<p>Some of my selective colleges have application deadlines this Fall!. However, i have pretty okay grades(taking AP classes, college classes), but the only thing that i'm missing is INVOLVEMENTS.
I am involve in a community food bank and I do donate blood to the Red Cross, and I have about 50 community service hours(very little) But I need more! More than that! More involvement!
So what do I google? I need to join clubs/organizations! but I don't know where to start. Does it matter which clubs I join? Do they have to be known clubs/organizations?
Also, how can colleges verify if you really are involve? Like, it's easy to put down anything for involvements in the application when it asks? So why does it really matter if you're involve or not?
I'm probably looking at this the wrong way so excuse me....</p>
<p>Well, you generally have to be part of them for several years (at least two including senior year). If you’ve won an award, even better.</p>
<p>Guess what? Colleges don’t look kindly on a bump in volunteering the year of admissions. The question is what actually excites you.</p>
<p>@"Erin’s Dad" haha bet…</p>
<p>Your cumulative GPA limits you to the selectivity of colleges. Those that would admit you won’t worry about any ECs you have, purely admitting you based on your GPA and test scores and ability to pay. So don’t do the senior scramble as it won’t help you any. What you should do is bear down on your study habits and test taking skills, crush out the best possible grades for your remaining time in HS. </p>
<p>Trying to radically re-package yourself to be attractive to selective schools isn’t in your future. Instead, be calm, focus on a solid suite of likely colleges (that you can afford) and go into your Sr year confident, content and with direction. Your turnaround since 10th grade is something to be proud of. That, plus a successful collegiate career are much more important than the name on your college diploma. Good luck.</p>
<p>“How can I make colleges believe I have a long record of extracurricular involvement over what I do in the next few weeks?” Short answer - you can’t.</p>
<p>Adcomms can smell resume padding. But only holistic-admit schools care about ECs.</p>
<p>And I mention this only bcs u have typed it 4 times: it’s “involveD”, not “involve”</p>
<p>@mikemac short answer. Get out</p>
<p>@barcakid39 mikemac correctly summarizes the gist of your post. You’re looking to make a dramatic alteration. You can’t and its attempt will be futile and a waste of your time when there are other pressing issues at hand. You’re completely free to ignore that advice and continue to strain out that “miracle EC I can attain/complete that will make me outstanding in 3 months”. Besides winning millions of lottery dollars that you immediately donate to your target college, nothing like that exists – by its very definition!</p>
<p>You ask advice – be prepared to hear the unvarnished truth. You’re about to embark on your adulthood. Act accordingly</p>
<p>:D (10 char)</p>
<p>@T26E4 for real, this doesn’t correspond to you. I didn’t ask for you to tell what’s up. So don’t mind what’s going on. But I will read your and answer and thanks for that. Things are complicated for me…</p>
<p>What school(s) specifically are you asking about?</p>
<p>You are who you are. It is better to spend the time on essays than finding new activities to join now.</p>
<p>@butterfreesnd Syracuse, SDSU, Marymount, some schools are big while the others are small…</p>
<p>Do you have a job? Do you have other outside interests like church, an athletic activity outside school (like mountain biking or karate that is an individual activity and not a club)? Do you spend a lot of time playing interactive video games or playing around programming or playing magic the gathering at your local comic book shop? There are other things to be “involved” with that aren’t official “clubs” and you can mention those things on your application. Just make yourself shine with whatever it is that you do, highlight those things you are excited about - its not going to help to try and “fake” involvement that you aren’t really invested in. </p>
<p>Joining more things now will not help - the admissions people will see that you only joined them to try to make an impression. Your best bet for acceptance is good letters of recommendation from teaches and your guidance counselor that focus on your changing your attitude in your Junior year and vastly improving your grades. Perhaps one of your LORs could come from one of the community college professors?</p>
<p>Too late to really change your EC profile now. Just make the best of what you have done. Lying on your application for any reason is never a good idea.</p>
<p>Well good news for you, SDSU doesn’t consider ECs in their admission process according to their CDS, and at Marymount they are merely “Considered” vs. “Important” or “Very Important”. </p>
<p>You should not worry about ECs. You can’t change anything now. What’s done is done, focus on writing good essays for the schools that want them. </p>
<p>@VSGPeanut101 I don’t know if theses things count towards EC and etc; but the things that I have done are :
- 6 years in Tae Kwon Do (2nd Black Belt), Junior Instructor (meaning I have the right to teach class to youths) went to tournaments and competitions…long ago
- Volunteered in Bible Study for children at some church…long ago
- Volunteer at Food Bank …still am now
- Donated blood twice…not long ago
- Participated in Wrestling and soccer…still am now
- Volunteered at school’s library …still am now
that’s all I can think of…like I said I don’t know if they would care so this may or may not count…</p>
<p>@T26E4I don’t know if theses things count towards EC and etc; but the things that I have done are :
- 6 years in Tae Kwon Do (2nd Black Belt), Junior Instructor (meaning I have the right to teach class to youths) went to tournaments and competitions…long ago
- Volunteered in Bible Study for children at some church…long ago
- Volunteer at Food Bank …still am now
- Donated blood twice…not long ago
- Participated in Wrestling and soccer…still am now
- Volunteered at school’s library …still am now
that’s all I can think of…like I said I don’t know if they would care so this may or may not count…</p>