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I’m fine with you DMing me but I’d encourage you to post here openly…it’d be smarter to crowd source it…there are many good ideas here.
OP: Do you have any interest in skydiving or in scuba diving ?
Any interest in volunteering ?
I make these suggestions because all are activities readily available & open to most.
I was thinking more so lacking for T10 applicants, so from now on, please consider it in that context.
Volunteering, skydiving & scuba diving are legitimate ECs for all schools–even top 10 schools. But, if you need more, then create an effective Covid-19 vaccine.
The best ECs are the ones you really enjoy. The worst ECs are the ones that you don’t enjoy but do just to get into a top college. You should just do what you want to do. The fact that you would like to go to a top school should not enter into it.
Are you “lacking ECs” because you didn’t participate in anything or because you have a haphazard collection in need of a common thread?
If it is the former, I suggest looking at selective schools with a rack-and-stack type of evaluation and/or less selective colleges. You can’t rely on straight-A grades in rigorous classes because all successful applicants at T20s will have those.
If it is the latter, then chances are you’re in better shape, but you just need some packaging and marketing advice.
Tell us what you’ve got.
I think that you need to do two things: (i) Pick out two safety schools; (ii) Relax.
Then keep ahead in your classes, get good grades, and participate in the ECs that you want to participate in. Try to be kind, responsible, and helpful in whatever you do.
Really anything can be a good EC with the exception of sitting at home playing video games – and even that could be if you either create the game and sell it, or win tournaments.
Some examples of good ECs:
- Being the president of a club and putting some thought and effort into it. Causing the club to have expanded membership and participation because you have made the club more interesting for more people. This probably implies listening to what other students would find interesting.
- Volunteering and helping people. This could be almost any type of volunteering. Tutoring is one option. I know someone who gave beginning piano lessons for free for low income students who could not afford lessons. We actually gave away our electronic keyboard to one of the students (who really deserved it) when we were getting a bigger keyboard.
- Competing in a sport and doing well. If you are compete at all that is great for "top 50" schools. If you win that is great for "top 10" schools. One person I know got injured, and for her senior year could not compete so she was the photographer for a club sport.
Some examples of bad ECs:
- Being the president of a club and doing nothing. The club sort of goes to sleep and no one participates because no one bothered to arrange meetings and activities.
- Sitting at home and complaining.
- Competing in a sport for one month, and then deciding that it is too much trouble.
Of course the last two here you would never mention on an application. It is fine to start doing something, decide it is not for you, and then do something else.
Also, top schools outside the US do not care much about ECs. One daughter applied to McGill (and was accepted) and I do not think that they even asked about ECs. One daughter applied to the top four small “primarily undergraduate” universities in eastern Canada (we live in the northeast of the US) and they did not even ask about ECs. Just good grades and references will get you into good schools. Of course McGill is not “top 10” in the US. Many rankings do have it as “top 40” in the world such as:
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2020
Almost nothing will make it likely for a student to be accepted to a top 10 university in the US. Just being a strong student and treating people well will get you accepted to a very good university.
I did get both my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree at “top 10” schools in the US. I have since worked with people who graduated from a very wide range of universities. You really can get an excellent education at any one of several hundred universities. I do see the value in attending a “top 10” university. However, I also see students getting great educations elsewhere. I think that a lot of students tend to stress about this far more than it is worth.
@Groundwork2022 It’s neither. I think it’s that I have a good amount of ECs related to my major and that I’m decently accomplished in them, albeit not accomplished enough (from what I’ve observed) to constitute a spike for T10s. I also don’t have a ton of ECs unrelated to my spike to show multidimensionality, but I do have quite a bit of leadership/involvement in numerous ECs overall.
I’d prefer to continue this over DM, because my school is rather toxic and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are active on these forums.
Also, I’m not sure if I mentioned this yet, but I’m currently a junior.
Most kids don’t have a “spike” (the word is overused). Plus a spike isn’t very useful when the college is chock full of kids who got in last year with the same talent (and any given applicant probably wouldn’t know if that was the case anyway).
You sound like a reasonably competitive candidate. Package your activities to match what the target colleges are looking for. Don’t let your classmates’ toxicity get you down. They don’t know as much as they think they know.