Leadership positions...ugh...

<p>Once again i lost an office election in a club. It now looks like I might have at most only one leadership position this year and maybe a couple next year if im lucky. How badly will this hurt my chances at the ivies?</p>

<p>From what I understand, you don't need to be President Cum Laude in every club to satisfy leadership requirements.</p>

<p>I've been focusing more on out-of-school leadership positions, like my church's worship band and leading music for a local youth group. These have been more meaningful and beneficial to me that class president could ever be. That's just me though. But you should be fine.</p>

<p>i slightly disagree with brian.. 1 is ok but I don't think it's good enough.. I've seen your stats crazyglue and I remember telling you that you needed more leadership positions..? I don't mean to put you down but heaps of people applying to high ivies have a lot of leadership positions. But as brian said, take roles outside of school. Maybe you could be one of the organisers for a major campaigne/charity fundraising plan (not just a volunteer). Maybe you could start up a new club in your school. Maybe, instead of setting up a new club, you could introduce some volunteering activies for your school students to participate in - that makes you an organiser, a leader of a group. But that might kinda **** off your school's volunteering clubs like Interact club or something..
Good luck! But you have great stats! :)</p>

<p>^ teehee. i love how you use european spellings.</p>

<p>well the thing is i had planned on starting some charity thing for Haiti originally for my french club, but now that im not gonna be vice president, it might be hard taking credit for it if one of the other officers decides to steal my idea</p>

<p>Leadership positions don't need to be elected positions. Get involved in what you do. Become active and you'll notice, you'll sort of take on leadership roles. In my experience, most elected positions end up being resume fillers rather than real substantive commitment; I have a feeling that adcoms recognize that.</p>

<p>What then? Make up positions that correspond to what you do? I'm rather bitter, because...Elections make me mad when candidates begin to do obscene things for votes...</p>

<p>I think the poster two above me meant leadership positions that aren't elected as in....I lead worship at my church, and I lead music at a local youth group. I wasn't elected to do those things, but I'm up in front of 2,000+ people, well, <em>leading</em> them in music. That kind of leadership is more important to me than NHS president or something similar could ever be.</p>

<p>how would you talk about that in your app though? There is one short answer in teh common app, but thats only about one particular activity. Can you go into depth in your resume?</p>

<p>I completely disagree with the amount of leadership positions will determine whether or not you will get into Ivies or other top tier schools. I don't know about your schools, but at my school many clubs have completely useless positions. They'll have a president, VP, treasurer, secretary, historians (picture takers), and sergeant at arms (peace keepers). And this would be a club of like 20 or 30. Seriously, do you really NEED a treasurer and secretary? Most clubs DON'T! I've only seen a few clubs that really need all those officer positions. I personally run 2 clubs of about 15-20 members each and I only have president and vice-president.</p>

<p>Futhermore, it really does not depend on how many positions you get, but what you do with it. If you were elected as historian, sure it is a leadership position, but seriously, come on. And even presidency doesn't really mean much. It COULD look nice on paper, but if you don't do anything with it, it's still a lame position. A real leadership position and leader involves not just busy work, but a vision for the future. He sees something that has problems and solves them. A real leader can take his position and make it worthwhile.</p>

<p>^ On paper, adcoms cant tell if the X club is an active club with 200 members where being a historian is an important position or not.
You see.. they see you as whatever it says on the paper.. if it looks nice on paper, it makes you look kinda nice too.
But i agree with the whole role of the leadership. If you are the president of 11 clubs, colleges will be like, *** does she even do anything? are these even active clubs? .. and a person who has 1 great leadership position, who has commited heaps of time, who has passion and who's put in heaps of effort into making the club a sucess, will look much more favorable than the president of 11 clubs.</p>

<p>alright let's face it, a position is a position. Correct?
Alright, if you have a position as a.... vice president for... X Club, it still looks good. It doesn't have to be your hook, but it still looks good.
However, if you make a club and expand it not only in your school but to the community, it will look 1000x better.</p>

<p>how would you talk about that though? Can you write in your resume specific activities you did in a club? Like for example</p>

<p>Science Honor Society
-initiated schoolwide science olympiad</p>

<p>jcr, yes, that's exactly how one should highlight one's leadership -- by describing what one accomplished, not just listing the position.</p>

<p>well im gonna try to start my comp programming club tomorrow so wish me luck. Being the self appointed dictator of a club would still be "president", right?</p>

<p>Sure, as long as you and others refer to you as "president".</p>

<p>I don't know about you guys, but I put in an insane amount of time into the clubs that I'm an officer in.</p>

<p>I'm VP of my debate club and I have to put mad hours into planning for extra meetings I made so that we can prep for our tournament better, schedule practice debates, send out emails, and respond to people's questions. Plus there's like designing and putting up flyers, meeting with my advisor once in a while to discuss the progress of the club and our vision for the near future, planning for future events (we'll be going to a couple new competitions this year), finally becoming a member of the National Forensics League, finding more tournaments to go to, and contacting individuals about registration and stuff. Not to mention prep for the actual debates themselves...</p>

<p>For a tutoring organization I'm VP of, I have to respond to emails (along with the secretary), constantly promote our name by contacting local guidance departments (hopefully I'll be able to walk to an elementary school after school on Friday to talk to the administration), organizing private tuition, and responding to parents who want their kids to be tutored.</p>

<p>I'm publicity officer of Amnesty International, and every month I have to give up my entire lunch for a week to go table to table throughout the school to collect signatures for our petitions. I also design flyers once in a while, and now we have weekly meetings during lunch as well.</p>

<p>And then I have homework. It's actually a really nice break. =D</p>

<p>
[quote]
I'm publicity officer of Amnesty International, and every month I have to give up my entire lunch for a week to go table to table throughout the school to collect signatures for our petitions.

[/quote]

OMG when do you eat your lunch then? I feel for you.. I hate missing lunch.. it's like the best part of the day..
You seem like a real leader!</p>

<p>to win you should've had campaign posters of your face plastered over the school. it makes it look like a dictatorship. w00t</p>

<p>theoneo i feel your pain. Some people can boast about all of the clubs and leadership positions they are in, but they do very little. I devote a lot of time and energy to my 3 main ECS (with Acadec as a minor 4th one), and get kind of mad when people think that their flimsy officer positions or expensive leadership courses even come close to the kind of work I put in for my ECs. Its not that I don't enjoy them--I do! Many are just in clubs for the college applications, like our secretary of JSA (who we will soon be impeaching). In short, I hate when people treat all leadership positions as the same--they aren't.</p>