I’m a high school sophomore and I am concerned about the amount of EC’s that I am doing. I have seen so many times on here that a “spike” is extremely important and that being well rounded is bad. What if everything you are doing is stuff you like to do? Here is what I am/want to do (most of which I already am doing except for 1):
Beta Club (founder and president)
Football
Research over the summer (My old bio teacher preforms research at a university near me and asked if I wanted to join this summer)
Mock Trial
Founding my own non-profit
2 week service trip over the summer
creative writing (won a few awards)
writing a blog about a topic thats important to me
So my main question is, would it be better to only do a few things and really do well in them? Most of the stuff I listed I am doing pretty well in and I am having fun doing it. Should I try to emphasize a spike in my college essays?
No college expects/wants a HS student to be a specialist in either academics or EC’s; that’s what grad school is for. On the flip side, you are correct in that you don’s want to come across as “jack-of-all-trades…” That’s why there is a middle ground. Nothing wrong with exploring some different options.
Having said that, doing EC’s for the sake of doing EC’s, or with the view of impressing colleges won’t be impressive either. Some of the EC’s you’ve listed, without knowing the specifics, come across that way at first glance
@skieurope I completely agree with you. The Beta club presidency was begun in Freshman year mainly because I heard so much about leadership and that starting clubs looks good on college apps. Out of curiosity, which look like they are being done for the sake of college other than Beta club (so that when I do list them on college apps I don’t make the same mistake)? Thank you for the reply!
• Founding my own non-profit
• 2 week service trip over the summer
Again, I’m just going off of what you wrote without knowing the background.
Service trips can come across as smacking of privilege. So, as an example, a student from NYC talks about going to Costa Rica to build houses. Well, that’s all well and good, but for $2,75, he could have taken the subway and volunteered in a soup kitchen.
Additionally, some EC’s sound like the student is tackling the application process as completing a checklist. Start a YouTube Channel. Check. Start a non-profit. Check.
Again, yours may be valid, but you need to have a story ready to build around them.
Do what you enjoy in terms of extracurriculars. Let them reflect your personality and genuine interests.
Interestingly, we recently participated in a mock admissions committee at an alumni event at a liberal arts college. About half the people in the room preferred a pointy candidate and about half preferred a well rounded, of the examples we studied. Afterwards someone asked the dean of admissions whom he would pick. To summarize what he said: if he’d had to choose between those two, he would have picked (name of the well rounded candidate), but in a real admissions situation there is ample opportunity to pick a mix of well rounded and pointy candidates. (Note: the word pointy was not used there; I am just paraphrasing using College Confidential parlance.)
Your extracurriculars are great. Keep that up! It is helpful that your ECs compliment what I presume are authentic academic interest in biology (based upon your research) and English (based upon your writing). Take AP bio and AP English 11 & 12 if offered by your school. Continue to demonstrate the depth of your academic interest in this way. It is good to have broad academic interests (makes you well rounded) but continue to show your “spikiness” in a couple of academic areas to show that you have depth as well.
It is perfectly fine to be well rounded. I’ve heard admission officers describe that they want to put together a well rounded class. That class will include some individuals who have specialized interests/accomplishments and some well rounded individuals.
Northwestern’s newest ad campaign is " AND is in Our DNA", and shows various students that are interested in more than one area, i.e. Sports/music & B1G receiver of the year Austin Carr is a great example. My 2 alum kids were big in sports and art and sports and math, so well-rounded is a B1G Plus at NU!