<p>Here's my situation. I'm a rising sophomore at a public school in Northern California. My freshman year was very successful when considering the amount of extracurriculars I found that I really love doing and that I can continue to get involved in for the next three years and on. One of these was joining FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America). Going into the year, I had no intention of joining, because I didn't and still don't really have an interest in business as a career. But because of a very convincing speech by a member at Club Day and a few friends I knew were going to join, I decided to give it a shot. Long story short, the chapter at my school is probably the least motivated or business-like chapter in the country, but the experience I had turned out to be one of the best of my freshman year. I ended up being the first person from my school to ever place at States, despite not studying for my events at all. Even though I didn't qualify for Nationals, (I got 7th, top 3 move on) I am very confident that with some studying I will be able to next year. I also was elected secretary of the club in an election necessitated by the dropping out of the former secretary, and we recently had elections for next year, in which I won president. I ran because I care about the future of the club, and I was honestly the best person for the job, out of the pool of returning members. My question is, as I plan to be very involved in the club throughout high school, do you think colleges will be confused as to why I didn't write about my (non-existent) passion for business? I enjoy the club because it gives me an opportunity to be a part of a group working towards a common goal, and it really can be quite fun. I just don't see business being my trade.
Thanks</p>
<p>Just because you are in a club doesn’t mean it’s your future career. Not every student in the high school orchestra is a music major or a future professional musician. Not every high school jock is a future pro.</p>
<p>What you should be able to do is to articulate what you’ve learned about yourself from the experience, what you enjoy about it, and how it’s shaped your goals and choices. There’s no expectation at all that you will be a business major.</p>
<p>Are you looking at colleges that expect you to write about clubs? I actually think your explanation is excellent: opportunity to be a part of a group working towards a common goal. The more substantive that goal is (eg, community action or business interaction, not just, say the goal of talking about business,) the better.</p>
<p>Kids think of passion the wrong way. It’s about finding something that turns you on and continuing with that, increasing responsibilities and your impact. Exactly what you did, no? Just ensure there is something substantive going on.</p>
<p>Thanks, but will the leadership positions (being president) and the potential Nationals spot cause colleges to think it’s odd that I am not actually interested in business? I just don’t want them to think I’m doing it for applications.</p>
<p>Most colleges are looking for excellence & leadership demonstrated through EC’s, not necessarily activities that directly pertain to your intended field of study.</p>
<p>Most US colleges don’t expect applicants to even know their major much less their career. Stop worrying about your ECs’ relatedness to future career/major. Colleges aren’t worrying about it – neither should you.</p>
<p>One other note about tailoring your ECs for eventual college applications: most US colleges don’t evaluate any ECs at all. Only the very selective ones use these things to differentiate among the uber-achievers in their vast applicant pools. Unless you’re targeting those types of schools, don’t mutate your EC choices based on how they look on your resume.</p>
<p>With respect to my friend T26E4, I’d go further: even if you are targeting those schools, don’t mutate your extracurricular choices based on how they look on your resume. If you are aiming for Yale, Stanford, Amherst, MIT or their peers, even if you are a highly qualified applicant, the odds will be against you. Overwhelmingly so. About 93% of Yale applicants are denied admission; most of those rejected are every bit as qualified as the happy 6.8% who are admitted. Whether you are admitted to Yale (or any other highly selective college or university) is ultimately beyond your own control.</p>
<p>That being the case, don’t contort and distort yourself to try to be “what Yale wants.” Focus instead on building the foundation for a life you would like for yourself. Because you’ll definitely be spending the four years after high school with yourself, whether you spend them in New Haven or not.</p>
<p>OP,
you didn’t state what area your intended major/career might be in, but the skills you learn from real participation in any extracurricular will benefit you later on in real life. </p>
<p>Participation in FBLA is obviously giving you skills in setting goals, and making a plan and executing that plan to reach them, and also giving you skills in interpersonal and public communication.</p>
<p>Can you name any career in which these skills would not be valuable? You might not want to be a business executive, but if you want to be a researcher, a doctor, an engineer…the skills you are developing will always be valuable.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for all the advice. At this point in my life, I don’t really know what I want to be. It changes every week. Which is down from every day, haha. But I understand what you mean about the skills being transferable. Thanks for the advice guys. I should focus on ECs that I actually enjoy, because I don’t want to spend my life doing something I don’t. That’s what I’ve found with FBLA.</p>
<p>Then go, and have a great time with FBLA. And if you want to go to one of those fancy-pants colleges, just make sure that you get something substantive out of FBLA. Do your best to make sure that your involvement with FBLA shows some kind of demonstrable growth or development, year over year. Because, really, those highly selective colleges and universities care a lot less about what you do than about what you do with your opportunities.</p>
<p>Do what you like. It will make you an interesting person, you will grow from the experience, and as a bonus that will make you more appealing to the college of your choice. Do NOT overthink “FBLA = they must think I only care about business.”</p>