<p>Often I see posts asking whether doing 100 of 300 hours of community service is "enough to impress colleges." Such questioners seem to think that an outstanding EC is measured by hours put into it, and one should do whatever EC is the easiest way to rack up the hours that one assumes are needed.</p>
<p>Truth is, the most impressive ECs are started by the students themselves because of their own interests, and are impressive due to impact, not the amount of hours the teen did them. </p>
<p>Here's an example of an outstanding EC. No evidence that the student involved was doing this to try to get into an Ivy. Seems she simply cares about making a difference. </p>
<p>" Taylor Crabtree hopes to send 30,000 teddy bears to children in hospitals across the U.S. by September.</p>
<p>When Taylor was 7 years old she started TayBear....Taylor and her friends made hairclips to sell for extra money. ... she used that extra money to buy teddy bears for kids hospitalized with cancer and chronic blood diseases.</p>
<p>Taylor...understood the heartbreak of cancer from her grandmother's battle with the disease....</p>
<p>Taylor's goal was to buy 50 bears for her local hospital. But, she couldn't resist the letters from kids (and kids at heart) asking her for more bears to hug at night. Now 17, Taylor has donated nearly 21,000 teddy bears to Hematology/Oncology departments across the country." Teen</a> provides cuddly comfort to sick children - CNN.com</p>
<p>That's great! I agree that ECs should be done because you enjoy them - not to get into college.
For example, I wrote a book that teaches students/hobbyists how to make their own video games in Java. It is published by McGraw-Hill and was released on Feb. 29th (2008). I wrote this book for only one reason - because I love programming! I taught it to myself when I was about 9, and I've been learning since then!
Also, another one of my hobbies is rocketry - so I started a Rocketry Club at my school last year (as a freshman) and as team captain, I led the club to the finals in Washington DC. In my new school this year, I started the club again and I'm proud to say we'll be going to the finals :D</p>
<p>I've been making a substantial amount of money after coding a browser based game in PHP. I also like to explore my culture and learn languages. </p>
<p>But I wonder if those even qualify as ECs lol. If not, then I am probably ECless.</p>
<p>My brother would probably be interested in your book. He is in Computer Programming 1 (Visual Basic), but is interested in taking AP Computer Science A next year. I will point him to it. ;)</p>
<p>The Val of my school's senior class is doing research to cure cancer. Pardon me, it's a treatment, not a cure. She gets huffy about that. I heard she already made a big break through with herpes or something. So yeah, she's in at all the HYPS, MIT, WashU, etc. Why am I not her?! Kidding...</p>
<p>^Ditto. And my ECs might seem unfocused, but I don't really care; there are various things I'm interested in, and though they might not seem connected at first everything can be connected.</p>
<p>I dunno...I think my EC's are a little bit too one-sided and focused. Like I have music as my main EC (lot of recognition and awards), and then I have independent research (Intel/Siemens, publications, etc.), which is again music-related. That's really it. Besides that I volunteered a little, but should I do more?</p>
<p>if you already got into your first choice university and are no longer doing the ecs that you listed on the application you're doing something wrong</p>
