<p>Which do you guys think is favored better by top 20 colleges? I think focus would look better, but with the addition of a few other unrelated EC's.</p>
<p>bump10char</p>
<p>Focus, if it’s something special anyways.</p>
<p>Thanks! Any other opinions?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, this.</p>
<p>bump10char</p>
<p>I guess it will be an EC that you reallllllyyyy love, followed by maybe 2 or 3 that you enjoy and participate in.</p>
<p>Such as dancing, or a sports team that you devote 30 hours a week to, followed by volunteering by at the soup kitchen every other saturday, tutoring a kid, etc.</p>
<p>hope for more opinions… any?</p>
<p>It’s important for your ECs to show that you are doing something you really enjoy, and that you’re doing one or more of them deeply enough to show that you have mastered it to the point where you are a leader in that area. Captain of the football team, 1st chair violist (there’s a special term for this), Eagle Scout, State or national level orchestra, national science finalist, lead soloist in ballet theater program, President of Student Council, etc. are all examples of an EC that was done in depth and with passion, with leadership by senior year. While having other ECs on top of that is nice and it shows that you don’t play video games all day long in your spare time, having depth in at least one or two is important at the highly selective college level. If you have a bunch of small roles with many ECs, that can be okay, but if you didn’t do something with any of those role significantly, you could come across as broad, but in an uninteresting way.</p>
<p>Focused, they’d rather you be passionate about one or two things than just join any club.</p>
<p>Focused helps for a lot of reasons that it would take me too long to explain.</p>
<p>Focused, but on two or three, not just one, would be optimum in my opinion.</p>
<p>I would say focused EC’s but a couple minor EC’s outside of your interest.</p>
<p>ie my D is on her school drill/dance team, she also dances competitively for a independent studio (12-15 hours a week) and then does NHS at school as well. The addmission’s folks at Duke loved her resume…</p>
<p>Pretty much been said but focused’s better from what I’ve seen. One of my teachers used to always say one athletic and one arts EC was best. </p>
<p>If you want an example, I got accepted early into Stanford this year. The personalized note on my acceptance letter said that they liked my music and chess. Music= arts. Chess= athletic (technically it is a sport…). I had other ECs that I didn’t even put on my resume because I didn’t want it to look like I was involved in a whole bunch and not passionate about any.</p>
<p>By focus, do you mean one single activity (e.g. FBLA) or do you mean a cluster of activities that all fall under the same interest (e.g. FBLA + business internship + DECA, etc)?</p>
<p>@Snowflake: President of Student Council…? really…? is that a joke? I’m not trying to offend or anything but what exactly does the president of the student council actually do? at my and my friends’ schools president of the student council is a figurehead position that epitomizes padding</p>
<p>heartist</p>
<p>Focused means doing a cluster of activities related to a passion. Meaning, FBLA+internship+Deca etc…is a good focus. Doing one activity doesn’t show any focus, doing multiple related ones does.</p>
<p>^Thanks for clarifying :D</p>
<p>Previous commenters have said that focused + a couple other unrelated activities is the extracurricular ideal. But how would anyone be able to do all those activities at once? </p>
<p>For example, if you were involved in a focus of, say, music, you could be concertmaster of your school orchestra, founder of a school music club, member of a regional/state orchestra, and a violin tutor to boot. With that kind of focus, how could you have any spare time to dedicate to other ECs such as FBLA or robotics? </p>
<p>Moreover, when do you determine that you’ve reached the equilibrium point of balancing focus with variety (instead of being too heavy on one focus or too heavy on variety)?</p>
<p>Well I think you could be focused in more than one. That’s how I am.</p>
<p>Example: involved in music, karate, and chess. Music wise: co-principal in a youth symphony, lead in jazz band, section leader in marching band, jazz band, and concert band, 4 years of honor bands, winner of solo/ensemble district competition, teaching free lessons to underprivileged children etc. </p>
<p>Chess: 4 years of varsity chess. Starting my third year of teaching chess. Karate: first degree black belt (preparing for a second degree test). Occasional volunteering/assistant teaching experience. </p>
<p>My letter of acceptance had a personal note that mentioned chess and music specifically as reasons I got in. There’s plenty of time in the week to do multiple activities, it just takes away from hw/free-time.</p>
<p>Well here is my list really:
Focused: Internships and DECA/FBLA Stuff, these two clubs don’t require so much of a time commitment anyways.
Variety Stuff: JV Athlete, Key Club, and one other small school club.
Most of my time and passion is places into my internships and DECA/FBLA stuff, but I also participate in a few other small things as well to balance it out.</p>