<p>I'm pretty upset at how leadership positions in my school work, they are all just popularity contests and teachers pick whoever they like best. I dedicated my first two years of high school to student government, and was very involved in that. I planned on being vice president junior and senior years, and it was pretty much the biggest leadership/EC that I banked on having for college apps. However, this year our school let anyone run for office (even people who weren't involved the first two years) and three new, popular girls were elected while me and two others who were very involved the past two years were not elected. I'm really upset because I know that their recommendations were not as good as mine (or at least not honest), and yet the teacher allowed them to take the spots of the "veteran" class officers. I plan on running again senior year, but I'm worried how it will look on college apps when it shows I wasn't in student government my junior year. Also, I wasn't able to join Key club or other clubs I wanted to join because the meetings were always at the same time as student government meetings. So now I'm going into my junior year, and I'm only involved in two clubs. Will this hurt me for my applications? And do you have any advice on how to "fix" my now lack of ECs?</p>
<p>I’m sorry you’re frustrated, but isn’t that how elections work? Our system of government is based on pretty easy ballot access, and on the notion that you don’t have to have been in elective office in order to run for elective office. </p>
<p>As for the effect of these developments on your college applications, it kind of depends on a couple of things. </p>
<p>First, where do you plan to apply? Extracurricular activities really matter at only a relative handful of the country’s most selective colleges and universities; at most of the roughly 4000 two- and four-year colleges in the U.S., if you have the academic qualifications, you’ll get in. If you want to go to Northwestern, extracurriculars matter, but student government isn’t any kind of golden ticket. It isn’t particularly better or worse than anything else. And if you want to go to Northwest Oklahoma State, extracurriculars won’t make or break you in the slightest.</p>
<p>Second, now that you’ve had this setback, how do you plan to handle it? Spend some time figuring out what you’re going to do with your year out of student government. Make something of it. If you can to that, it will say more about you to colleges and universities than it probably would have said if you’d been able to follow the course you’d originally planned on.</p>
<p>The point of extracurricular activities–at places that care about them at all–isn’t really to tally them all up and see who was vice-president of the most student clubs, or who spent the most time on varsity teams. Rather, it is for the activities to tell the colleges a story about who you are. What do you do? How do you do the things that you do? So, unfortunately, you’ve had a setback. You still have the chance to use your extracurricular activities to tell a story about how you deal with adversity.</p>
<p>So what you are saying is that your leadership, dedication, hard work and organizational skills aren’t being valued by others and you’ve been passed over for what would have been promotion. That happens in life quite often, you’ll find. And it sucks every time.</p>
<p>The next step is to find an organization that WILL value those skills and give you the recognition you deserve. Contact your favorite local non-profit and find out if they need someone who has a lot to offer - and time after school to offer it. If you are interested in communications, find the marketing and communications department. If you are interested in technology, offer to help with their IT infrastructure (at many smaller places, you will be the only person who can do this!). If you are interested in managing, find out what programs they offer and how you can help - maybe you can be leading one by senior year. If you want to understand the business side, see if the chief financial officer and the development director want some help with writing grants or with some other aspect of the business. </p>
<p>In short, this is an opportunity. It feels like a kick in the teeth. But trust me. It’s a chance to show what you can do for people who will appreciate it. Coincidentally, it makes for a good college essay.</p>
<p>^makes for an interesting essay, but OP should always remember that admissions officers hate reading pout fests.<br>
Take advantage of this summer to explore and get involved in things you really enjoy doing. Whatever you end up doing, remember that it’s depth and impact that matters, not being a part of a dozen different clubs and organization. (And it goes without saying that things should never be done for the sake of college app-padding)</p>
<p>Also, use this as an opportunity and to take stock.</p>
<p>It’s easy to say that the election devolved into a popularity contest, and in a lot of high schools, it does.</p>
<p>How did you run your campaign, and what did you learn from it? What reasons did you give your classmates to vote for you, other than the fact that you were a “veteran” ? What did you achieve or accomplish while you were in office? (could your classmates feel that maybe not a lot had been accomplished, and that new blood might be a good thing…you know, out with the incumbents? Just a thought) But it’s actually what you do with an activity that matters on your college resume…not just the title of your office.</p>
<p>Can you find a different way to exercise your desire for leadership at school? Start a new group or activity? What do you care about? Do you care about the upcoming election? Start a speaker series. Run a voter registration drive. Better yet, challenge other local high schools in a voter registration drive.</p>
<p>Selective colleges that consider ECs aren’t looking for a laundry list of official titles, they are looking to select students that will make a difference and have an impact while they are on campus.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Leadership positions are meaningless unless you demonstrate you accomplished something with them. Admissions officers know that most high school positions carry little to no actual responsibility.</p></li>
<li><p>High school elections are pointless. They are, as you noted, popularity contests.</p></li>
<li><p>Student government is not the only way to get into college. I didn’t participate in student government at all. I’m doing fine.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t write an essay about this. It will just sound like you’re whining and trying to make excuses.</p></li>
<li><p>Find a meaningful activity and do something impactful with it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Bonus tip for those who like politics: it is an election year, and you’d have plenty of time to get really involved in either the presidential race or a more local one if you’d find that interesting.</p>
<p>“Don’t write an essay about this. It will just sound like you’re whining and trying to make excuses.”</p>
<p>Not true at all. Any smart student should be able to take a personal setback and turn it into a decent essay about what they learned and how they accepted it as a challenge to do something new and different. If your essay comes across whining and making excuses, than you did a poor job on the essay.</p>
<p>A really boring essay is the one that says “I had successes here, so I went on and had more successes over there, and you should admit me because I don’t want to break my winning streak.”</p>
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<p>Why does losing the VP election mean you can’t be in student government junior year? If you can’t collect a trophy for each year of participation are you refusing to play? I agree with the others that if you expected a significant time commitment in the VP role you now can use that extra time to explore other avenues but there is value to the continuity of your student government experience throughout high school and a sincerity that it means something to you if you stick with it.</p>
<p>On a similar note I have interviewed several kids who tell me how important an EC was to them culminating in the top leadership position as a junior. When I ask them what they are doing in the organization now they then said they are not doing it as a senior and moved onto something else. This looks to the adcoms as checking off leadership boxes and quitting when there are no additional named positions to be obtained. It would have sounded much more sincere for the students to have said they stayed on in a non-leadership capacity since they really liked the activity and could still use their capabilities and leadership skills in a more informal capacity.</p>
<p>As for an essay topic, the subject of how I set myself upon a great challenge to overcome and did so with hard work and it taught me perseverance is a tad cliche. I suspect the adcoms read plenty of those and they all sound the same. Even if it doesn’t sound like whining and excuses it will be hard to make it interesting enough to stand out.</p>
<p>It’s hard - but that’s true of all college essays. Few of them aren’t covering ground that hasn’t been covered a million times. What sets apart the really good essays from the cliches is the writer’s ability.</p>