<p>How is it possible to show both well-roundedness and passion? If you are well-rounded, your ECs will be all over the place. You can't excel in all areas, but what if you are interested in many areas? My ECs are like all over the place because I am interested in many subjects. And although I don't I am not like IMO medalist or USABO finalist, I show decent strength in many fields. I know I can show passion if I focus my ECs in one or fewer areas, but I don't want to. I have many interests so I like doing different extracurriculars. Is that bad? Should I rather strive to show passion and focus? </p>
<p>So is showing focus better than being well-rounded? What do you guys say?</p>
<p>I think it's possible to balance the two. I have a lot of different interests and my ECs are all over the place. Here's how I tried to show focus and passion:</p>
<p>1) Patterns. I grouped many diverse ECs into a few categories so that admissions committees would see some focus, not just a collection of random activities:
- academic extracurriculars (Hebrew School, academic team, philosophy club, NHS)
- leadership and activism (Scouting, religious youth group (since I'm one of the group leaders), Gay-Straight-Transgender Alliance, other political work)
- the arts (clarinet, piano, and creative writing)</p>
<p>2) Consistency. Nearly every one of my ECs was something I did all four years of high school; some were things I'd been doing for eight, nine, or ten years. I indicated the duration of these activities to make it clear that they were activities I'd cared about for a long time, not just things I crammed in as a junior or senior to pad my application. If your ECs are things you've been doing throughout high school, or longer, that shows real passion.</p>
<p>3) Achievement. In most of my ECs I had some kind of achievement beyond the base line of participation - a few leadership positions, Scouting awards, coordinating events such as Day of Silence for GSTA, prizes for writing, participation in orchestras and music festivals, etc. Awards, leadership positions, work on committees, etc. show that you are really interested in what you're doing - you're not just showing up at club meetings and doing the minimum to get "credit" on applications.</p>
<p>I should mention, this wasn't something I planned out with college in mind. I didn't start thinking about "building a college application" until the summer before senior year - I simply had a lot of opportunities, and I like being busy. But it is definitely possible to do a lot of ECs and still show focus and passion.</p>