<p>I've spent my life wrapped up in my own thoughts and such, researching certain topics and basically spending my life with my nose in a book and a pen in hand. Meaning, I haven't been very involved in the community doing service and participating in club activities.</p>
<p>How much is it going to hurt me that I haven't been active in the usual ECs?</p>
<p>I have a 4.28 GPA from a prestigious private high school and I haven't yet taken the SATs, but my PSAT scores came in from 650-750 in all three sections.</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do to boost up my activity resume between now and application time? I suppose I could suddenly become very involved if I wanted to, but that just sounds very fake and shallow. What should I do?</p>
<p>I think that EC are important and all but way too many people seem to load up on Ec's durring there jr and sr. year. I would just pick one or two EC's that you are somewhat passionate about and stick to those.</p>
<p>that is exactly what the admissions people think. they would much rather see two activities that you are dedicated to throughout high school than 8 activities one year each.</p>
<p>Sharpilove...from what I have seen through my experience. Having ECs will not help your chances of admission (Unless they are TRULLYY SIGNIFICANT)....
But not having them will hurt like hell!!!
They'll get that bookish picture of urs easily....and like they say.....there is always another person with the same GPA as urs and the same SAT as urs.....and at that time to beat that person you will need ur ECs and other things like essays, recos. etc.</p>
<p>So, get involved. For starters go log some community service hours...no EC list is complete without community service and then get into some athletic activity...you dont have to be good at it....at least u can say that you participated.....and then go try something in music........</p>
<p>better to stick to a few activities and get good at them than to participate in 9-10 clubs and never attend a meeting!!!</p>
<p>Finally......Activity as in the common application could mean any of the following....sports, community service, clubs and councils, volunteer work, job, non-academic research, music (vocal or non vocal), drama, debate/speaking......I mean anything (ANYTHING) meaningful you do outside class.........
Even the most bookish fella has to have done one of those!!
for example..you might have babysitted (without gettin paid)...you can mention that in volunteer wrk...</p>
<p>I do have some ECs...for instance I have ridden horses and shown for about eight years, but there was no way I could keep track of everything. I've done all of the school plays and musicals, and I'm a fairly active member of school-based clubs, but all said those clubs meet about once a month. Basically, my activity resume is dependent on what the school has to offer.</p>
<p>I haven't done a study abroad program or internship, and I haven't yet cloned a fruit fly. I've been reading some profiles and mini-resumes of random people on here, and I have to admit I'm feeling a bit underqualified. I can raise my SATs no problem, and I am sure I can start doing some community service and such.</p>
<p>I guess my question is: do the colleges mainly just look to see if you have some ECs?</p>
<p>And I know this has come up before, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask it here again: Where do ECs rank on the importance list?</p>
<p>The purpose of ECs is to show that you're willing to take initiative and contribute to society outside of academia. If you can demonstrate this convincingly through your essay and recommendations, you should be fine. </p>
<p>Go to <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a> and search for a college that you're interested in. Under the "admissions" tab, it should tell you what that college in particular considers "most important," "very important," and "important."</p>