<p>Ok, I have 8 major ECs, but I can only put 7 on the stupid common app. If I list them, including leadership positions, years, hours, and awards, can you tell me which ones I should keep?</p>
<li><p>Howard Dean Campaign: (grades 9,10; 36wks/yr; 8hrs/wk) regional youth coordinator, Dialing for Dean (phone bank) organizer</p></li>
<li><p>Habitat for Humanity: (grades 9-12; 32wks/yr; 4hrs/wk) school service award</p></li>
<li><p>Key Club (grades 9,10,12; 32wks/yr; 5hrs/wk) committee chair, treasurer, vice president, community service award</p></li>
<li><p>Concert Choir (grades 9-12; 40wks/yr; 4hrs/wk) various solos</p></li>
<li><p>Young Democrats (grades 10,12; 36wks/yr; 6hrs/wk) founder, president</p></li>
<li><p>Speech/Debate (grades 10-12; 30wks/yr; 3hrs/wk) regional finalist</p></li>
<li><p>Yearbook (grade 11; 20wks/yr; 20hrs/wk) editor in chief</p></li>
<li><p>Spanish Tutor (grades 10-12; 36wks/yr; 4hrs/wk)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>By the way, in a few of them there was a gap in grade 11. I was away in India that year, and some clubs (such as Key Club and Young Democrats) didn’t exist there.</p>
<p>Group the political ones together. That will solve your problem.</p>
<p>I think for Common App, any extras can be added in the Additional Info section. It removes any formatting, but at least you can include it.</p>
<p>Nice ecs! Yes, group the common ones together. Maybe Key Club and Habitat for Humanity?? Or you can leave it as it is and submit a resume.</p>
<p>How do I group them? Do I just say "community service" or do I just list it as one EC?</p>
<p>E.G. If I grouped Key Club and H4H would I put:</p>
<p>Community service (9-12, 36wks/yr, 9hrs/wk) Committee Chair, Treasurer, VP </p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Key Club (9-12, 36wks/yr, 9hrs/wk) Committee Chair, Treasurer, VP </p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Habitat for Humanity (9-12, 36wks/yr, 9hrs/wk) Committee Chair, Treasurer, VP</p>
<p>Probably the first or second.
The title of "Community service" is broad and can encompass a lot, but putting "Key Club" might be better since you have those positions that you want to list.
I'm sure it won't make a big impact as long as you have it in there somewhere.</p>
<p>Just post them at the end also so you can include them all...</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity...it looks like you spend about 30-35hrs/wk on EC's (abt 5 hrs a day). How do you manage it?</p>
<p>Not all of it is spent actively doing community service or speaking or whatever. For example, if I have a leadership position in a club, I have to spend a lot of time outside of school calling people, writing agendas, filling out forms, making contacts with possible speakers, etc. For speech and debate I have to gather research. Also, most of my Habitat for Humanity stuff and Speech/Debate meets are on weekends, and my Spanish tutoring is in the morning. So on weekdays, I usually don't spend more than 2-3 hours per day on an EC, including organization time.</p>
<p>By the way, is it alright that I include time that wasn't "actively" spent in an EC, but was used to organize it? I don't actually know if this is allowed.</p>
<p>Organization time can be included. After all, that was time that you spent working on your EC. Similarly, if you spent time at home creating a web page for a school club, that time also would be considered as part of your time working on that EC. Not just attending meetings counts.</p>
<p>From the standpoint of a person who has reviewed activities lists as part of being a judge for scholarship programs, it's not the hours that is most important when it comes to how adcoms, etc. judge ECs. Results are what's important. Look for ways of highlighting the results -- such as if you designed a program that increased membership, raised funds, etc.</p>
<p>Lots of people spend plenty of time hanging out at meetings, but accomplishing nothing. Those aren't the people whom adcoms are seeking.</p>
<p>How can I fit in my accomplishments? We have a word limit on the Common App. Should I bring it up in my interviews? My essays are already written.</p>
<p>Can't you just put the 7 that there's space for and then attach a resume with everything on it? That's what I'm doing...</p>
<p>Yeah, I know. I just don't know which seven to include. They're supposed to be the ones that are most important to you, but I just can't seem to narrow these down. Maybe I'll take off speech/debate...I'm not really enjoying it this year.</p>