HOW MUCH DO ECs ACTUALLY HELP?

Applying to College
1

<p>How much?</p>

<p>I mean, I don't have horrible grades, I'm taking a pretty harsh load of courses, and I'm going to work my butt off next year (junior year) to boost my GPA and do good on the SATs BUT I think I have some pretty nifty ECs and I want to know how much ECs really help...some of them I think really make me stand out!</p>

<p>SPORTS:
-National Champion Athlete (I'd put the sport but you could easily look me up on google...not a sport thats recruitable though)
-Volleyball (3 yrs Varsity and maybe captain senior year?)
-Basketball (2 yrs Varsity hopefully)
-Might be trying out for Lacrosse next year seeing im co-founder</p>

<p>VOLUNTEER:
-Co-founder/ Coordinator of Invisible Children at my school (will be getting some major events going next year...excitement!)
-Volunteer tutor
-Volunteer at multiple sports camps
-School Volunteers (officer position possibly senior year)
-Debate (PROB officer position senior year)
-Young Democrats (""")</p>

<p>I also just founded a forum online (tell me if you want me to PM you the link to check it out...it's pretty sick but I can't spam here) so if that gets going, that could be something cool too...</p>

<p>So most of my ECs are sports/volunteering/activism. That's me.</p>

<p>So...I'm really not that bad of a student (just not a genius like most of you) I'm still honors/AP material but I'd still like to know...</p>

<p>how much do ECs REALLY help?</p>

2

<p>ECs only give a boost to your application when you do something that is significant to the college (e.g. playing a varsity sport; getting recruited is the non plus ultra). Generally the most important admission criteria at most colleges is your academic profile; only the colleges that have an abundance of academically qualified applicants (e.g. Ivies) rely heavily on ECs to make admission decisions.</p>

3

<p>Thanks BARIUM!</p>

<p>Anyone else? Do you think that my ECs give me maybe an extra edge at all?</p>

4

<p>Didn't you post a similiar thread to this before? Hhahahah. </p>

<p>Olympic sport = Hook.</p>

<p>Thousands and thousands of kids spend hours, years, looking for hooks and never get them. By having that level of Olympic excellence, you put yourself on the same tier as RSI-ers, 2400ers, and Intel Finalist.</p>

<p>You stand out from the crowd.</p>

<p>now stop worrying, lmfao. Go out and watch a movie, I hear transformers will be good ;)</p>

5

<p>lol lol no I don't remember posting something like this before although I just repeated it (woops) in another section cause I wasn't getting any love in the college admissions section =( </p>

<p>lol thanks though</p>

<p>oh yes...and personally I'm waiting for 1408 and Harry Potter =D</p>