<p>Name says it all, how can you set yourself apart from the thousands of other applicants? Or what do you think set you apart from the others to gain acceptance to a prestigious school?</p>
<p>I meant yourself, lol.</p>
<p>Send a $100 bill paperclipped to your application ;)</p>
<p>Lol! I can just imagine the look on their faces…</p>
<p>
By spelling ‘yourself’ incorrectly!</p>
<p>Lol hey, I corrected it!</p>
<p>shesh would i like to know…
:/</p>
<p>Just be yourself and excel at something you enjoy doing.</p>
<p>Be authentic. Do what interests you, but push yourself to excel. Find time to be of service to your community in an activity that you are good at and enjoy. Get good grades. Prep for those darned SAT’s. It doesn’t matter WHAT you do, it’s HOW you do it that matters.</p>
<p>Get a ****ty job that you hate working with mexican immigrants, learn to speak spanish, and befriend said immigrants, after a few months, start driving said immigrants home. Then write essay. Success! (thats what I did, PM me if you want to read my essay)</p>
<p>But seriously, look at what your peers are doing (NHS, Key club, community service, varsity sports) and only devote time to them if you can do it better than anyone at your school. If you cannot, then do something else like write a book, start your own service project, take a few college classes and do some research, play in insturment very well, or something else like that.</p>
<p>Tboonepickens- Thanks for the ideas! See what my problem is, is that freshman and sophomore years I was unable to do ECs since I had to take care of my little brother from the time I got home from school until the early hours of the morning since my parents worked weird shifts. And well now here I am junior year without much to put on my application. I was a section leader in orchestra until I quit since I had more important classes to take. I am a mentor for freshmen and Secretary of Spanish club and a teacher/office aide but that’s it and I find it hard finding ways to become super involved in something so that I am able to stand out this late in the game. I plan on volunteering at the zoo this summer if accepted into the program and volunteering at a nursing home, but that’s all pretty generic stuff compared to the kids who start their own websites and what not. I do have some slight hooks though such as I’d be the first generation to go to college from my immigrant family (parents were immigrants) to go to college and am trilingual. I’d like to start a service project but have no clue where I would possibly begin. Otherwise I have the stats/courseload part down.</p>
<p>“Thanks for the ideas! See what my problem is, is that freshman sophomore years I was unable to do ECs since I had to take of my little brother from the time I got home from school until the early hours of the morning since my parents worked weird shifts.”</p>
<p>That does set you apart from the majority of applicants, who don’t have that level of family responsibilities.</p>
<p>Make sure you include that info on your app. Colleges are impressed by things like what you’ve had to do. What you did required more maturity and responsibility than most of the ECs that high school students do.</p>
<p>Anyway, most colleges don’t factor ECs into admission.</p>
<p>Northstarmom- Thanks for the encouragement! I sure hope it’s enough to make up for what I lack, I really want to go to Cornell. And I just realized how many typos and words I left out of what I had typed, oops. :)</p>
<p>its all about finding a passion and following it.</p>
<p>find something that truly interests you. quantity over quality. always.</p>
<p>iskander, didn’t you mean quality over quantity? (was that a Freudien lapsus or just a mistake? haha)</p>
<p>Your family responsibilities will help you a lot more than photography club or other EC’s.</p>
<p>
I disagree.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This.</p>
<p>Do what feels right in your gut. I did a lot of work in the video game industry, because it was something I loved to do. A lot of people expressed doubt in how well it would be received by a college admissions officer, but I think the likely letter from Columbia I got today is evidence to the contrary. </p>
<p>As cliched as it sounds, it’s not what you do, but how well you do it!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Um…how do you figure that? What do you think they factor in, if not ECs?</p>
<p>Set yourself apart? </p>
<p>Well… get a machete, pick the limb of your choice… and remember, if it hurts TOO much, you won’t be feeling anything anymore soon. </p>
<p>Oh… and always remember that you are unique. Just like everybody else.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what exactly did you do?</p>