Importance of extracurriculars?

Applying to College
1

<p>How important is it?</p>

<p>I mean, it's not like I've done no ECs at all, I'm in Spanish Honor Society and a few community service clubs, and Model UN (Been to a number of conferences but haven't won a single award :( and have done perhaps around 50 hours of community service (meager, I know, it's a rising number). I unfortunately ditched piano lessons before high school. I'm in my second semester of junior year and am working on my ECs. I have no work experience, as in, no jobs and no internships.
It's just that I know there are people here who have done literally hundreds of hours of community service, and other vastly original things (nothing comes to mind yet).</p>

<p>Is there some kind of ideal number of hours of community service to make it into this or that competitive school? Like, is doing 300 hours of community service as opposed to 500 hours all that different? </p>

<p>And of course the inevitable "You should be doing community service because you truly want to serve your community, not to make some quota to get into the school you want to attend" will appear.</p>

<p>Come on, let's please just ignore that argument for a moment. I'm sure there are those among us who did do community service solely for the purpose of meeting that supposed "quota" (and if there isn't, forgive my shortsightedness). </p>

<p>I'm all for the idea that prestigious colleges should be populated by honest, upstanding young men and women who have made and are striving to make differences in the world. But to be completely real, I'm sure many of them are just aiming for their 6 or 7 figures.</p>

<p>I know it's half urban myth, half truth, or maybe some other proportion, that if you can have a relatively above-average GPA and SAT/ACT score, but you better have done hundreds of hours of service or invented the next big thing or started your own foundation to make it into <insert competitive="" school="">.</insert></p>

<p>I have like a 4.2 weighted GPA and a 3.4 unweighted, I'm taking 3 AP classes and an honors class, next year taking 4 APs. From what it looks like based off of a couple SAT practice exams and the PSAT, I'm hovering around the 2000 range, but my goal is at least a 2200. </p>

<p>Aside from even just community service, I'm a little desperate to find something unique about myself. You see, I'm trying to get into NYU, a school I've heard to be known for being full of kids who were their hometown prodigies. I don't have a 2500 FIDE rating, I didn't get my film screened at Cannes...whatever.</p>

<p>Is my lack of real involvement and/or uniqueness going to kill me off?</p>

2

<p>Numbers of community service hours are pretty much meaningless. Unless you can actually demonstrate that you’ve done something valuable with those hours, they’re not going to get you anywhere. Anyone can spend a lot of time doing something they’re not at all invested in and rack up a bunch of arbitrary hours.</p>

<p>If you don’t want to do community service, don’t do it. It’s not for everyone. It’s not mandatory. It’s really not going to help you all that much unless you have some tangible accomplishments with it for your resume or valuable experiences from it for an essay.</p>

<p>Don’t worry about community service. Don’t worry about not winning awards in MUN. Just find one or two things you’re interested in and you care about and invest yourself in them so that you can actually accomplish something with them, and do well academically while you’re at it.</p>

3

<p>Te first thing to worry about with NYU for most is affording it. The give very little financial aid, especially to those who are not their top candidates.</p>

<p>If your family can afford NYU, really get the scores up and it will help a lot.</p>

4

<p>I feel that some applicants get overly worried about their EC list. Think of it like this, admissions counselors want to know what you do when you are not doing schoolwork. Yes, for some kids, that list may be really impressive. But for everyone else, it is not. </p>

<p>Yes, you should list your clubs, regardless of whether you hold an office or award. But, also list things you do on your own. Someone on another thread asked about her daily yoga practice… Yes, that’s an EC. Do you have any hobbies? Like to bake? What are some interests and activities specific to you?</p>

<p>Don’t worry about how impressive (or not) your EC’s are compared to others. Just use the opportunity to help the schools get a more complete picture of you.</p>

5

<p>You shouldn’t be worried about hours, or amounts, or anything like that. Good ECs are ones that the students are interested in, and show their passion in through their activities. It doesn’t matter if that’s roller skating, knitting, or volunteering at the local soup kitchen. If you can say “I knit every day for 2 hours, and I’ve been to many knitting championships at state and national levels” you’re golden. If you join something for the sake of joining it, it really won’t factor into the admissions process. To be honest, your ECs seem somewhat weak. Are you interested in Spanish, MUN, and community service, or did you just join to say you joined? If the latter, I’m sorry but you won’t be impressing any adcoms.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, I try not to join clubs for the sake of joining. I joined SHS because I have a real interest in Latin culture and a desire to be bilingual (studying abroad is something I really want to do in college). Model UN was interesting for several reasons; learning more about the world and politics I think is important, I really dislike ignorance especially when it comes to issues of race or color. It really makes me a lot more globally aware. I also wanted to improve my public speaking and MUN helped tremendously.
I guess it’s sort of a selfish reason why I do community service, it’s to better myself, if it makes sense. I guess sort of, it’s a humbling kind of thing to do to help others. I’m naturally sort of an elitist and servicing others is a humbling experience I think I need.</p>

<p>I recently took up playing chess.
I remember freshman year, for English class we had to think of an object or character we could analogize with ourselves. I chose the king of the chess board… It’s the most vital piece on the board and it must be protected at all times, it becomes more useful as the game develops, it surrounds itself with pawns and other cronies to cover its weaknesses… I find a lot of parallels to life in the game of chess, I know that’s very cliche, hahaha.
I’ve never pursued playing at more than a casual level, but more than anything it’s taught me to think ahead.</p>

7

<p>Keep in mind that most colleges admit most of their applicants; its not hard to get into college, its hard to get into a very selective college. And even among those of moderate selectivity, they are mostly looking at grades and scores. Its only among the ultra-selective that having significant ECs matters. So even without ECs you’ll have options, good options. </p>

<p>The question about impressive ECs comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How</a> to Be Impressive](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-art-of-activity-innovation-how-to-be-impressive-without-an-impressive-amount-of-work/]How”>The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save</a> This Grind?](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/09/12/case-study-how-could-we-save-this-ridiculously-overloaded-grind/]Save”>Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.</p>

8

<p>For highly selective colleges which use holistic admissions, ECs are very important. It’s not about the hours or amount of activities, but what you do with them. Community service isn’t necessary but it helps. </p>

<p>Some examples? Recently my state had the admitted students reception for a top tier college. We went around and shared what we did in our free time. Three people had started their own businesses, one was a national rock climbing champion, three were musicians, one was a rower, one was a robotics champion, and another was really into art. </p>

<p>Basically, find what you love to do and really immerse yourself in that.</p>

9

<p>Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it. So, instead of stacking on loads of hours and clubs, commit to what you love because that’s the real essence of your character that a college wants to see. :)</p>

10

<p>^Couldn’t have put it better myself.</p>