Leadership = Important ?

Applying to College
21

<p>OH MY FREAKING GOD.</p>

<p>How many times do I have to say that EVERYONE AT MY SCHOOL WHO WANTS TO GO TO AN IVY LEAGUE HAS AT LEAST TEN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AND THAT IS WHY I AM WORRIED ABOUT HAVING FIVE.</p>

<p>MY GOD.</p>

<p>I am not whining. I am not complaining. I'm just wondering if 5 is too little.</p>

<p>And I'm not "counting" my positions. Obviously I had to LIST them on my college application so I KNOW how many I have.</p>

<p>IS THAT SUCH A HARD CONCEPT TO GRASP?</p>

<p>I'm not a point-grabber. Do you even know what a point-grabber is? Obviously NOT.</p>

<p>1 - Secretary of computer club last year. Obviously I don't have to be committed to that anymore.
2- President of computer club. I spent a lot of time organizing it at the beginning of school but now it only takes 2-3 hours each week.
3 - Math league coordinator. I've already spent HOURS and HOURS on this.
4 - National Honor Society committee chairperson. My committee doesn't do anything until spring.
5 - Editor of newspaper. Our newspaper is new, so the teacher is helping with a lot of the editorial duties. Plus I am in the class, so I do most of the work during the class.</p>

<p>That's what I'm counting as leadership positions.</p>

<p>And yes, I am committed. Don't tell me I'm not committed. You don't even know me.</p>

22

<p>"How many times do I have to say that EVERYONE AT MY SCHOOL WHO WANTS TO GO TO AN IVY LEAGUE HAS AT LEAST TEN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AND THAT IS WHY I AM WORRIED ABOUT HAVING FIVE."</p>

<p>don't worry, they won't be getting in.</p>

23

<p>I agree with Pebbles and Saturdayoracle.</p>

<p>In many instances, doing one leadership position with commitment is far better than doing 5 or 10. I am thinking that the majority of "leaders" in your school have titles that are nothing more than resume decoration.</p>

<p>They can apply to Ivies and similar places, but Ivies and similar places are looking for quality, not quantity.</p>

<p>I am an Ivy inteview, and I do ask students detailed about their ECs, and I ask questions to find out exactly what they do with these ECs. When i spot things that clearly are resume decoration, when I write my report, I use the students' quotes and details to show adcoms that the ECs are meaningless.</p>

<p>Examples of meaningless ECs are, for instance, presidencies of student organization when the presidents do nothing except run meetings that seem to have no purpose.</p>

<p>I ask questions such as "Give an example of how your leadership has made a difference?" "What exactly are your duties?" "What kind of changes have you made in the organization?" "How often do you meet?" "What happened at the last meeting?" "Give me an example of a problem that you have faced in your position and how you have solved it."</p>

<p>In listening to answers, I also look at how the student has worked with both the advisor and with other students. Students who seem to think that they are the only important person in an organization don't impress me. Great leaders don't do all of the work. They delegate and also encourage and involve others. Someone who acts like they are the only good member is someone who isn't exerting good leadership.</p>

<p>One of the best examples of leadership of a student whom I have interviewed was by a student who held a really boring sounding position in a large student organization. She was not pres, VP or something like this, but was in a position that sounded like a lot of time consuming drudge work.</p>

<p>In talking to her, however, she had handled the drudge work with great efficiency (and was the first student to have done the job, which was important, without adult help), showing lots of thoughtfulness, responsibility and strong organizational skills. She also had used her position as an exec board member to advocate to help freshmen and sophs become more a part of the organization.</p>

<p>She also ended up at a top 5 school, one that some local students with more titles were not accepted to.</p>

24

<p>...how do they have time to have 10? unless these are special interest clubs that are pointless...then they are worth probably nothing</p>

25

<p>Thanks, Northstarmom. I've just been worried because many of my classmates put a lot of emphasis on leadership positions. I should be fine then, since I've done a lot of work for computer club and the math league. </p>

<p>Yeah, the people who get elected never do anything for the club/organization. Like, every single science club officer ran for office just to put it on their resume, so we've only had 1 meeting in 3 months. Same with Spanish Honor Society. There are lots of other examples but they'd take too long to list.</p>

26

<p>Just be involved in stuff is OK. I think a lot of HSer's get too involved in things and consequently don't do anything all that well. Doing too much may indicate that there is something lacking. Get some balance and enjoy your HS days.</p>