<p>Hey,
I'm looking to apply to a few Ivies next year and UChicago, and was wondering how my EC's stack up.
So far I have about 250 hours of community service since the 10th grade, I volunteer 4 hrs/week at a hospital cancer center, 4 hrs/week at a church helping cook for and provide shelter for homeless people, I'm in honor society, VP of the School's Key Club, (will be next year's president of) math club, I tutor 6th graders for math twice/week, I have a few Scholastic art awards (and I entered 5 pieces this year so hopefully that # will go up), have painted murals around my school, and have painted sets for the school's theater department. I also am running for ASB President, but who knows the what will result from that.
So what do you think? Is this too spread out? Too little? Should I be doing more? My grades/tests/class rigor are fine, so this all isn't with intention to make up for anything, but am I doing enough?</p>
<p>Oh and I forgot to mention that I will be submitting art supplements with all of my applications, and that I applied to be on my county’s youth leadership council which is a group of students who organize community projects independently </p>
<p>Sounds fab chica, you’re on a roll</p>
<p>Plenty for u.chicago. Consider finding an internship or summer academic program of some kind. Not a fancy pants $10k Ivy League program, community college also a good potential idea. </p>
<p>@Wje9164be I’m thinking of applying for a 4-week math/engineering academy program over the summer at a local university where I would live on campus for the duration of the program. Would that be sufficient? </p>
<p>Try to do a program that is free. The money ones are usually not that great. I did a program at a tech company. Message me and I’ll give you details</p>
<p>ummmm… so how are your grades? Transcript? Scores? These are 100x more important than your ECs, you know…</p>
<p>ivyornah: that’s a straw man. No where did I say there was no importance to ECs to the sorts of schools the OP is mentioning. But my fear was she thinks ivies and other top schools are some club and sports haven and all they want are super organizers or volunteer directors. Their prime activity is to educate.</p>
<p>Granted, my “100x” was an exaggeration but if there were a 3.0 GPA student who is begging for more EC ideas, I’d tell him/her to drop 80% of his/her ECs and hit the books.</p>
<p>BTW: the entrance of the vast majority of entering freshmen in Sept 2015 will not have had a single EC or vol hour even READ by the colleges they attend. The fact is the majority of US colleges care very little to not at all, the ECs of their applicants.</p>
<p>@T26E4 11 AP classes by the time I graduate and a 4.0. I suspect my SATs to be fine, I’ve been studying for months. </p>
<p>@sallymeno11 luckily this math/engineering one is entirely free! It has a ton of sponsors. </p>
<p>There is simply no way to know what weight, if any, any particular school would assign to any one EC.</p>
<p>Honestly that’s pretty enlightening </p>
<p>The only time an EC would matter if it has to do with what you want to study, or something you passionately do for a very long time. I doubt clubs hold any weight to colleges. At least that’s what I think. </p>
<p>I would argue that clubs offer the opportunity for leadership positions, however. Which many colleges like to see. (But I wouldn’t call myself an expert in any way)</p>