<p>I'm a junior in HS with unfantastic extracurriculars. All i have are sports and band. Will joining clubs and shit now help me out with admissions, or is it too late? I'm also planning on running for StuGov for the 3rd year in a row (I was disqualified 1st time as my speech was deemed inappropriate, and lost the 2 time) and i will likely not win lol. But anyway, what the fuck can i do? Help me out you neurotic fucks. </p>
<p>Ps. Schools Im looking at
Wesleyan
Vassar
Brown (high reach, .001% chance I get in)
Northeastern
UMass Amherst (mom wants me to go here or NE)
BC
Possibly Cornell, Bates, or Bowdoin</p>
<p>Best thing you can do at this point is start volunteering extensively. Otherwise you can really try to bump up your sports and band commitment. You didn’t really elaborate on those two activities, so I’m limited in the advice I can give, but say, in your sport, try competing regionally, nationally, or even internationally if possible. Or maybe start a program that coaches and mentors underprivileged kids in that sport. I don’t recommend joining a bunch of clubs you sound like you could care less about. At this point, it looks pretty obvious that you’re only joining for admissions sake. It does nothing to show why you’re special, or who you are. You look like just another kid desperately trying to get into some kind of brand name college. I would dig deep into the activities or passions you already have, and find ways to make a difference or really get involved in those. Right now it’s about showing depth, not breadth. </p>
<p>Colleges care more about your character, your leadership potential, and what drives you than your ability to multitask and manipulate. Trying to kiss up to them by joining a bunch of meaningless clubs is the best way to get your app tossed into the trash.</p>
<p>Excuse my blunt, rather un-charming post. Just trying to earnestly help you out.</p>
<p>Thanks man, that was actually pretty helpful. I think i might try to run for president of the band. I have a half-decent shot at it. I guess I’ll start volunteering and ■■■■ lol</p>
<p>No problem, glad I could be of some help. Best of luck!</p>
<p>You seem to have a problem with appropriate language, and that’s likely to be mentioned in your recommendations. It won’t make you endearing to adcoms.
As suggested above, go for depth - leadership positions in the fields you’re already active in.
But you should recalibrate your college list.
The universities you list care about EC’s and what they’re looking for is multi-year involvement. Even you have have great stats, with these EC’s all the universities above are reaches to super reaches.
You’d need to include your flagship (I’m assuming you have strong grades), public universities
that are numerical and not holistic, and universities/LAC’s ranked in the 60’s and more, where
EC’s aren’t so important.</p>
<p>I agree with MYOS1634 – If your style of language in these emails is also how your teachers have seen your communication (which I could be wrong, you may just use abbreviated and random grammar in emails) – your chances at these schools could be hurt not only in your essays but through your teacher recommendations. Many of the schools on your list are accepting only 1 out of 5 applicants – and the ECs are the least of your worries. I am a firm believer that after evaluating kids on GPA, course rigor and test scores – these highly selective schools really look at the rec letters – they appreciate the honest truths from the recs and they also learn how to read though the lines (when a teacher may not want to say something bad right up front but uses vague language to convey problems). Take the extra time to get to know several of your teachers really well, make sure that those teachers think HIGHLY of you. Then with regards to the ECs, I agree – now is not the time to suddenly add more “new” activities to your list. Do something deeper or more meaningful with the ones that you are already passionate about.</p>
<p>Second the posts above me. Like I mentioned, colleges care a lot more about character and who you are as a person than clubs. Swearing shows disrespect to both yourself and those around you, so at least keep it in check around your teachers. Work on becoming someone others can look up to and admire, including your teachers. Respect yourself in the way you dress, talk, act, etc. and respect others 10x more. In the end, that will help you so much more than any amount of key club presidencies or championship wins; and not just in college, but in life in general. </p>
<p>As the others have pointed out, your letters of rec are much more likely to become a stumbling point for you before ECs even are taken in to consideration. I hesitate to think what you might have said/done to be “disqualified 1st time as my speech was deemed inappropriate”. </p>
<p>Perhaps more than any poster I’ve seen on the forum, you must ask your teachers whether they can write a positive letter for you. This is always appropriate, phrased politely of course. For example, “Am I a student you would write a strong letter of reccomendation for, or do you suggest I ask someone else?” Don’t argue or question why if the answer is ask someone else, simply to thank the teacher for their honest answer.</p>
<p>You might want to first learn when it is okay to be vulgar and when it is not.</p>
<p>lol do you think i talk like this in school. i have like 4 teachers who love me my recs will be fine. anyway merci pour l’advice lol </p>