<p>Hey, thanks for clicking. With so many people doing everything (it seems) from teaching orphans in Bosnia to read to organizing a fundraiser, it seems like what really matters is test scores and grades, or at least that is what it really comes down too, and ECs are really just the icing on the cake. My highschool just published where individual seniors will be attending college, and some people going to Dartmouth, Princeton, NWern I have never even heard of, they are not the class president or always winning math contests, and I started thinking, they probably had straight A's and high test scores, and maybe that is all that we should really be worrying about? So many posts on here have to do with ECs and it seems like eveyrone makes such a big deal about the things they have done outside of school, but the truth is, a person could do all that stuff but if they didn't have the scores to prove they had the brains, they won't get into any top-ranked schools. Well please comment below, b.c I really want to hear what people have to say, especially seniors! Thanks</p>
<p>It's very true... although there are too many people with about the same scores to differentiate candidates that way (using .01 GPA difference is not likely a methodology that will work best for colleges).</p>
<p>Thus, you must have ECs that will help you stand out from among the crowd. It doesn't mean you must have 50 or something, but something that can show positive character traits about you.</p>
<p>It'll be harder and harder to do, however, as everyone gets ECs. It'll become more and more like a punchcard that everyone does to get into college, which is rather unfortunate.</p>
<p>So, at the best schools, scores and grades will hurt you if they're low, but that doesn't mean high scroes and good grades will get you in alone - far too many applicants have stellar GPAs/SATs for that. </p>
<p>What really gets you in is the ability to distinguish yourself from the multitudes of +2300 SAT,4.0 unweighted GPA students. You can do this through: stellar essays, recs, or ECs. You don't have that much direct control over the quality of recs, and writing the essays tends to be a short term thing, and so that's why everyone stresses out over ECs throughout high school.</p>
<p>Right. Everyone applying has the numbers down. What colleges want is a certain passion; something unique.</p>
<p>And those students that you never heard of at your school might have gotten leadership or EC in other programs outside of school. Atleast that was me. But I still think that EC matters a lot if you use it right in the personal statement instead of just letting it sit on your list.</p>