How borring are my ECs?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>science olympiad 9-11 (4 total gold metals @ state comp; 3 in a row team 1st place @ state & national competition qualifier; mostly building events; team's building guy)</p>

<p>GPML (great plains math league) 9-12 (state qualifiers 9-11; regional qualifiers 9-10)</p>

<p>Cross-country (9-12; letter; thinking about getting supplemental rec from coach, but I don't know... I kinda didn't try very hard in his AP US History class soph year)</p>

<p>Soccer (9-11 Freshmen/JV; I had so much potential... ALLstar Varsity quality before season and then poof, bench warmer on JV who didn't even get any playing time)</p>

<p>volunteering: Public library summer helper (3 yrs; ~60 hours? - probably less than that because it was summer for gods sake)</p>

<p>Iowa State math tutor volunteer (up to calc III; not on payroll due to immigrant status; 0 hours so far<--ok not to mention that? I mean they hired me-went through interview orientation and all that, and I'm scheduled for 4-8 hours a week on standby; really looked forward to it :()</p>

<p>orchestra: violin 9-12 (actually 4-12, which is pretty average anyways)</p>

<p>Ping Pong Club: starter/president/treasurer (host tournaments, bake sales, 10-12; thinking about intramural w/another school, but probably not happening)</p>

<p>ultimate frisbee: 9-12, for fun, like it a lot, Iowa Games 08 (2nd division- metal)</p>

<p>I know I have like 8 things on here, but I don't know which ones to put on. Someone will tell me to follow my gut instinct and put on which ever one is most important to me. Well they are ALL important to me. But they are all also pretty insignificant individually (at least when compared with some of the ones I've seen on cc). Which ones should get nominated into the top 5 so that together, they would form a nice picture altogether? It's not the accomplishment I'm aiming for, it's the passion.</p>

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<p>Nothing is boring if you elaborate about it in your supplementary essays ;D</p>

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<p>I would not recommend putting down “Iowa State math tutor volunteer” since you have 0 hours, you essentially did nothing.
It would be dishonest and you would be liable to be caught if checked.</p>

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<p>To answer your question: watching grass grow would be more interesting for the admissions board than reviewing your EC’s.</p>

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<p>^^oh man, quite the slam. gotta love the bluntness of teenagers…</p>

<p>a tip to the OP: you’ve repeatedly mispelled “medal”. There is no “t” in it. It doesn’t matter here, but it’s a mistake you wouldn’t want to make on the application.</p>

<p>Have someone proofread your application.</p>

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<p>oh yea, my bad, i did this thread at 2 in the morning. Other than crucial spell check mistakes, what are some more Useful comments?</p>

<p>and btw, I will take your advice and have someone proof read everything</p>

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<p>well at this point… it REALLY DOESN’T matter since you can’t change anything, and chance threads probably matters even less.
if you applied EA, you can either relax a bit now, or work on apps or other schools. if you are applying RD, make sure to spend lots of time on your app.
Don’t write about things you didn’t do since you do have to fill out how many hours/week thing on the app.
You can make any topic super interesting or extremely boring; it all depends on how you present it.</p>

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<p>I just realized that my school has a math circle, and that I’ve been part of it all my years. Basically, it’s a group that sponsors all the math activities and competitions going on.</p>

<p>It includes: GPML (the thing I listed), Mandelbrot, Math League and AMC 8/10/12</p>

<p>Would it be beneficial for me to put down the math circle instead of just GPML? it’ll be like an overview of my math EC background. Plus it’ll include GPML. I put GPML down instead of any of the rest because it is the one that requires more dedication</p>

<p>And would it be worth it to put myself down as one of the top 5 scorers in my school’s math league? because the top 5 scores determines the school’s score. But the thing is that my school has like 7 max people taking that test…</p>

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<p>it is quite boring, cuz, everyone has the same things you do, sorry, just being honest</p>

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<p>Well, it’s MIT, so who knows if this will do any good, but if you take the right attitude towards explaining and elaborating on your extracurriculars, you will have a pretty commanding resume. If you find yourself unable to put the right spin on them, maybe reading some political science books will help.</p>