volunteer someplace an hr/week, and they say 6 hours a week, who is going to find out that they are lying?</p>
<p>Major awards and competitions (AIME, ISEF, etc) can be verified very easily. Relatively minor things can be check by contacting the place, your school, and etc. They seldom occur though, unless you do something that would raise their eyebrows, mainly because whether you volunteer 5 hr/week or 6 hr/week probably won't make much of a difference anyway.</p>
<p>unless you put 100+ hrs/week for a EC...that may raise a few eyebrows</p>
<p>It is a very bad idea to lie on the app. There is no "statuette of limitation" to
actions the college/university can take- in other words they can yank your
degree 20 years from now! (rather extreme but you never know what kind
of morals will prevail in the future)</p>
<p>There is no need to lie. Everyone is unique. Tune into yourself and
experience your world. It is not uncommon to feel crappy at
this time (rising seniors). It is all the more better
when you have your admittances at hand at the end of the year.</p>
<p>Even if you have splintered activities, few/none, take the time and
try to write things down. Helping your parents is an activity as is
walking your pet- let your creativity flow as you cluster and label
these.</p>
<p>wow so do people slightly exaggerate their hours then? wouldn't that make them seem slightly more dedicated or something?</p>
<p>The best way to prove to colleges that you're really into your ECs, other than in your essays and/or interview, is to have your counselor emphasize them in his/her recc letter. If you've been organizing a bunch of events, raised a lot of money, etc., your counselor should pick up on that anyways if you have a good relationship with them. Then again, it's always good to remind them when asking for a recc.</p>
<p>If colleges see an EC that isn't mentioned in the essay, interview, or letters of recc (any of them), and you haven't won awards for that work, then they will see it as fluff.</p>
<br>
<p>blueducky</p>
<br>
<p>Be very careful about "exaggeration." Colleges do add up the hours sometimes (one at Columbia did).</p>
<p>they "add up" the hours? I mean, that's kind of not foolproof, because at our school, hours for certain clubs like CSF don't count towards the hours that appear on your transcript. </p>
<p>And seriously, do admissions people have that much time on their hands to count up all the hours of all their applicants? </p>
<p>And another thing, if you have a couple of ECs you'd like to talk about, how will you be able to? I mean they ask you one question about ONE activity.</p>