I basically have only one EC. it’s policy debate. for anyone who’s ever done this for an extend period of time, you know how much of a full time EC this is. I often did three days a week plus numerous weekends from my freshmen year through the end of my junior year. There’s lots of other work involved at home, research and practice, etc. I’ve traveled to California, Chicago and Boston to compete and gone to month-long summer programs in California and DC between freshmen and sophmore year and between sophmore and junior year to get head starts on the next debate year. All in all ive invested probably thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of my high school career in this. Will the admissions people recognize this and realize that I didn’t just join some club or will they deny me? I’ve also got some work experience (since july).
<p>Everybody knows that debate is time consuming EC. If you were good at it (state/national level) and were leader on your team, you'll probably be fine. Show your passion in essays & such.</p>
<p>Also, you probably will be able to mention hoursperweek and weeks per year on your app and describe it as well so colleges will see that</p>
<p>I'm part of my school's policy team (ranked around #4 or 5 in the US) and I can tell you that if your test scores are solid, and even if you yourself didn't place well in tourneys (say, national or state level), but did a pretty good job at tourneys, you'll get in to a school of UC-Berkeley caliber. Especially, if you went to debate camp at Stanford, Dartmouth, or DC - try to talk to the debate coaches there, since they are the ones who usually run the camps as you probably know. They could influence the decision committee to favor you b/c the debate team may 'draft' you for the team. I'm aware that this happens at Stanford, Gonzaga, Dartmouth (I think), and a few other colleges. Good luck!</p>
<p>damn, id take berkeley. im majoring in physics, so it'd be perfect. thanks for the replies.</p>