It sounds like what you’re saying is that you’re passionate about getting into a top college and willing to do things that don’t interest you to get there. What I think many of us would advise is for you, instead of spending your time trying to build a resume, to spend some time figuring out what you really love then spending you energy on that.
The Common App only has room for 5 activities. Racking up a long list of leadership positions in clubs and activities will not be productive.
Once again, an assumption about who I am and not the content of the post. Who’s to say that I don’t know what I “really love”?
The common app has 10, does it not?
You can also try programming meetups.
But do you have a goal besides getting to a good college? Are you sure you want to spend the rest of your life coding? If yes, there should already be projects you like and stuff you put on github. And it’s not really as important where you go to college, lots of them have good CS programs, employers tend to look at your actual skills.
You know what, you’re right. Sorry for the misinformation. The CA was talking about reducing the number to 5 and I thought they’d done so, but it seem it stands at 10.
When you talk about filling slots it indicates to me you’re doing activities for your application, not because you enjoy them. That’s what worries me.
I understand your desire to make an impact on your community but in order to do so you may have to start small. My husband and I started a nonprofit. The first year all we did was pay for kids in our community abroad to see a Red Cross dentist. Not exactly earth shaking in the world of adult philanthropy. Our initial efforts in the first years included a lot of grunt work doing things like driving a car, making sandwiches, and collecting used soccer uniforms. Over time we developed a reputation for getting things done and people started to join us. Now going into our 10th year we are interviewing executive directors, have hundreds of volunteers, are doing radio and magazine interviews and are starting a multi-million dollar building project with support from foundations and the government. Had we tried 10 years ago to do what we’re doing now we would invariably have failed.
If you really want to make an impact try looking at the problem from the reverse angle from how you have so far. Instead of looking for ways to take on leadership positions look for genuine need in your community and find a way, however small to alleviate that need. You’d be surprised at where it may lead and will read to admissions officers as much more authentic than a list of pre-slotted activities.
Honestly, you sound like you study and are mostly doing ECs to impress colleges. Colleges want applicants who are interested, interesting, and genuine. Certainly these posts don’t come across this way (and your recommedstions could be reveal that as well as well — teachers know who is just grade grubbing vs genuinely interested in their classes). I just think you are fundamentally missing the point about what colleges want most. Stacking on more clubs won’t help.
If I did what colleges wanted me to, I wouldn’t get in… that’s the reason admission is competitive, isn’t it?
There seems to be the misconception that my sole aim in involving myself in ECs is to fluff my resume. While I’d attribute most of my motive to that, it’s not as if I’m selecting EC’s solely for the merit they bring to the application. I do care about coding, as reflected by the fact that all my ECs are centered around it.
I also wouldn’t use the term ‘stacking on more clubs’. My current activities don’t take up much time, so it’s more like filling in empty slots.
No worries
My enjoyment is mixed, I’ll admit. Ultimately when it comes down to it though, I’m willing to make sacrifices in the name of demonstrating my drive towards academics.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, that was very helpful. The only caveat I’d throw on is that I feel I’m in a bit of a different situation, being a high school student. I don’t have a broad enough perspective on the world yet to identify an hernest way to make simple, yet profound impacts on my community. The cop-out for me is to hide behind presupposed labels of how volunteering and altruism looks.
That sounds like very valuable insight. Especially with club members expressing disinterest, I can see the importance in identifying a need for change rather than a mode of change.
I’m not sure if science fairs are as big where you are as they are where I’m at, but doing a research project involving coding or computer science over the summer with your spare time and then competing with that might be something to consider. It’s a lot more individualized so you don’t have to rely on others participating as much, and doing formal research before entering college is a very good experience to have. There’s also the potential to win awards and scholarships. You might also want to look at the options for what can be counted as an EC on Common App, it’s a lot more open than you’d expect. Good luck!
I’m actively involved with projects on GitHub, most of which takes the form of writing gaming software or assisting with websites.
I don’t claim to have a completely coherent plan for what I want to do with my future, and I’m not suggesting that my ECs should reflect that. But in the very least, the list is a start that I want to branch off of from this point forward. As my interests diversify and I learn more about myself, I’m sure some aspects will change. My intention behind the post was just to gauge how I can guide that growth in the right direction.
Thanks for your suggestion with programming meetups. My only hesitation there is that my skills are probably subpar when going up to a competition level, so I’d prefer to focus on creative projects with less objectivity involved.
The problem, as I see it, is that you’re overreaching. Go for real impact instead of profound.
Here are some things you could do. They’re not glamorous nor do they even require coding skills, but they are ways you could improve your community.
Contact your local senior center and ask if they’d like someone to teach a few seminars in the use of computers to members. You’d be surprised at who you might meet along the way. My father is a former CEO with plenty of connections. My mother is computer illiterate. See how that might work? 
Set up an online neighborhood network where neighbors can help neighbors in times of need such as natural disasters.
Help a local nonprofit set up a website.
Looks like you’re already doing enough then. You don’t need 10 activities to impress colleges, it’s better to shine in a couple. You may also want to diversify a bit from STEM if you haven’t already, so you don’t come across as one-dimensional.
@nick3162 I disagree with @CheddarcheeseMN about starting a national organization. It is very much possible. A girl at a nearby high school started a nonprofit organization teaching kids and the elderly about cybersecurity. It’s reached over a million kids and she’s insanely successful; she’s won so many national awards and is currently writing a chapter of a book that is being published. She is organizing a STEM girls conference that will be hosted at Northwestern. She is working on developing a cybersecurity curriculum and will no doubt get into amazing schools because of all of her cybersecurity community efforts. To be quite honest, I don’t think that it would be possible for her to succeed to that extent without the guidance of her parents, but some high schoolers can achieve amazing things and it is very possible that she did that all on her own, so there’s no reason for you not to be able to.
Why does volunteering only have to be something that makes a major impact? If you’re a doctor you only help one person at a time. A lawyer represents one party in one case at a time. You write very eloquently, but basically you’re just nicely saying everything is beneath you. Start small. Also, you’re saying you don’t want to volunteer just for names and looks, but you’re not understanding that having a profound impact on one person is still a profound impact.
What advice are you looking for, really?
I feel as though we’ve hit a bit of a stalemate when it comes to this conversation, particularly by falling back on the assumption that genuine feedback is preferred over resume-fluffing.
In terms of what it takes to get into a top college, I’m sure genuine impact enhances an application so as to demonstrate the ‘character’ of an applicant and so-fourth. It’s just that when I’m juggling other involvement in activities, there’s a point at which I have to draw a line in the sand and show more selectivity in the ways I choose to spend my time outside of studies and existing preoccupations.
Lol, yeah I think I’m connecting the dots
I’m already involved with some of this; I guess I just don’t consider the impact to be substantial enough.
I wanted to veere the conversation off slightly and return back to my original intention behind the post. While any due feedback is welcome, I wasn’t strictly looking on advice surrounding whether or not I should pursue certain activities, but more on what such activities are.
I think it would be more productive just to throw out ideas rather than pseudo-analyzing each one for its perceived suitability for an OP no one knows personally or whom has much knowledge of. You can try to judge my writing style or ‘one-dimension[ability]’, but I don’t see how that’s getting us anywhere if those claims are routed in the whim of a 1,000 word post.
She sounds incredibly accomplished, good for her. Would you mind direct messaging the specific details of her involvement?
Thanks for sharing 
Cuz, you know, copying the genuine achievements of others is what colleges are looking for.
Do you have any specific goals in the stem field to make a profound impact one day? For example, do you want to help create new medical technology? Electronics for recreation purposes? Looking for internships in the fields you plan to go into with people doing what you want to do or using the technology you want to improve one day would help make some great essays and show passions.
The reason these professionals are able to help people through such unembellished and down-to-earth means amounts to their collective years of experience and training. The fact of the matter is, their work is not beneath me- in fact it’s actually above me. This circles back to the conversation we reached with Sue22. I’m just a high school student; I have no ‘invaluable’ skills to offer up. The alternative I’m left with is to innovate or find a new form of volunteering that undermines my lack of experience in favor for my fresh ideas.
As far as I can see it, colleges seek out applicants who demonstrate an intellectual curiosity. Wouldn’t you say that a true test of authenticity is recognizing your lack of experience and paving your own path more suited to your limited world view?
Look over the post 2 legs down from this one.
Why such a divisive comment? I understand that a fine line exists between taking after a role model and ‘copying… genuine achievements’. Granted, there’s not much credibility between you and I on an online forum, but let me tell you in the very least that as a student looking for honest feedback in a bewildering and outright confusing process, I’d expect for you to assume a base-level decency when it comes to which side of that line I fall on.
It is plainly unproductive to be picking apart comments. I’m just looking to get some brainstorming going on; the additional commentary is unwarranted.
Now cough I got in trouble previously for telling a poster not to comment on a thread, and so with that said, I do want to make it clear that I appreciate your feedback. In terms of moving forward in a constructive manner though, I think it’s best to set aside the scrutiny.
Because your entire focus seems to be trying to get someone to explain to you how to have genuine achievements if your own. You are looking for a roadmap or a shortcut. But the point is that what colleges want most is students who draw their own map.