<p>One thing that I hate about the college application process is the stupid need for leadership positions. However, as everyone knows, rather than being based on competency, most of these positions are based on popularity instead. So far, I have yet to be elected for anything, although I'm lucky enough to have positions granted to me presumably based on my capabilities instead. Also, I'm not expected to attend meetings either. However, for one of the clubs I'm in, Model UN, despite not having to go to meetings, I feel like I've gotten just as much done, if not more, than any of the actual officers. All they seem to be responsible for is leading the club meetings for 10-15 minutes each week. I'm not even sure if our club president even shows up every week or not. However, in lieu of the actual secretary and treasurer, I've been the one responsible for making sure that everyone's registrations are due, and it seems that I'm the one who is supposed to be responsible for getting the money checked too. I've also gone out of my way to email other members about concerns relating to the club. Yet despite all of my work, I get the title "Office Assistant" and the rest of them get an actual position.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on this? I know that it doesn't mean much in the long run, but I just have to get my frustration out somehow.</p>
<p>Membership in clubs can’t mean squat if the admissions process is at all rational. I doubt that pseudo leadership positions are any better than no leadership positions. If you are committing a lot of time, surely that can be noted somewhere in the application. Committed performance and demonstrated excellence in E.C.'s are another story altogether.</p>
<p>In my application, I’m going to attach a list of my ECs with expanded descriptions of my duties, which I do genuinely have with this club. If colleges don’t think doing all of that work simply because I wasn’t elected by a popularity contest, then that is their problem.</p>
<p>Also, I have gotten substantial recognition in Model UN, unlike some of the club officers.</p>
<p>What presumably should matter is not one’s title, but what one has accomplished. </p>
<p>Leadership isn’t just a title or role, it involves the actions one takes. One can be called a leader and do almost nothing, or one can be called a leader, but just execute the game plan from the prior year or follow their duties. OR one can be leader (or not officially called a leader) and come up with some great ideas, and put those ideas into action to improve upon something that matters. The latter is real leadership. The other stuff, not so much.</p>
<p>"That’s completely true! Unfortunately, for college applications oftentimes people only look at the title. "
You’re making an assumption here based on what? </p>
<p>Leadership positions in “clubs” do not make or break a students chances of acceptances. Admission officers know better than to give much weight to the level of leadership in a club !. You’re sweating the really small stuff here, so relax. College admissions committees want to know what makes you tick, what you are really interested in, and what you will bring to the class that are trying to assemble. Your essays are FAR, FAR more important than any “leadership” positions you may have attained, especially in HS “clubs” where membership is not hard to achieve.</p>
<p>Chaosakita, I’d like to push you a bit on that as I’m not so sure. I agree it might look good on a business card, or get you a job interview, but people do care about actual actions and achievements! If you go for a job interview, for example, they want to know what you achieved in your past roles, not just your last title. On college apps, you can tell them about what you’ve accomplished too! I’m pretty sure they know what highschool is like.</p>
<p>I have the same issue. At my school it’s a giant popularity contest where all leadership positions are taken by people who frankly kiss up to get appointed, don’t really care about the activity, and probably only do to look good on college apps. </p>
<p>In response I’ve basically turned my focus into doing independent projects such as blogging, research, etc, where other people can’t ruin a good thing. Hopefully that demonstrates to college initiative and love of learning, just not as much standard “leadership.” Maybe this strategy can work for you too?</p>
<p>OP - I agree with you that these positions are often popularity contests. Adcoms know this. My kids got into top schools and neither had a leadership position in a school club. They pursued outside community activities that demonstrated leadership but didn’t require other high schoolers to vote them into an office. Do what you love. Leadership is not defined by being president of a club. But give adcoms some credit - do you think they are unaware of the popularity contest nature of some of these things? Of course they get it.</p>
<p>OP,
If you have pursued your own personal interest outside of academics and did not do anything strictly fro college application (similar idea is applicable to other applications, like Grad. School, Med. School, Law School), then at the end there is no frustration, just list EC’s. For most, clubs are as you mentioned “stupid”, I would not use that strong language, just repeating yours. Anything that is done strictly for any application is complete WASTE OF TIME. My D. did not have time for any these, she was way too busy with her own personal interests. Her problem when she applied was not to be able to fit her staff or say as much as she wanted about it. Well, Model UN never made it to her application, it was too much already. She did not win any popularity contests to be on a sport team and start it at her HS, she was 1 person team freshman year, but her HS had representation in D’s sport, she gave other opportunity that was not there before, I call this real leadership. She was taking music and art outside of school in addition to daily 2.5 hrs sport practices, she was school newspaper editor because she likes to whrite, not because she won some popularity, she volunteered at the hospital and worked at Research Lab and she tutored formally and informally. All of the above, she continued in college, again, not because of any popularity. but because of her own personal interests, and she added more. Currently, she is at Med. School (again, did not have any problem filling application, had problem with fitting everything in) and she still continued with what she loves outside of academics, despite of great academic challenges at this level.
BTW, D. was nominated a president of her Sorority, but had to decline because of other time commitments. If she did, she would not be serving her Sorority the way they deserve. So, do not just engage in anything if your plate is already full, there are people who deserve great service not someone who is looking to pad his/her resume.
I would not worry to much about padding application with bogus clubs, just list EC’s of your interests, it is much better, it shows who you are.</p>
<p>If you think outside the box , you will have UNIQUE ECs which are better . My D BABYSAT in SPAIN for a summer month at 15 ! She wanted to improve her SPANISH . She volunteered at a FARM in SWEDEN for 2 summers because she wanted to learn about AGRICULTURE . During the school year , she volunteered at a nursing home and tutored kids in MATH . She is now at Harvard . She never did the usual stuff . She showed a commitment towards helping others , which elite colleges seem to favor . Would you be willing to fly on your own to stay with a family you never met ? This shows courage and a world curiosity , especially at 15 !</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, I was delighted to read your post. Your D sounds like a great person who leads by example. I think these are the types of leaders we all remember - for their accomplishments rather than for their popularity. </p>
<p>My D is similar - although she has received faculty appointments and been elected to various “leadership” roles at school (and she does put in a ton of effort to make things happen in these organizations), she is really focused on the activities she loves. She is a leader on her sports team, volunteers at the hospital, does community service outside of the HS Key Club, and works with kids in the TOPS soccer program. </p>
<p>D is spending her jr. year looking at schools and roughing out a basic resume for applications. She too is focusing on the things that mean something to her, and the positions she received as a result of populatity (among teachers and peers) may not even end up on the final draft.</p>
<p>I agree that what you actually do is more important than any title. However–it does happen that sometimes the titular “leaders” dump all the work onto a club member who doesn’t have an impressive-sounding title. And that isn’t fair. If that happens to you, go to those leaders, and say, "I’d like to be called “Business Manager” instead of “Office Assistant.” Make it clear that if they don’t agree, you will quit and they will have to do the work. If the title you ask for is a reasonable match to what you are actually doing, they will probably give in.</p>
<p>My son had zero leadership positions and was accepted at every school he applied to. He didn’t get any awards, either. <em>oh the horror</em> ;)</p>
<p>To be elected as an officer (or leadership position) is not all due to popularity. D2 moved to her new school junior year, so she was an unknown to people at her new school. But she has been involved with school newspaper since 7th grade. She volunteered at various charity and raised money. She was part of MUN at her old school. She was also a school ambassador. </p>
<p>Last year, as a new student, she worked hard at all of those activities without a title. As a matter of fact, the chief editor told her that they didn’t need her to write, but she kept on going to those meetings. At some point, they realized she had a lot of experience in laying out a newspaper and she was a good organizer. At the end of junior year, they gave her the job of editor in chief, and president of various activities she is involved with. In D2’s case, she didn’t get those positions because she was “popular,” she got them because she was in there doing the work and had many years of experience. She did what she wanted for activities, and her involvement was deep. Most of activities were multi years involvement, not one year here and there. Her advisor told us that she brought a lot of good experience from her previous school and change a lot of their current structure ( newspaper, Link, MUN). As an example, a lot students want to be part of Link, but don’t want to show up for events, so D2 came up with a point system. For every event they show up, they got x points. If at the end of year they didn’t get enough points then they would not be part of it the following year.</p>
<p>Any new high school student reading this, I would suggest to get involved with one or two activities that you like, which means something to you. Put in the hard work</p>
<p>oldfort, your advice is good, but unfortunately it is the case in some ECs at some schools that willingness to do the work will not necessarily result in a leadership position. This can be tough for a kid who is very interested in that activity, but is not a part of the “in” group.</p>
<p>Sorry, I am on iPad, I can’t seem to edit my previous post. It doesn’t have a scroll feature. </p>
<p>Leadership comes when you put in the work, and people respect your knowledge and ability to lead. It is only a popularity contest when those qualities do not matter.</p>
<p>Perhaps part of the issue here is how leadership positions are filled in different groups. If they are elected, this can result in somebody being overlooked evenif they have done all the work, because somebody else is just more well-liked. Similar problems can occur if the new leaders are chosen by the old leaders, or if they are chosen by a teacher advisor. The best situation, of course, is when it is obvious to everybody who the next set of leaders should be–but that doesn’t always happen.</p>