Lately I’ve been looking at the “what are my chances?” posts and I’ve noticed that the students my age are a part of many clubs (and start multiple), volunteer often, hold leadership positions, etc. I personally have only started one club (because I was truly passionate about it) and only devote myself to about 5 things- my sports team, a charity I work with, and 3 clubs. Do colleges look down upon applicants who have less to show/ look for an applicant with many activities? Or do they value an applicant greater commitment to the few activities they may be involved with? I just don’t want to spread myself too thin and do something just to get into college, but now I’m getting nervous seeing other people who seem to have a lot to show.
Quality over quantity.
Those people who have “a lot to show” are often times going to fall short though. You know why? Because colleges know when people care about stuff and when they don’t.
I remember when I was applying to college, I wrote something for the EC section about this volunteering thing I did with kids throughout high school. I do like working with kids and I can see myself doing that long-term, but the volunteering experience was never something I really cared about. And when my GC read it, she said that that was very clear. So I wrote about Politics Club instead, and it was WAY better.
I know all about how toxic this site is though. I spent a lot of high school gravitating towards those threads and beating myself up for not meeting those standards, but you have to understand that it’s really not the norm.
Five good ECs is a lot!
One or two interesting ECs - that you are committed to, and ideally have some leadership, are all you need.