<p>Hi,</p>
<p>In earlier posts, I mainly discussed academics, however now I'm wondering about EC's. My workload is truly rigorous, filled with electives, an AP, and 2 self-study courses, all honors courses. I was pondering how "average" these EC's appeal, or whether one stands out:</p>
<p>Freshman Year:</p>
<p>Choir
Science Club
Science Olympiad Team
National Language Arts League NLAL Top 10 in Country
NYC "Enviro-thon" 2010 Team</p>
<p>Sophomore Year:</p>
<p>Science Club
Science Olympiad Team
Science Research Club (Working on Westinghouse)
Phoenix Newspaper
Varsity Competitive Swim Team
JV Debate Team</p>
<p>Electives:</p>
<p>Online AoPS Intro to Geometry ( and self-study Algebra 2 and Trigonometry)
Journalism
AP World History</p>
<p>SAT 2's to be taken at the end of Sophomore Year:</p>
<p>Chemistry (Maybe.)
Modern Hebrew (Definitely).</p>
<p>Next year will have much more in store, consequently, but is this list nice? I could have joined (and still can) numerous other EC's, but I weren't passionate about those. Everything on the aforementioned list is a passion or a habit. If anyone recommends something, I'm very open to advice. Please criticize, praise, or give feedback. Thanks!!</p>
<p>*wasn’t passionate. I’d hesitate to correct you, but you’re aiming for Harvard and used the word “ostensible.”
Anyway, I think your EC’s a bit thin. They’re interesting, but in terms of consistency, I’m not seeing much: you only kept two clubs from Frosh to Soph year. Nothing really wrong with that, but problematically, universities demands dedication and commitment. If you keep switching clubs, it won’t look so good, and I say that with the experience of four years behind me.
I’d say stick with the swim team and the two science clubs for the next two years, as well as the newspaper. Something to even you out a little might be the debate team, which can be easy to get passionate about if you let it. Follow through on it all for the remainder of your high school career and you’ll be as competitive as anyone.</p>
<p>Also, try to develop further your passions, e.g. moving from debate and or journalism, you’d do Mock Trial, Model Congress, AP poly Sci, Journalism electives (which you are doing), and other stuff to give some basis to saying your ''passionate" again, science is a joke in this HS, so you need something more to come up.</p>
<p>^ science isn’t a joke, in modern America it is one of the most important subjects for student. Basically, pick like 4 or 5 things you really want to do. Get leadership positions and awards in them and write your essays with them.</p>
<p>If you have to ask, they’re not good enough.</p>
<p>The best ECs are those you would still do if your high school diploma were your terminal degree. In looking to see “what Harvard wants,” you can only hurt yourself by being dishonest toward yourself.</p>
<p>I apologize for the confusion, I go to the same HS as JacobTess, and am simply saying that the science dept. and science olympiad (done only for yeshivah league) are a complete farce, the actual noble branches of science I revere, but JacobTess should not expect to fool colleges with the ******** our HS calls science. </p>
<p>Agree with DwightEisenhower,</p>
<p>^ haha, ok. That’s cool. That’s how my school’s Latin department is, most are good, but in my school’s they watch Harry potter.</p>