As many people say that you should pick one or two and develop on them, I have three questions on opinions.
If you are in about 10 clubs, but hold leadership roles in 5, then would it be alright?
Second, due to budget cuts and the like in our school, a club I started was merged with another run by the same teacher, so I was president freshman year, and have had no role since. Would adding this club to my application look bad?
Also, all of our culture and language related clubs have been combined. Should I be worrying about this as I’m in three language clubs and had leadership in one?
I think you want to avoid the danger of thinking of leadership as titles to be earned, or that you’re “done” the moment you become president. What did you DO in those 5 clubs that you were a leader in? What you did well as a leader will show in your application, whether that be your own essays or your teacher recommendations (with teacher recs weighing more than your own essays, obviously). If you did something well in 1 club and was a leader in the other 4 just for the titles, make sure to emphasize that one club that you devoted yourself to. Again, that comes back to developing one or two; I mean unless you’re Superman and you have done something really extraordinary in all 5, haha.
I’d say your other two concerns are more wonk-ish details, as it seems like those are the “title only” clubs that you did. Just put down president for both clubs, it’ll add to the quantity of the activities even if it adds little to the quality and depth. They’re not going to look at what you don’t have (in your own club’s case, leadership in higher grades); they only look at what you did with what you had.
One last thing I’d just mention to everyone else as well: leadership is not a title. Being elected president is often a popularity contest. Yes, being popular helps in being a leader; but just that is not enough. Do something great with your power; it’s going to pay off!
@TheUltimateNerd
Well, in each club, I’ve organized things as well as promoted awareness for certain issues that mean something to me. With leadership being a popularity contest, I’m actually far from liked at my high school, due to resentment over my grades (which aren’t even spectacular).
My main question is that with many of my clubs fitting into bandwagons for either language or service, those are my two main focuses, but I have so many different clubs for each.
Thank you for your response!
If that’s the case, then just keep doing what you’re doing. Yes, maybe on the common app it might seem like you did ordinary extracurricular activities, but if you’re truly passionate about those clubs then I’m pretty sure you’d get great teacher recs (this is where TRUE leadership gets through!)
I see your concern with the bandwagon idea; as an Asian myself, there’s the bandwagon every Asian should be great at math and be the best violinist/pianist at school. Yet, one of my Asian friends who graduated this year and will be attending Yale, who did math and played the piano, got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT (there’s probably thousands upon thousands of other Asians who did piano and math, who didn’t get into any school out of the above). Passion made him stand out, since he did math research and won 1st prize at ISEF, in addition to playing the piano very well to have gone to Carnegie Hall from winning an international competition. From your 10 clubs and leadership you’re probably aiming at similarly high-end schools. I’m just saying if you have true passion and acted on those, which you said you did, you have absolutely nothing to worry about
@TheUltimateNerd Sorry for replying so late! Well, as far as teacher recs go, I have no idea how they’ll turn out since most of my teachers hate Asians (every single teacher is Caucasian at my school and they seem to have problems with other races). At this point, I have no idea what’ll happen for uni. Thanks for your input!