<p>You really should consider what happiness means to you. If it's getting into "that" college, then maybe it is worth it, but otherwise, definitely not.</p>
<p>On a related note:
Back at the end of my sophomore year, I made a decision to basically quit ALL of my school-related ECs to do a dual-enrollment program (at a community college, no less). I continued with activities outside of school I loved and even found a few new ones. The EC section on my college apps looked pretty bad since I quit a lot of ECs suddenly and started new ones throughout junior and senior year. But in the end, things worked out and I've been accepted to the college of my choice and don't feel like I sold my soul for it.</p>
<p>Honestly, you are gypping yourself of your own happiness by doing it. It really doesn't matter where you go for university, how many figures your pay check consists of, or how big your closet is -- if you aren't happy, you aren't living. </p>
<p>If your world was to end today; in much more cacophonic terms, if you end up on your deathbed right now, would you be satisfied with your life? Would you be ready to leave? If you keep at the way you're going -- all work now, enjoy later -- you'll miss out on life. Enjoy life while you still can, carpe diem, and whatever other cliche you can think of. Go read, or rent, Wit and you'll get a bit of a taste for the consequences of your actions. Seriously, it ISN'T worth it!!!</p>
<p>I'm starting to get very sick of what competition is doing to us. It's like success doesn't mean happiness anymore. Do what YOU want, not what is wanted of you. My guess is that you're a great person, if you feel guilty of all this, stop. What do you enjoy? Go for that. You're worth more than just another application trying to impress someone. Don't waste your time, you'll never get it back. A miserable life as of now in no way guarantees a happy one later. </p>
<p>"Back at the end of my sophomore year, I made a decision to basically quit ALL of my school-related ECs to do a dual-enrollment program (at a community college, no less). I continued with activities outside of school I loved and even found a few new ones."</p>
<p>Note to everybody: Even for admission to the most competitive colleges, which are virtually the only ones that factor ECs into admissions, one doesn't need to be involved in school ECs for admission.</p>
<p>Outside activities -- working a job, doing community service, taking extra classes, pursuing research on your own time, being involved in your church, running marathons, getting involved in community clubs including ones for adults -- all can be the type of things that impress the relatively few colleges that care about more than your stats. If you have a family situation that prevents your doing such things (such as if you have to take care of your younger siblings or work hard in your family business), then that kind of responsibility also impresses colleges.</p>
<p>So, stop thinking that you must force yourself to do school related ECs in order to get into college. It's simply not true. Most colleges don't factor ECs at all into admission. The ones that do are looking to see how you pursued your own interests. The colleges don't care where your activities occurred.</p>
<p>Thank you for those posts, Northstarmom. Those are my thoughts exactly. I was thinking about all the things I'd have to do to get into a top-tier college, but I've decided that a top college isn't everything, and that it isn't worth making my life miserable for. I just do what I have a passion for, and hope that it's enough. If not, I'll find success elsewhere. The college does not make the student, but the student makes the college.</p>
<p>Some great posts on here. Sadly I feel no matter what people hear, every year this so called "game" gets more competitive and passion is getting casted into the corner. I personally only do things that I love, but I show so much sympathy for those that are playing the game and are AWARE of it. SO many kids at my school think that doing 15 clubs and 1000 hours of community service will get them somewhere, but it doesn't and that just annoys the hell out of me, but, the fact that your aware of what your doing is the first step and quite frankly a lot of the time the positions that you are all in are dictated by outside sources, namely parents. We are all going to do something we don't like and you should stick with it, no reason to be a push over. But to hate everything you do is just sort of dumb.</p>
<p>We all play the game to some degree, but to sell your soul to it is a little much.</p>
<p>Everyone plays the game. Some are in it accidentally but a lot aren't. </p>
<p>Sadly for me, I'm a bad player. I do what I enjoy (most of which I'm not very good at) and in the end I feel that it'll probably screw me over come college application time.</p>
<p>I think that my graduation requirements for the IB diploma are forcing me to play the game. We need 150 CAS hours (50 creativity, 50 action, and 50 service.) I only joined the tennis team so that I could get my action hours, and I'm doing community service to fulfill my service hours. I'm in the orchestra and I take viola lessons--but I really enjoy that and I was involved in music way before IB came along. The whole point of these CAS hours is to make us better world citizens and more aware, but is requiring all of this really necessary??
I'm in some clubs because I enjoy them...but there are two clubs that I am in due to my "playing the game." :(</p>
<p>I got to a point last year (junior year) where I really felt like all I was doing was "playing the game". I had a long list of ECs that I'd been involved in since freshman year, and I felt like many of my classes and ECs reflected my goals as a freshman, not my current interests and personality - yet I thought I had to stick with them because doing otherwise would destroy my application. So my energy for ECs was almost nil, and my grades didn't drop but they definitely got shaky.</p>
<p>Part of it was just burnout. I was doing too much, which killed any passion I might have had for the things I was doing. The minute my schedule loosened up and I was able to take a step back and relax, I remembered what I like about the ECs I do and the subjects I study. So I was able to go back with renewed energy and interest in what I was doing. Think about it: have you always been doing things just to "play the game", or was there something that originally attracted you to your ECs that you've lost sight of?</p>
<p>Another thing that helped was to rebel. Halfway through the school year I picked up another EC. No, seriously. It was something that I really cared about and was interested in, something that I knew wouldn't look impressive on my college application and didn't even plan on mentioning. It wasn't a huge time commitment - 2 hours once a week - but I didn't have any spare time and I knew I shouldn't have picked up anything new. But it was enormously fun and energizing to say "It's a weeknight and I should be studying instead of going out, but **** this - I'm going to do something that I want to do, and if that means I don't get all my homework done or I haven't memorized my solo, well, I don't care anymore." Those two hours a week kept me from going crazy.</p>
<p>Oops I did it again,
I played with my app,
Got lost in the game,
Oh Harvard Harvard,
Oops I did it again...</p>
<p>Britney Spears did not go to Harvard, and I don't think anyone wants to end up like her, so don't play it.</p>
<p>But, everyone has played it to a certain degree, just don't get lost in the game, hehe. I apologize beforehand to people wanting to slap me upside down for referring to Britney Spears.</p>