i have a quick question, i have a lot of volunteering hours and academic clubs and such (like science olympiad, model un) but the problem is, i’m not quite passionate about any of them. i AM passionate about art, i absolutely love it, but it’s not technically an EC if its just something i do on my own, is it?
^ Remember, colleges want to know about your true interests. And what usually accompanies great interest is great talent. If your art teachers have commented on your great ability, or have entered your stuff into county or state fairs, or even the NFAA competition (<a href=“http://www.artsawards.org/)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.artsawards.org/)</a>, colleges will care about it. Also, if you can copy your stuff into your app (as long as it’s really quality stuff), then that will count.
^^ Yeah as long as you can demonstrate your interest and passion for art, they’ll love it. Also, if your volunteer hours/clubs all revolve around a few key interests, you can weave that into a “passion” or field of interests.
Hmm just a few questions. Do colleges only care about leadership positions? I agree with a previous poster that it is somewhat a popularity contest and the majority of the time NOT a reflection of your achievements in that group. Is there anyway to list accomplishments you’ve made so you can show adcoms that you DO put alot of work into your ECs. I have several groups I am involved in which I hold positions like “secretary”, “vp” “director of x” and when you present these in a long list they look SO dull, but I really do pour my heart into them.
Also, when it comes to awards etc. how little of awards should you include? I’ve won a bunch of small academic awards, awards from clubs like “best member” “most dedicated” etc. should I include these under awards? In addition my school features some of the best artists in surrounding artshows and my art has been featured a few times and I won an award but its a bunch of students art who’s featured. Should I include this as well?
(Sorry to ask so many questions) I am just kind of confused on how this process works.
Also my school doesn’t have alot of national tests that we take, so I find it difficult to to win a “best in state” or “best in nation” type award… hmm
Kind of a random question, but I’ll ask this anyway. Does self-studying a language count as an EC? For the past two years I have been trying to teach myself Japanese. I have a strong, genuine interest in the language, I will spend six weeks in Japan this summer (I leave in 10 days…ACK!), and I intend to have Japanese as one of my majors in college. It takes up a fair amount of my time, but I have no real formal structure like 5:00-6:00 everyday or something. Can I still put this down?
Titles are often empty. This will come out during interviews. If the interviewer asked you, what was the most significant thing you accomplished as president? it needs to be good. If you were on the membership committee, or something, and you totally revamped the system of something and recruited 300% more members, then that’s worth talking about. Many people think, oh I’ll start my own little club… like Go Club… meet once a week and call myself Supreme President of the Galactic Order and I’ll have a substantive leadership role that’ll get me into college. No.
“Many people think, oh I’ll start my own little club… like Go Club… meet once a week and call myself Supreme President of the Galactic Order and I’ll have a substantive leadership role that’ll get me into college. No.”
Very true. Things that didn’t impress me while interviewing applicants to Harvard: A student who created “Pie Club” (students gathered to eat pie each week. Big whoop!); a student who created “Games Club,” (This club was designed to reduce high school students’ stress by allowing them to play games together. Another big whoop!).
Something that did impress me: A student who after losing the election for marching band president became the first student to take on the responsibility of taking care of the band uniforms. This involved getting about 100 band uniforms cleaned and repaired each week, and making sure that all of their various parts were together. In addition to doing this position-- which was important, but not highly valued and not something that someone looking for resume dressing would have accepted – she also used her executive board position to start a program to help freshmen get oriented more quickly to the band. I was very impressed by her obvious leadership and organizational skills, and by the fact that she was willing to do anything – including a difficult, time consuming job that most students would have fled from – to help an organization that she cared about.
She ended up going to Stanford.
My number one passion is chemistry. I’ve always won the first prize in the regional chemistry olympiad and I’ve taken part to national chemistry olympiads since I was in 8th grade (4 times so far), where I won a mention every year. I also won a bronze medal at an international contest in Russia, but that contest does not compare to the International Chemistry Olympiad. I saw an application to Princeton and they ask about awards received in school, so I guess they will mean something.
I usually spend over 30 hours or more a week studying chemistry. I do this by my own and sometimes with a little help from my teacher, but this is not a part of an official school project nor I help someone else with it. I do it for myself. Ashley, in my freshman and sophomore year, I didn’t join any club or anything, all my spare time, except when with friends,TV or stuff like that, was for chemistry. Does this count as an extracurricular? Or I’ll just look like a big nerd?
I’m guessing it probally does, but its so career-specific that it would only be useful in applying for a Chemistry major most likely, since it shows incredible passion in one area
I don’t know what I need to know in order to get my kids into an Ivy League school. All I know is what Rory did on Gilmore Girls. What exactly does one need to do before their senior year in high school? I always wanted to go to Harvard Law School, but now that I am actually doing the research, I know it will never happen. But I would like for the oppurtunity to be available for my children when they reach that age.
Should universities place such an emphasis on extras?
In my town for example (I won’t mention it purposely) students like me usually do not participate in anything - oh, well, they play volleyball and basketball on a field 8x4 meters, where they bump into each other every now and then, usually 20 or 30 people at a time, unless they are blessed with very very rich parents, who can pay loads of money for private tennis tutors… Naturally they hardly get any sport awards, or lets say significant awards… There are no clubs or school teams, cause they have nowhere to train or meet, no APs or things like that at school (they are not extras but just to mention)… and beyond a couple of organisations, there is virtually nothing to do here. Subsequently, everyone applying from here, has a transcript with a not really vigorous curriculum, certificate for some kind of activity (if lucky enogh!) and a long list of traumas on the fields…
But lets say that a person X with influential parents trained tennis three months and took a recommendation from his coach for passionately training since fifth grade, wrote an article for his aunt’s newspaper (a well-known one) and took a recommendation for working as a journalist for years, stated that he has worked at his uncle’s company, asked his brother to write for him a passionate essay for the importance of community work and how contribution has changed his life (the brother described actually his own experince as a summer volunteer on a volunteer camp) and so on, and so on…
Such a person actually can not exist - but there are a lot of people, who have accoplishments of this kind. And that is so, because it is hard somwhere to do anything - unless you pay. And if you pay well, you get whatever you want. So should universities place so much importance on extras according to you?
I’m not sure… the problem I have with the whole “passion” card as a justification for EC’s influence is that I don’t have a passion… yet. I enjoy a variety of things but nothing enough to devote years and years to it. Isn’t that what college is for? Finding out what you’re passionate about? So that logic has never worked on me; I’m in the very smally minority at my prep school of people who don’t join clubs unless they’re interested. For example: what do NHS and CSF even do? I have no idea! People who are in these clubs have no idea! (This is at least at my school.)
Just a rant, but I know I’m not totally alone when I claim my EC’s don’t exhibit passion because I haven’t found mine yet.
would it be better to have leadership positions in 4 or 5 ec’s centered on the same general idea or 20 ec’s that aren’t similar and don’t show as much passion?
clearly the 4 or 5
to op:
you have a good point 
How about founding a program that helps recent immigrants with English, similar to ESL? Does that constitute a good cause, unlike the “Games Club” and “Pie Club”?
mystycrage–
i love gilmore girls, but one of my pet peeves it how unrealistic it is in terms of the college admissions process. sure, rory was valedictorian, but so what? what else did she do? she was a staff writer for her school newspaper, that’s it. in the real world, she would have never gotten into the schools she did (except yale, because her grandpa donated a ton of money.) also, she only applied to princeton, yale, and harvard… no safety schools. was she nuts?
for your kids-- start them early in anything and everything they’re interested in. encourage them to try new things to find the activities they really like. in high school, have them become really active in a couple activities. find them interesting opportunities. that’s how they’ll get great ec’s like this thread is talking about. i don’t know how young your kids are, but READ WITH THEM. teach them to love learning.
not everyone can get into an ivy league school, and not everyone belongs there. i don’t know if i belong there. but if you foster their love of learning and their passion for… anything really, they’re going to do just fine.
amazing post dove_peace. Thanks a million.
I am obsessed with Gilmore Girls. But username17, you have it wrong about Rory - Remember the summer program in Washington with all the senators, when Paris met Jamie? & remember Rory was Student Council president? & I remember her doing community service. Her essay and SAT scores could have been amazing. Sorry just had to point that out. I’m defending a fictional character … wow.
LOL yeah… didn’t she want to build houses for the homeless or something? Either way, it’s a bit of a stretch that she would get accepted into HY and P… (rory, i mean)… i think. Wow okay… enough. haha.