<p>I kept arguing this point with my parents - they believe that me doing my bajillions hours of community service will not help me whatsoever in my college admissions, and that they only aid the very "best" of students. (Don't ask my where they got THAT ideal) </p>
<p>How much do extracurriculars (jobs, art, music, sports, community service) REALLY affect the college admissions process, in your opinion? Does it "make up" for having a weak GPA or SAT scores?</p>
<p>ECs really are very important for only the very top colleges -- the HPYS type places that have such an overabundance of high stat applicants that the colleges can select students in order to create a well rounded class.</p>
<p>Most colleges select students based on their stats. If ECs count, those may count for things like merit aid. Doing a bazillion hours of community service might count for things like community service-based scholarships that some colleges have, however, such scholarships often are also based on impact, not just how many hours one put in. One can put in 300 mindless hours with little impact. People can get community service hours for basically sitting down and doing nothing or slowly picking up trash. Those kind of things don't count as much as someone who may have done far fewer hours, but on their own created a service project or done a fundraiser that raised lots of $.</p>
<p>ECs can be important at any school that has an admit rate of less than 50%, since these schools will have many more academically qualified applicants than they can admit. Typically adcoms assign candidates ratings on both academic and personal qualities (EC, jobs, service, recs, special talents). The top-rated students academically will probably get in regardless (except at the super elite HPYS type places). But a broad swath of applicants in the middle will be academcially qualified, and it's these students for whom the personal qualities matter most. </p>
<p>Good ECs won't make up for weak GPA or SAT, but they can give you the edge over a person within, say, one standard deviation (100 pts on the old SAT) who doesn't bring much to the institution besides the ability to study.</p>
<p>From what I've heard from people I know in an admissions office of a top ten school...The more selective a school is, the less EC count for anything. This means that grades reign supreme and a weak GPA is hard to make up for with EC. However, because in schools like HYPSMC, the majority of applicants are tops in academics (and standardized test scores), EC are used to differentiate between two or more qualified canidates. As Northstarmom said, they want to make a well rounded class.</p>
<p>Makes no sense Central, ECs count the most at top 10 schools. They don't count at all unless you have a great GPA and SAT, but most applicants to top 10 schools do. Then they count a lot. They are how top schools choose from among all the qualified candidates. That said, at very top schools volunteer hours won't differentiate you unless say you started the non profit or have a national role in it.</p>
<p>suze, what are you talking about??? You basically supported everything I said. I said that everyone at HYPSMC have great grades/SAT, so EC are looked at. You said that EC don't count unless you have grades/SAT. That's basically the exact thing I said. Also, you reiterated my first statement when you said that GPA/SAT come first because I said that grades reign supreme. I said because most applicants are qualified EC are used to differentiate them. You said: "They are how top schools choose from among all the qualified candidates." You are reiterating all of my points. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>A Columbia admissions officer answered the question this way on a visit -</p>
<p>EC's are meaningless if you don't have the academic qualifications (for Columbia, ...)</p>
<p>however, if you ARE academically qualified, then ECs can be very important in the admittance decision</p>
<p>Academics first, then EC.</p>