<p>I'm currently a junior at my high school and our school's counselors don't seem to know much (it seems their basic goal is to help us graduate hs and gtfo of their lives) so I thought CC would be more helpful. </p>
<p>I have pretty good grades and SAT score that of an higher level UC would accept, so academics is not my biggest concern atm. My main fear is my lack of ec and awards etc. Other than being a (infrequent) member of a couple clubs (treasurer of one club if that counts), and church youth small grouo leader I feel that I haven't done much out of the classroom to be a "well-rounded student".</p>
<p>I do, however, have a job working as a lab assistant at a chemistry lab. It's pretty legit and unique I guess so I was hoping that my job would sort of make up for my lack of other ECs...? </p>
<p>So will having a decent job relating to my major be able to make up for my lack of ECs?? </p>
<p>I just don't want to have worked this hard at school and find I can't get into my dream school because I didn't run around saving lost puppies or something, y'know? </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>P.S. I guess I should mention that my dream schools are UCLA and UC Berkeley. </p>
<p>Hey! I’d say definitely do the job, because it would make you stand out more and it’s more impressive/useful for college to see a high school student already on track for their career interests. </p>
<p>I am an alumni interviewer and if you had the job listed as an EC I would treat it like any other EC. I would want to know you you found it (took intiative?), what you do (does it show your interest in science that you might want to major in?), Did you show leadership/initiative (came up with a better way to wash glass ware), how many hours a week did you spend on it(can you balance school and extracurriculars?).</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies! And just to note, I’ve already been working at the lab fora couple months. Haha
It’s just that jobs are a different category in uc apps thus I don’t have enough EC to fill out the max 5 slots…</p>
<p>I guess the real question is whether being unable to fill out the maximum five slots in UC EC section will count as a negative. Isn’t it quality over quantity? I hope… :,)</p>
<p>Yes, quality matters more than quantity for ECs. Who gets more attention among students of similar academic achievement, the student who played several high school sports but mostly warmed the bench, or the student who played one high school sport and won an individual state or national championship or was an important player on a team that won a state or national championship?</p>