<p>On many of my applications, there is a separate essay for describing a singe extracurricular activity and its meaning to you. However, on some there is not. Should my main essay focus on my extracurriculars, or can it focus on my beliefs/thoughts on life? They only give you like 7 spaces with no description, so is it enough to just list the EC's and not talk about them in your essay? Also, what is the best way to display multiple comm service in the EC list (I dont want to take up 4 spots)? Any imput appreciated, it just feels to me that they wont really know much about some of my EC's if I just list them.</p>
<p>Here are the main ones by the way, please tell me how they are in comparison to other Ivy League applicants (I'm thinking 4/10):</p>
<p>4 Years Varsity Tennis and Varsity cedardale club tennis (some trophies)
4 Years Guitar (teach it also)
4 Years Counter-strike 1.6 (online multiplayer e-sport, leader of a team and i competed nationally, should i put this because it is a video game and they probably will have no clue)
2 Years Kung-Fu
Hospital Volunteering (100+ hrs)
Organize many events for a lot of service (100+ hrs, where can I include descriptions of all these events)
National Honor Society - President</p>
<p>any help in organizing these and best display them and describe them will be appreciated</p>
<p>If the application itself does not state "Please fill out this form and this form only. You may not attach a resume." or something to that effect, then you can probably choose to attach an explanation of your activities as supplement. Just keep it succint, and I think it'll be fine and helpful. If the application does however state that, then best of luck! (though the paper app would give you slightly more liberties of squeezing in readable characters, shh)</p>
<p>foodisgood: why sohuld i leave off counter-strike if i've played for over 5 years and was team leader of "Quod Erat Demonstrandum" and won Cal-Main finals and i am currently on a nationally renowned team, yet still i only play around 4 hours a week</p>
<p>man we have manythings in common. I play guitar too (you should recoganize my user name : ) and yeah I play CS too even though i am no way as good as you haha. Hey Are you an Asian cuz i see you do Kungfoo.</p>
<p>I do not know what this is....computer game, correct?</p>
<p>I am not an adcom, but I am a mom so perhaps I can give you an adult viewpoint.</p>
<p>I like reading EC lists. It is a great way to see what a kid is all about......it tells me how involved you are in school and what you did outside of school for fun. Now I know that all hobbies should be considered equal (how you spend your time is how you spend your time) but frankly, certain hobbies probably present you in a better light than others. I don't know anything about Counterstrike so to me, it just means you like to play computer games. Personally, I am not into computer games so that isn't a big plus to me (but it's not a big negative unless you are playing obsessively all the time).</p>
<p>It truly is up to you to decide what hobbies/ECs you want to list. </p>
<p>Having said that, my S's GC encouraged him to list volleyball (an activity that we play as a family after dinner). My S is athletic but his school does not offer sports so listing volleyball is one way for Adcoms to get to know this side of him better.</p>
<p>It probably depends a lot on school: I think it would be cool for MIT, but Harvard not so much. Your call. But if you get to CAL-i, then you're gold :-P</p>
<p>No way .. it seems like so childish to do that..well colleges know teens are in to all these but they dont want to hear of it until they make it real bug at national or gr8er levels......
I wont be impressed by a CS national level though i wont dislike it either ...but yes more of gaming cud be detrimental</p>
<p>I feel that many more colleges are now acknowledging computer games as a "sport" and it is actually great if you win something at the national level... yup, so i think you should include it...</p>
<p>Hahahaa.... Yo guys, I lettered in Counterstrike all 4 years... </p>
<p>9th: All state
10th: All State and
11th and 12th: 1st team ALL AMERICAN, Harvard wants to recruit me but I may turn them down for Cambridge becaue I want to bring my "sport" to the international realm.</p>
<p>My ranking is "Staff Sergeant" in Battlefield 2!! I've won numerous medals including a purple heart in the game. Doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of college admissions, but in your case, if CS is important in defining who you are, I say go ahead, but I doubt it will be much of a boost.</p>
<p>HAha, I am amused by all of the replies on one little thing in my post - counter-strike. It was such a minor thing, the main reason for my post wasnt the question of including that. I guess my post just shows how many people play cs and know about it, and are possibly addicted to it. Many kids play it 5 hours a day...you guys dont understand how cal-main moveup to cal-invite team leader works, its about 100 players out of the millions that play cs. Anyways, I probably wont include it in my EC list dont worry. But, the name of my team is "Quod Erat Demonstrandum" (the popular Q.E.D. in mathematical proofs) so i think MIT would find that interesting. Please concentrate on the other things in my post, I'm sorry I even mentioned counter-strike and i dont think you guys know the situation where im cal-main+ and i play 2-4 hours a week.</p>