<p>I'm just a little frustrated that in today's admission process there is so much emphasis on EC's. My parents and relatives always stressed the importance of good grades but they also told me to enjoy my high school years. Joining boring clubs with all the nerdy unsocial kids just to make it into a school I'll enjoy is very much the opposite of what I think high school is all about! </p>
<p>After graduation I'll have a 3.99 uw gpa and a 34 ACT with many EC's I was able to list in my applications. I got into some very good schools but unfortunately I don't feel a single second in these clubs was "enriching" or exciting at all, it was just me going through the motions in todays world to actually have the opportunity to get into a good school and get a career later on. </p>
<p>Sorry for my rant but I'm just frustrated with the "game" all of us play to go to college nowadays. I wish we could go back to our parents' day where getting A's could get you into a college while still having fun in high school.</p>
<p>I agree. Bit of a different point, but my mom will never let me forget that she got into UCLA with one of the lowest SAT scores possible–she barely spoke English.</p>
<p>My kid is in the same boat. She didn’t enjoy some of these clubs either. The one she really likes, the teacher does not want to sponsor it up for health reason. She does have some ECs outside of school which she enjoys tremendously but not a star.</p>
<p>I graduated high school in 1982 and even then we knew we were supposed to amass a list of ECs. The difference is no one expected us to start foundations or cure cancer. I don’t even remember talk of community service. Kids did sports, drama, yearbook, etc. I did four years of theatre simply because I enjoyed it, and liked the other drama kids. There was no pressure about it.</p>
<p>I agree with everything you write, Eric. It’s simply wrong.</p>
<p>If you can’t find something interesting, productive, enriching, and useful to do outside the classroom, I find that very sad. If you cant find a way to help your school, help society, do something in the world to make it a better place, that is depressing.</p>
<p>Life is full of amazing things to do that are beyond just you playing. Ecs aren’t just about school. If the clubs are dull, go out and volunteer with animals, or do city art projects or clean a beach.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how self centered kids can be just toomlook good on an application without actually trying to expand their inds and hearts and bodies beyond school.</p>
<p>“It’s amazing how self centered kids can be just toomlook good on an application.” </p>
<p>And therein lies the problem. The kids learn they are supposed to do things so it looks good to some unknown judge. This stinks. I think its a bit harsh to blame the kids and call them self centered, it’s the system they are in that is pressuring them. That tells them to take the AP classes even in subjects they don’t like, at the expense of spending time developing themselves in areas that are important to them. It’s the schools that are telling them they need to look good, not be self-actualized.</p>
<p>Plus, in good schools the kids are incredibly overworked. My kid has an hour long commute each way. How much time do they have to make these incredible community contributions?</p>
<p>Post #6, sometimes it’s easier to do things related to schools. D1 did that. Her high school provides lot of ECs opportunity. I didn’t have to drive her anywhere. When she could drive she took a job. That’s the only outside EC she had.</p>
<p>I agree with 5 and 6. I never joined any club that I didn’t like. My most interesting ECs weren’t even clubs – they were working with organizations or providing services or advocacy work on causes that meant a lot to me. The school I plan on attending gave me a substantial scholarship for leadership; I suspect this was in part because my essay dealt with an online group I run for LGBT people. Most of my ECs have to do with the three things I genuinely love: helping people, queer advocacy, and foreign languages. I can’t imagine being so dull that I would have to do things I didn’t enjoy.</p>
<p>I enjoy my ECs, but yes, much of my motivation to stay committed has been incentivized by college admissions. Most activities we do are truly very boring, but sound/look great to an admissions director – an obvious disconnect. For instance, starting a profit or charity may prove on paper that you know the business side of an NGO and that you truly love what you do, but if the admissions officer were to actually visit these initiative set up by kids, they’d be surprised by how many are held by their parent’s hands, exaggerate their accomplishments, etc.</p>
<p>It’s late and I’m rambling, but everyone’s incessant need to one-up each other with the next most original, groundbreaking and hook-worthy EC has genuinely made me a stressed and a child who is never truly at ease. During my more anxious days, I couldn’t even watch movies without feeling I was wasting time where I could be doing something else (opportunity cost – Econ whaddup!).</p>
<p>That said, I know of a few kids that really do everything under the sun, and do all of them better than I ever could (even if I dedicated all my time to just one of their activities) and just rock in general. These are the kids that set the initial trend for extraordinariness in college admissions, and the rest of us have been forced to follow suit, even though very few of us are truly cut out for it.</p>
<p>As an interviewer for an HYPMS, I can promise you that I (and all the other interviewers - and the admissions staff) are keenly aware of which kids are resume padding with pointless ECs and just going through the motions, which kids are engaged but not really contributing anything exceptional, which are setting up charities (or their parents’ are) when a perfectly good charity with the same mission already exists in their area, which kids are constrained by family circumstances from doing ECs at all (caring for siblings, health challenges, etc…) and which kids are doing something that really represents exceptional passion, creativity, leadership or talent and who are really pushing their personal boundaries. If you are wasting your time doing stuff you don’t really care about, please don’t bother. It wastes everyone’s time, especially yours.</p>
<p>Of course, for all but the most selective schools, none of this matters. Your basic one or two ECs shows that you are not spending every afternoon in front of the television - you are a contributing part of your community and have some social skills which, hopefully, will enable you to be contribute to your future college’s community.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why so many don’t understnd that rum of the mill school clubs is not what selective colleges consider good ECs. It’s about finding and pursuing a passion.</p>
<p>Yeah, just to echo what everyone else has said, if you think EC’s are only to be done for college and that you suffer when you’re doing them, then you’re approaching this completely wrong. There honestly was no game to play when it comes to EC’s, you were just supposed to find what you enjoyed and do it. If you just went through the motions, those EC’s probably weren’t very valuable to admission anyways Hope you enjoy your time at U of Washington/Michigan though, they’re both good schools.</p>
<p>Seahawks I’m not sure if the end of your post was a passive way to insult what schools I consider good, but I’ve also been accepted at UC Berkeley, USC and UVA yet haven’t posted in their forums because I won’t be considering them for financial reasons. That said, I don’t believe what schools I got into or didn’t is relevant.</p>
<p>My main issue that I have isn’t that EC’s are pointless although I think certain ones certainly are to pad students’ resumes, but rather that we no longer have the time in high school to enjoy being kids if we want to go to college. I shouldn’t need to be involved in a golf club to go golf on occasion with friends, nor should I have to start a yardworking business when I can work for my neighbors over the summer.</p>
<p>My main frustration simply stems from the push towards being so academically focused at such a young age! If I could relive my high school experience without worrying about getting into colleges I would have spent much more time doing enjoyable things with friends and worry less about how I can organize my “passions” to fit into certain clubs so that the adcom reading my essay will let me be a student at their school.</p>
<p>No, that wasn’t my intention. I’m definitely a proponent of there being way more great schools for people than what some on CC would consider “worthy”. In fact, I almost ended up going to USC. I personally think that there’s many ways to enjoy yourself and still be prepared for the college admissions ‘game’, but in general I agree that kids are forced to consider their futures earlier and earlier these days. Heck, some poor grades I got in 7th grade and the way my 6th grade worked out ended up biting me in the ass.</p>
<p>I think the point of ECs from an admissions standpoint ( and a parent’s) is that not all learning occurs in the classroom. Also, there are a lot of skills that you need to be successful at work and in life many of which you do not learn in a class room. how do you know what you what to be or what you want to study. Part of learning is trying new things and seeing what you like and what you don’t.</p>
<p>Also, lots of great ECs happen that have nothing to do with school. My son loves birdwatching. He would not be able to find anyone at school to do that with him. He does it on his own or with his dad but this is his number one EC. He was able to very successfully convey what he has learned from this in his essays. He had some other clubs at school that he participated in but had no leadership positions. Not everyone is meant to lead, after all you need some Indians too, not all chiefs! And he was accepted to every school to which he applied. He refused to join clubs or do things that did not interest him.</p>
<p>Seems like there is so much focus on applying and getting in to college that we forget about the important journey that occurs during that time.</p>
<p>To TKsmom I agree completely with the method your son took and I wish I would have had the idea to do the same early in the fall when listing EC’s. I spend at least a few hours every weekend with my dad working on an old '70 mustang as well as other classic cars. I also ride motorcycles around town with a few friends weekly, but when I mentioned these to my counselor after being asked what I do with my free time he almost laughed at me and then instructed me to just list my multiple honor societies and my community service projects or else colleges would assume that I don’t have leadership skills.</p>