<p>Hi everyone! I'm about to enter sophomore year and I really care and worry about my future college and all kind things related to college. I'm in the IB program and I got all As in my all my classes in my freshmen year, so the only thing I worry about right now is the extracurricular activities. The only club that I joined last year is the math club ( if that is considered an extracurricular activity), and i'm going to be in it for the rest of my high school years. I've heard from many people that extracurriculars look good on the transcript, and that colleges care about leadership and all, but I don't know what activity I should do because the problem is that I'm kind of shy and not really active. I really really want to involve in extracurricular activities in my school, but there are too many, plus I don't feel like talking (but I really really want to!) since I'm not good at speaking English (I've only been in US for two years ) . That is my major problem:(. Please give me some advices on how and what i can do to join those kind of activities. Thank you :)</p>
<p>yeah EC’s look good, most schools don’t look at them or focus very little. However, the top colleges, mostly private, weigh EC’s very heavily because most applicants have very competitive stats. </p>
<p>With that said, the rule of thumbs is to not do an EC for the sake of putting it on a college app. It’s fine if you keep college apps in mind- let’s face it, everyone does that- but you need to make sure that this is something you’d do regardless. </p>
<p>Math Club is a great EC, lots of people do it but it’s not only a great way to get involved (esp. if math is your thing) but to meet people as well. Keep being involved in that club and maybe by your junior/senior year you’ll be able to attain a leadership position. </p>
<p>What kind of things do you like to do? I was a really shy person and in a new school, but by joining activities like football, and a few clubs, I was able to meet a lot of people and get comfortable with being around them. Find out what you enjoy doing, and if you can’t then then keep an open mind and try out lots of different things, you’ll find something interesting, be it athletics, clubs, volunteering, or a hobby. Stick to it and it’ll be something you can put on college apps as well as something you look forward to. </p>
<p>Hope this helped!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your informations! I’ll try to find something that I enjoy. It’s really a relief to know that most of colleges don’t look at EC that much, since I want to spend more time on studying rather than spending time on many school activities. :)</p>
<p>Well, the ivy’s and colleges like emory, duke, stanford, etc. that many of the students on CC aim for do weight EC’s quite heavily. But if you were to try to get into your state public school, then their admissions are more stats based like GPA and test scores. Regardless of college, it’s great that you want to focus on your academics but activities can be very rewarding.</p>
<p>I’m actually aiming for MIT, and it’s a private school, but i don’t know how much MIT cares about EC. Though I don’t think my chance to get into MIT is high since it is like the top school and i have quite a few disadvantages, that’s why I want to do EC but not to make it a very important factor of my high school years.</p>
<p>MIT does care about ECs-but they will also recognize that you have only been in the US a few years and are making a significant cultural transition. </p>
<p>Remember too that ECs include lots of things besides school clubs: church, working, tutoring others in subjects that you are strong in, taking care of younger siblings while parents work, developing a hobby that you do on your own (art, for example), or participating in activities with your immigrant community. If you have shown commitment (by putting in the time and taking initiative), you will do fine. </p>
<p>Remember too that letters of recommendation are needed for schools like MIT, so make sure you get to know at least a few teachers, even if you are shy.</p>
<p>Thank you for your advices!
I didn’t know that fact about MIT. I’m actually getting along pretty well with teachers, sometimes i even feel that i get along with them better than friends of my age because teachers seem to understand me more and help me alot. :)</p>
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<p>Ways to improve your speaking and your English: </p>
<p>Speaking clubs, if they have the right people, may help you a lot. I know of several Toastmasters chapters that specialize not only in making people who speak decently speak very well, but in getting people with crippling stage fright or tons of verbal tics or other major speaking problems to speak well. If your chapter isn’t friendly, don’t do it though. It’s scary at first, but becomes much better. (I used to visibly shake with fear when speaking in public…this fall I got to give a 5-minute speech to a thousand or more people. It was so much fun!) I think that forensics (not the CSI type) is similar in function to Toastmasters.</p>
<p>Certain types of debate (not policy, probably) might also fit the bill…again, based mostly on which one, at your school, has the friendliest/laid-back-est atmosphere. You don’t want one where nothing gets done, but you also probably want to steer clear of the Really Intense Competitive Winning Is Really Really Really Important ones. MUN or Model Congress might also do it? They’re not so speaking-focused, but you do speak formally there, and could probably get some help.</p>
<p>Reading will also help you get acquainted with some of the vocabulary you may be lacking. Nonfiction books pertaining to your academic interests might be good, but I’ve always learned more words from novels, personally. Note: Don’t be afraid of pronouncing things wrong. I’m a native English speaker. Both my parents are lawyers with huge vocabularies who used those huge vocabularies around me from day 1. I am known on my Latin team as the-girl-with-the-big-vocabulary. I’m good at English. I still very, very often pronounce things wrong because I have never heard the word I’m trying to use. I’ve read it, sure, maybe read it often, but I’ve never actually heard anybody say it. (Camaraderie was the latest instance.) It’s not a mark of oh-your-English-is-bad or GASP-you-learn-your-words-from-books. Well, it is the second, but that’s really okay. It’s definitely not a mark of shame or anything. I had a reputation, along with girl-with-the-big-vocabulary, on the Latin team as girl-who-learns-words-from-books-and-can’t-pronounce them. It was just a thing Lirazel did, like how Lirazel’s teammate flipped her hair. No moral judgment was associated with it, so if that’s something you’re ever feeling shy about, don’t!..and I’ve really quite lost my train of thought here. Best of luck to you in everything! You’re quite clear for someone who’s been speaking English for such a short time.</p>
<p>^And of course, you don’t HAVE to do these things if you don’t want to. If studying makes you happy, don’t let me interfere! 
Those are just my suggestions for how to speak better (since you really want to, you said. That was the one part about which I was unclear…did you want to be able to participate more in clubs by joining conversations, or to actually practice more formal speaking? A lot of my suggestions are geared toward the latter, although the confidence those clubs try to build will help with the former as well.) Clubs at my high school at least tended to hold informational sessions near the beginning of the year. It might behoove you to attend at least the informational sessions of some clubs, besides math, in which you are interested. Speaking clubs might be a good addition to that list of clubs to visit. Good luck again!</p>
<p>you do not have to be in the leadership position to make the ec outstanding. you do not have to join group activities to be counted as ec’s. what is your passion? if you are good in hand craft, make some thing that ppl want and donate to charities and have a rec from charity will be an excellent ec. If you can compete in some thing and win at the Regional, State or National level, it will be good ec. If you can invent some thing and make a different in people’s life, that will be even better for a school like MIT.</p>
<p>There are many ways to work on EC’s.</p>