<p>An asian girl who volunteers at the hospital, trains as an EMT, does three varsity sports, does martial arts, participates in key club, and plays the violin? Doesn't this seem overly scattered and unfocused?</p>
<p>Some of it seems cliche ie violin and martial arts lol. But the three varsity sports are unique! However, they are a bit scattered. What’s your prospective major/academic interest? Are you a rising senior? Or are you still an underclassmen with a few years to centralize your ECs around one interest?</p>
<p>nothing is scattered if you can unify it under 1-2 main focuses. for example, you could be a sports-music fanatic, etc</p>
<p>No this isn’t me, it’s a relative of mine. The three varsity sports aren’t any recruit worthy. Honestly I don’t understand why she does it all… it seems unfocused. I mean she’s expecting to put down like ten activities on the EC section in the common app and I mean she can’t be that dedicated to 1 activity if she’s continuously doing all this other crap?</p>
<p>It seems a bit scattered to me. Are you premed?</p>
<p>And I’m an EMT myself, but there are a lot of premed EMTs that get the card just for getting the card and have no real street experience. I have been working 911 and private EMS for 3 years and I still think I’m a newbie. It’s very apparent the EMTs who claim they have all the knowledge in the world but have never worked an EMS job. May I ask why you got the EMT card? Are you on a volunteer fire department? I doubt anyone would hire high school students for EMS (in my state, it isn’t even legal!)</p>
<p>She’s aiming to be premed in college.</p>
<p>Oh. And she does art.
So:
Hospital
EMT
Sport
Sport
Sport
Instrument
Art
Key Club
Martial Arts</p>
<p>and I’m SURE there’s something else she’ll put down. I think the interview’s gonna kill her… she acts obnoxious with her friends but extremely extremely reserved with teachers.</p>
<p>Why do you care so much about someone else’s business?</p>
<p>Because she’s my cousin and wants me to find advice for her, that’s why.</p>
<p>Penn14,</p>
<p>Like Northstarmom said, why are you so interested?</p>
<p>Sounds to me like your cousin has a lot of interests, and that can indicate a well-rounded applicant rather than a scattered, unfocused one. If the activities are not creating any academic problems for your cousin, then the ECs are a help, not a problem, no matter what you think.</p>
<p>And they are not at all unfocused:</p>
<p>Two directly relate to a serious interest in pre-med or other health-related careers.</p>
<p>Four are serious physical activities that among other things can indicate a serious interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle (which again ties into “why I want to be a doctor?”). The three varsity sports also indicates someone who has learned important time-management skills that will pay off well in college and beyond.</p>
<p>The last three are activities that appeal to very different, but very important aspects of what it means to be * human*. Art, violin, and key club all say that your cousin is not just a jock.</p>
<p>That may be cliche in some regards, but its impressive nonetheless (especially the 3 varsity sports)</p>
<p>If she’s so interested, why isn’t she posting here?</p>
<p>I’ve interviewed for my Ivy alma mater. If she also has high stats, your cousin seems like a potentially very attractive candidate for top schools. She seems very passionate about medicine (being an EMT is quite impressive and unusual) and also seems to be athletic, smart, and well organized to be able to juggle all of those things – including some time-consuming activities – while maintaining high grades (which I’m assuming she has done.)</p>
<p>She may be the rare applicant who truly is well rounded – interested in and deeply involved in a variety of things. If that’s the case, and she has high stats, her chances of admission to top colleges are better than average.</p>
<p>If she’s truly passionate about her activities, I also doubt she’d be reserved in interviews. Even the shyest, most reserved people blossom when talking about things they deeply care about.</p>
<p>Your cousin doesn’t seem typical or cliched. She seems like a very interesting young woman, and I wish I knew her in person.</p>
<p>Yes but she isn’t very good with socializing or interacting. She doesn’t participate often in class and is quite shy. And what we’re worried about is that she’s a stereotypical, shy Asian who wants to be pre-med and does well in school and some extracurriculars.</p>
<p>She isn’t a stereotypical shy Asian premed. The fact that she’s a varsity athlete in 3 sports indicates that she has some traits – competitiveness, athletic ability, organizational ability – that most people – Asian or not lack. </p>
<p>Her being an EMT indicates a sincere interest in medicine (i.e. more than someone who’s being forced into it by parents), a knowledge of the medical field above and beyond what most young aspiring doctors have, and she also has organizational skills, assertiveness, decision making skills far above the norm.</p>
<p>As I said, she sounds like the type of person who’d blossom in an interview when given the chance to talk about things like her EMT experiences. I’ve interviewed students --including Asian ones – like your cousin, and they got into top colleges, and also blossomed in their interviews.</p>
<p>I also suspect that she doesn’t connect well with peers because her interests may be much deeper than theirs. She may find her peers superficial. They may find her boring because they aren’t interested in what she’s interested in. She may finally be able to connect with a peer group when she attends a top college because the students there will be similar to her. The top colleges admissions officers may realize that she’s this type of student who’d flourish in their environment, and they may admit her over admitting a student who’s more liked by peers and has participated in organizations only to look good to colleges.</p>
<p>I’ve known students like this. Because they were very smart and had deep interests, their high school peers thought they were obnoxious or boring. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think that if your cousin wants feedback she should post here herself. I don’t think getting this kind of third-hand advice will be of use to her.</p>
<p>I also suspect that part of your concern is more based on your fears about yourself (I saw your post questioning why U Penn accepted you EA) than wanting to help your cousin. That’s why you keep rejecting the feedback from various experienced posters like me who think that your cousin sounds very impressive including for top schools.</p>
<p>If you really want to help your cousin, tell her to post on CC herself.</p>
<p>What exactly are her 3 varsity sports? Some are alot easier to make varsity than others, and also if the 3 sports are Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoir Track it’s really just one sport that’s for 3 seasons.</p>
<p>Ok, maybe her cousin doesn’t want to post on CC because she doesn’t want to waste her time registering for what could be her only post on this site. Besides, who really cares? If her cousin, you know…her FAMILY, wants to help her out, then let her. Just because she doesn’t want to post doesn’t mean it’s not her business…it just means she would obviously spend more time in these extra curriculars than focus on ONE post. </p>
<p>***ANYWAYS, I don’t think it’s cliche at all. There was some NBC dateline documentary or something that stated how asians may have the stats but lack in leadership and physical activity. She participates in three sports on a varsity level so that in itself is a huge accomplishment. This will separate her from the asians who are just as qualified for the medical field who DON’T have the well-rounded aspect of the otherwise unique sport EC.</p>
<p>Three varsity sports is extremely time-consuming, and definitely not “Asian.” Unless those sports are tennis, XC/track, or swimming. Whether or not the individual sports are cliched, however, does not mean she is stereotypical.</p>