<p>Ok I have a question about this. It says you can include jobs as an EC. But I have tried and tried to get a job, but I never get called. The only steady thing I do is mow lawns in the summer, which I have done every year since I think my 8th or 9th grade year. Can I include this?</p>
<p>A lack of EC's can kill an applicants chances. When you hear about kids getting rejected from HYPM with damn near perfect stats it's not just for kicks. Just like the SAT gives schools another premise to discern the competency of an applicant, EC's convey motivation and genuine work ethic beyond book smarts.</p>
<p>Sure, mowing lawns is a job and can be included. Since mowing lawns involves lots of hard work, it probably would impress college officials more than applicants who got "internships" via family contacts.</p>
<p>Do you have to prove your ECs? Because the first two years I mowed withy my exstepdad, and I know for a fact he wouldn't help me out with anything. Also, I'm the young democrats at my current school, but I am transferring (im a junior). So if I do it next year at my new school, do I put one year or two?</p>
<p>ok, so if ECs constitute anything other than schoolwork, homework, chores, breathing, eating, and other basic human functions,
this means that ecs dont have to be volunteering or clubs/sports or internship
they can be things like…like what? spending ur year and cram schools for four years in various subjects (technically this is outside of school School) or babysitting ur kid sister???</p>
<p>“spending ur year and cram schools for four years in various subjects (technically this is outside of school School)”</p>
<p>Not the kind of EC that would impress American college, which know that cram schools are something that most college-aspiring students do in many parts of Asia. Colleges wouldn’t be impressed by that any more than they’d be impressed by an American student who spent their evenings and weekends studying for the SAT.</p>
<p>If one babysits one’s siblings for several hours a day while one’s parents are working, that would be having more responsibility than most high school students have --including those working jobs – and therefore would be very impressive.</p>
<p>Occasionally babysitting sibs while one’s parents are out doesn’t count for anything just like doing routine household chores won’t count as an EC.</p>
<p>What if you quit public school for homeschooling to help out at home spending most of your free time watching both of your grandparents (one had full on alzheimers and one was wheelchair bound and in the early stages of alzheimers)
in addition to essentially homeschooling on your own and helping their CNA with changing and feeding them while your single parent worked and finished HER college degree…would that somehow makeup for extracurriculars? Or could that somehow be seen as my extracurricular for the last 3 1/2 years??</p>
<p>Just a small question about extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Right now I’m a senior finishing A-levels in Pakistan, and just this year I joined both the Science Society and Environmental Society in my school. Basically the science society organizes events like the science fair and tries to get non-science students interested in science. In the environmental society we basically raise awareness about environmental problems in our city and community, and do things like cleanups and fundraising. A few weeks ago we cleaned up trash and weeds on a popular hiking trail.</p>
<p>I’ve also had a 2 week internship at an internet services firm called COMSATS. My duties included assistance in web design and logo design. </p>
<p>My schools is very unstructured with its system of extracurriculars. All societies are student-created and student-operated, with no funding from the school itself. For this reason, I was unable to do many things during 9-11th grade, since many of the meetings and events were scheduled against my own schedule (for example during school when I still had my classes).</p>
<p>Are these enough extracurriculars for some of the better universities out there (not Ivies! I know I’m just not good enough for those) such as Berkeley, UCLA, Wash U St. Louis, Wisconsin-Madison, and Johns Hopkins?</p>
<p>I’m not trying to replace a bad GPA or anything… I have a 3.75 GPA and a 2010 on SAT I.</p>
<p>Also, in 11th grade I did a project for Computing class where I developed an educational software for a school for special children, including both the mentally and physically disabled. During the process I practically had to teach myself how to use Flash. The school isn’t actually using the software…yet, but I plan to tweak it a bit more and then hand it over to them. Would this count as extracurricular even though it was mostly to fulfill curriculum requirements?</p>
<p>“What if you quit public school for homeschooling to help out at home spending most of your free time watching both of your grandparents (one had full on alzheimers and one was wheelchair bound and in the early stages of alzheimers)”</p>
<p>The few colleges that factor ECs into admission-- places like Harvard-- could be impressed by what you’re doing particularly if you write an insightful essay about your experiences. Having major home responsibilities like yours counts like a major EC.</p>
<p>“re these enough extracurriculars for some of the better universities out there (not Ivies! I know I’m just not good enough for those) such as Berkeley, UCLA, Wash U St. Louis, Wisconsin-Madison, and Johns Hopkins?”</p>
<p>Virtually all public universities make admissions decisions based on stats – grades, scores, state of residence (with in-state residents being preferred). If $ is a concern, to my knowledge, no public universities provide financial aid to internationals. Only 2 public universities meet full documented need of all accepted U.S. students: UNC-Chapel Hill and U Virginia. Few private universities meet the full financial need of internationals, and those few universities are places like Harvard.</p>
<p>Thanks Northstarmom. It’s a huge relief that extracurriculars don’t matter as much to the universities I chose, I was getting worried.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, I’m a US citizen, so I think I can still apply for financial aid =) Money wasn’t a major concern anyway.
Unfortunately, though, I am not a resident of any particular state.</p>