<p>Colleges may not require it for admission, but I know that at least for my high school, if no others, requires at least 75 hours of community service to get a regular high school diploma. Not sure if any other high schools are the same though.</p>
<p>I go to a top public school, and ECs were a big part of admissions. Back when I was in HS I talked to an admissions rep, and he said that ECs were almost as important as GPA.</p>
<p>" Back when I was in HS I talked to an admissions rep, and he said that ECs were almost as important as GPA."</p>
<p>???? I'm not aware of any college in which ECs are considered almost important as GPA.</p>
<p>"ach year the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) polls more than 1,500 colleges on their admission criteria. Below are the results. Note that 78 percent of responding institutions said that a student's ability to pay was of "little or no importance."</p>
<p>Factors influencing admission decisions (in order of importance):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Grades in college prep courses</p></li>
<li><p>Admission test scores</p></li>
<li><p>Grades in all subjects</p></li>
<li><p>Other criteria specific to each institution</p></li>
<li><p>Class rank</p></li>
<li><p>Essay/writing sample</p></li>
<li><p>Counselor recommendation</p></li>
<li><p>Teacher recommendation</p></li>
<li><p>Interview</p></li>
<li><p>Community service"</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Why are ECs important?</p>
<ol>
<li>They indicate your outside interests--what you are most enthusiastic about.</li>
<li>They show your ability level with regard to these outside interests.</li>
<li>They reveal other aspects of you and strengths you have.</li>
<li>They show dedication to things that are not required.</li>
<li>They give an idea of what type of contribution you might make to the campus community if accepted.</li>
<li>They give a more complete picture of who you are.
[/quote]
</li>
</ol>
<p>They also provide a tie breaker by which admins can use to choose. After all, if there are a bunch of people with the same great stats, they need something else by which to discriminate them.</p>
<p>I have heard that harvard and its ilk can populate something like 20 freshman classes 100 pct with vallies.</p>
<p>Northstar,</p>
<p>I'm not talking about the 1,500 universities in which ECs aren't really a factor. I'm referring to the top 50 in which colleges receive tons of applications with similar GPAs and test scores and must eliminate the majority of these applications. That was basically what this rep was trying to press on me; he said that among the qualified applicants the basic stats were so similar, it was the ECs that in part tipped the balance in favor of one applicant over another.</p>
<p>Only at really top 20-30 schools do EC's matter. For any school below that, they don't give a crap besides occasionally hoping you're not a no-life loser with no ability to be a leader or do great things, but at schools like HYP, special EC's can be just as important if not more than GPA and SATs. Everyone has a good GPA and SAT and essay. EC's, besides being another factor, also demonstrate something these top universities want - good leaders, because its the good leaders that bring name and money to the university, not the valedictorians en masse, though often the great leader is also the valedictorian and 2400 SAT too.</p>
<p>After reading this entire thread, I'm worried about my own extracurriculars. For my four years at my high school, I haven't participated much in any clubs. The main thing that I do is tutor younger kids at an elementary school that is linked to the high school. Yet outside of school, I am an assistant instructor for a dance class for kids. I also did drama once... and am enrolled in art class (that wasn't a necessary class). I do the American Cancer Society Walk every year. My grades are good. I am a National Merit Scholar... but are my extracurriculars not enough? Especially for the ivies. </p>
<p>Btw, all the kids at my school are like GODZILLA. They do everything: art, jobs, sports, community service, etc. Are my extracurriculars going to be compared to theirs? </p>
<p>Sorry to leach off your post. :)</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Most people will tell you its about quality rather than quantity. Colleges would rather see you do one or two things really well than a million things that you don't care about.</p>
<p>E.C's help colleges answer the question:</p>
<p>Is this an interesting person who will contribute in a positive and at least somewhat unique way to life on campus?</p>
<p>If you can answer the question in some other way (for example, you spent some years of your life in a refugee camp somewhere in Africa, or in an igloo) then you don't need E.C's.</p>
<p>If you do have a lot of E.C's but the answer to the above question is "not really", then those E.C's don't really help.</p>
<p>Even if there is nothing interesting about you except your academics, you may still be accepted, especially if your academics are interesting.</p>
<p>It is all about being an interesting addition to the campus.</p>
<p>JMHO.</p>
<p>i have absolutely NO extracurricular activities and I'm in my senior year.</p>
<p>is it possible for me to get into a college?</p>
<p>What if you EC's are all varsity sports? (soccer, lacrosse, rowing) and because you are practicing CONSTANTLY for all these sports you have no time to do any community service or anything useful? I'm getting screwed over here, I've always been pretty good at sports but not good enough to play D1, so I can't get a scholarship yet these sports have meant I have no time for anything else.</p>
<p>Community service isn't a requirement and it's overrated imo, I'd rather be the one playing sports instead of doing some X hours disingenuously.</p>
<p>This might sound stupid, but can you put reading as an EC? It's really important to me, but I haven't done it in a semi-official setting like clubs.</p>
<p>you could always get involved in things inside or outside school really quickly, like right now and then you could write that in your application. at least it would be true</p>
<p>You could put down reading as an EC but then you have to explain it a bit....what you have read, how you have grown from it, etc.</p>
<p>I'd think that reading is a little shaky in terms of an EC, because almost everyone does that (a few people, including me, don't really read).</p>
<p>And "reading" by definition is something you're doing right now on these forums, at school, an essay, etc.</p>
<p>I think it's too broad; maybe something like "Reading Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century" is more of an EC (I have friends that do this, sadly..)</p>
<p>So is it really important to cram in every ec on your application? Like i have lots of small community service things that if i added up im sure would add up to a significant chunk of time. However, they were more just something to do rather than something i really really cared about and right now am thinking to not even bother putting it on my application.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This might sound stupid, but can you put reading as an EC? It's really important to me, but I haven't done it in a semi-official setting like clubs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My daughter did a lot of reading online such as fanfiction. I suggested that she created a club that captures this interest. It maybe too late for you but for others who are reading this. This club gave her a lot of leadership skills such as create the constitution of the club, getting advisor, fund raising, planning weekly activities, etc..</p>
<p>Well, I do spend an obscene amount of time reading all kinds of novels, and I'm not talking about 20 books or so a year, more like the number being in the hundreds. And there's no real club I could join since my school doesn't exactly put much emphasis on clubs. I don't think that starting one would bring much since I'm applying this year. Still, thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>BTW, Invoyable, sci-fi is awesome, even if I've drifted away from it. :)</p>
<p>Wow, this thread quite possibly saved my college career... thank you.</p>