<p>We know it's the golden bait for colleges, the key to conquering to the top of your clubs/activities and looking good, but for some reason I always felt kind of squeamish about "natural leader"ish people.</p>
<p>My best friend from junior high casually invited me to join a club she was heavily invested in already our freshman year. The year didn't go so well: at least several people in the club didn't seem as interested in being members as they were making sure their authority went unchallenged- giving orders, becoming bossy, and taking credit for the smallest things. The year ended with our friendship basically slaughtered when the question of which one of us should fill the one open officer position became the issue.</p>
<p>I know it's important to stand out for colleges, but now whenever I see a "leader" he/she doesn't seem quite right. I seem to only see the manipulation in their smiling and listening, and have to wonder how far people are willing to go, and at the harm of others, to make their college applications shine.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, do you actually believe in leaders? Or do you think that most people in charge stepped over/manipulated their fair share of other less fortunate people?</p>
<p>When you realize that most officer elections are popularity contests and that the leadership titles themselves are for the most part devoid of any significance, then yes, leadership is overrated.</p>
<p>Colleges value leadership because it’s a reasonable proxy for your self motivation (assuming you’re doing something important), or at the very least it suggests you’re engaged in something beyond school work (i.e. you have real interests).</p>
<p>I would have to disagree with you on that: ASB might be, but not in clubs where things actually get done based on experience. Take for example the robotics club, I have been appointed the lead programmer because of my experience with programming (6th year programming in C++ now) Now honestly a lot of people do not like me. I come out as arrogant, and I am not the very social. Now people do like me, just they don’t want to get into arguments with me because the dark side shows. LOL I am a very nice person, I been marked as TOO nice by my buddies…</p>
<p>Maybe in your school but in my school it’s just pathetic…
I mean the only club that ACTUALLY does something is key club…
I mean the foreign language honor society for example, we just spend 15 minutes there planning when to have dinner and no body shows up for tutoring. The people who “run” the place barely even show up. It ticks me off that people just glue and add glitter to these positions when writing their resume…</p>
<p>I’m not saying all schools are like this but in my school i’ve seen it, it’s just not right…</p>
<p>I don’t get the big hubbub (is that still a word?) about leadership in college admissions. I mean, do you want a school/workforce that is full of only leaders? Don’t we, by definition, need more followers than leaders?</p>
<p>Good leadership is never overrated, but leadership titles have been cheapened. And while true leaders still exist, the majority (of application-padding brats with no true leadership intent) give all leaders a bad light.</p>
<p>Last weekend, I had the chance to attend California’s DECA “career development conference”, which included an election session for student state officers. I always thought state officers would chose to campaign out of love for the organization, but after hearing their election speeches and speaking to all of the candidates in person, I was repulsed. Never in my life had I witnessed such a big group of shameless, incapable students seeking to pad their applications. They way they described their self-proclaimed “passion” for DECA and their strategies for getting votes (although I admit, I enjoyed the free iPod and the chocolate bribes) made me skeptical.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that all the candidates were application-padding brats, because certainly there were a few who appeared genuinely interested, but the majority of candidates were far too fixated on getting the title of “state officer”. Many were students who clearly had no idea what DECA was about (including several who joined a few months ago with the sole intent of winning a “state officer position”).</p>
<p>I’ve lost a lot of respect for the leadership title on its own. It’s a title that has been cheapened by too many resume-hungry kids, and in their path to XYZ College, they’ve decreased the population of capable, genuine leaders.</p>
<p>^^^Yes, and ^^Yes. I did this summer leadership program, and we all had to agree on a plan for something. Our discussion got incredibly contentious because we were all “leaders”–there were no followers!!! We need followers. I think “leadership” as measured in college admissions–that is, by positions held–is simply the easiest way for schools to select an incoming class. They can’t differentiate by grades and scores anymore, and ECs are too subjective (is the poet or the biologist better?) unless you factor in leadership positions and experience.</p>
<p>For a lot of positions and in a large number of clubs, it is very overrated. Colleges can see through this. If people are just being manipulative to get a position in some random club and cannot show that they did anything significant from that position, it won’t help them.</p>
<p>IMO “leadership” is only overrated if you allow it to be. It’s only a title if you use it as a title. If you allow leadership to be a quality that sets you apart from others, that puts you ahead of the pack, that enables you to guide others toward something greater, then leadership really means something. </p>
<p>What’s really lacking in the “leaders” of high school is initiative. They’re not leaders - they’re just doing what club advisors, counselors, and teachers tell them to do. It’s the people who actively seek change in their community and their school that are the leaders. So if some kid is Key Club president by title, but some “normal” member is the one planning all the activities, then that person is the true leader.</p>
<p>Colleges, of course, can’t really see this in titles such as “Sophomore Class President” or whatever, but they certainly can see it through your actions and achievements. You really shouldn’t consider leadership overrated, and if you do, someone’s not being a leader.</p>
<p>I hate those leadership questions! I myself am not a leader. I am a very bad leader and my group/class/team will always benefit if I’m not the leader.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that I’m shy or that I conform into a faceless guy. I just love supporting people. I’ve always been “second best” in my group of friends/orchestra/sports/grades. This is my comfort zone and I thrive by supporting the leader.</p>