<p>Well, yes, AND in study after study, high school popularity IS associated with leadership abilities. It’s true.</p>
<p>One of the things that makes someone popular at that age is being a leader. I’m not saying “all the popular kids are leaders,” or will be as adults. But, there is a correlation between natural leadership ability and popularity… </p>
<p>Obviously, many come into their own as they get older and other competencies lead to more self-confidence and a better ability to lead. I mean, let’s face it, Bill Gates didn’t really have “leadership” qualities in high school, but he did have competencies which later lead others to listen to him, no matter how awkward he was, as a person. Facebook was developed specifically because whathisname LACKED leadership qualities.</p>
<p>It seems like one measure of future success, but not the only or even the most important to most adcoms. I think it was more fashionable a few years ago as a criteria, the same way schools used to like “well-rounded” applicants, and now prefer to see focus.</p>
<p>Leadership does not mean having been “elected” to positions in clubs , team captain etc. Colleges know those things are popularity contests just as well as you do, anyway. </p>
<p>If you want to be able to document genuine leadership experiences, look around your town and see what needs doing. Then do it. You can organize a dance for sr citizens, clear & maintain a trail in a nature preserve, set up a series of holiday parties for the kids at the homeless shelter, run food or book or other drives for almost any organization that serves others (literacy, etc), help the animal shelter have adopt-a-pet days–whatever your interests are, find a way to help someone better themselves or their neighbors related to your interests, and do it. Whining on a forum about “leadership” bering a popualrity contest is not exhibiting any leadership tendencies.</p>
<p>My sons’ Science Olympiad team hated this system so much they generally voted for half the seniors to be presidents and the other half to be vice-presidents. I don’t really recommend this approach though! I think you can show your leadership qualities and accomplishments through either your essays or an expanded resume. My older son’s only leadership was the SO vice presidency, that wasn’t really his forte. His application highlighted his ability to go far beyond the high school curriculum in a subject that interested him and to take the skills he learned from teaching himself to becoming a valuable freelance computer programmer. The letters he got from his employers and a professor for whom he did a volunteer project were worth far more than a little line on the Common Application.</p>
<p>I would like to mention again, it does not matter, it is waste of time, nobody cares, adcoms are not stupid, they understand perfectly, they can see the difference between “padded” application and the real one. BTW. D. was accepted to all the schools that she applied, all awarded her Merit scholarships, but her EC’s had nothing to do with it, got to have stats for Merit awards. She was on full tuition Merit Scholarships in UG. She choose not to go to schools that pursued her for her sport.</p>
<p>Until I do these things, am I not allowed to voice any of my frustrations? The point of the thread was that I was going to get the same title as the other officers in the club regardless of the amount of work I did compared to them.</p>
<p>^ I think you are missing the point in that you focus your response on one tiny potential slight, instead of noting that a lot of caring adults have taken the time to reassure you that you needn’t have to be frustrated. </p>
<p>Taking all these comments together, you should be able to read that a) despite what you believe, the title itself doesn’t matter to adcoms, b) you should be doing the work because you enjoy the involvement not to score admissions points c) you can talk about the efforts you gave making the title irrelevant and d) there are ways to fix inequities (see Hunt’s comments). More importantly, the advice is to skip over the high school drama and mindset, take initiative to do things outside of school that you care about, and all this will be trivial in the big scheme of things.</p>
<p>But if all you got out of this thread was that one sentence which annoyed you, and you still want to complain, then I have to agree with JRZmom’s last sentence.</p>
<p>“Until I do these things, am I not allowed to voice any of my frustrations? The point of the thread was that I was going to get the same title as the other officers in the club regardless of the amount of work I did compared to them.”</p>
<p>You had better not voice these frustrations in your admissions essays.</p>
<p>If you think it is hypocritical to obtain a title which you have done little to earn, then do not go after those kinds (which the colleges are equally on to), and instead do things which will make you genuinely stand out to an admissions committee.</p>
<p>The guidance counselor at our school told me the school had 12 people who applied with “captain of the football team” on their cv’s. And there were only about 30 kids on the team. </p>
<p>My son got a real kick out of his best friend, who put down that he was president of the Spanish club. When I asked him what was so funny about that, he said they didn’t have elections, or officers. </p>
<p>Don’t worry - I’m sure adcomms are aware of these things.</p>
<p>In our D’s h.s. the president of the Latin Club is always a unanimously elected senior. The VP is either the other senior or a jr. The other kids & teacher have agreed on this to aid in apps.</p>
<p>It would seem very hard for an admissions person to determine the value to a student of being in any EC by name of organiztion and title. If one wants to make their involvment in an EC meaningful on a college application, they should tie their involvment and what it did for them into one of their essays. </p>
<p>My son was in Boy Scouts for many years. He is a hard worker but not a real born leader type person. The scouts in the troop elected the senior patrol leader and he appointed other scouts to fill the positions on his “staff”. My son demonstrated his leadership by being the troop quartermaster for about 3 years straight or 6 different senior patrol leaders. They all recognized his hard work and diligence in performing that role and so he kept getting asked to do it. The postion also fitted his demeaner quite well. He could do his job mostly in the background and work with a subset of the entire troop. So, you don’t always have to win the popularity contest to be a leader.</p>
<p>S was in a high school club where they created an office for every senior. It was done rather tongue in cheek, though, and I don’t think he even bothered to put this “leadership position” on his apps. Got into good schools anyway.</p>
<p>Quite a few of our HS sports teams have different seniors being “captain” every week. If a school notices a dozen captains, so be it.</p>
<p>I do think that admissions officers are aware of a few positions that involve true leadership and a whole lot of work - band drum major comes to mind.</p>
<p>As for titles, I suggest calling yourself something like “Grand Exalted Potentate” or “Imperial Factotum.” That might be even more impressive to colleges.</p>
<p>Serious answer: do your thing, do it as well as you can, and describe what you actually did in your college applications. That’s what really matters.</p>
<p>Do things that show leadership that don’t need a "title’
A few years ago, my son at the time a sophomore on varsity (ie., far from a team captain!) organized the guys to challenge the girls’ team in a Race for the Cure marathon established the previous year by a girl whose mom was battling breast cancer. They competed on # of kids involved, # of laps completed, total distance walked and $$ raised. The next year, he and that girl challenged other school organizations to get involved, and his senior year they challenged other schools!</p>
<p>He was very involved in his Jewish youth group…he called youth groups of other faiths, including Muslim, and set up a summer bowling league.</p>
<p>Believe me this looks a lot more impressive than an officer in French Club or MUN on an application.</p>
<p>What would you like to do…what interests YOU? Do something with your interest, take it to the next level, and your application will take care of itself.</p>