My Extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm a junior. I was wondering if my extracurriculars are what top colleges are looking for. I feel they might be all over the place?</p>

<p>This is what I have now. All the positions I put are what I have, unless stated.</p>

<p>Much of these things I'm really into, and I spend a lot of time doing. I'll write the amount of time I spend doing them.</p>

<p>SCHOOL
Red Cross Club, President (2.5 hours every week)
Future for Africa Club, President & Co-Founder (2.5 hours every week)
Ethnic Club, Secretary (2.5 hours every week)
Project Book-Net, Member (2.5 hours every week)
Volunteering Club, Member (never)
Science Olympiad, POSSIBLE Co-Captain (2 hours every week during season)
Varsity Swim Team, HIGHLY POSSIBLE Co-Captain (10 hours every week during season)
School Newspaper, LOW POSSIBLE Copy-Editing Chief (10 hours week during term)</p>

<p>OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
American Red Cross' Youth Board, POSSIBLE Co-Chair (5 hours every month)
Tutor at Library (2 hours every week)
Club that fund raises for poor 3rd world country schools (never)
Volunteer at hospital (Summer 40 hours)
Piano</p>

<p>Summer Internships/Programs
Harvard Medical School 3 Consecutive Programs (2004 to 2005)
Harvard College Library (2007)
Investment Banking Internship (2008)
Arabic Beginners Course (2006)</p>

<p>I feel I don't focus on one area. I read in some threads about how Ivy Leagues want you to focus in one area strongly, not everywhere.</p>

<p>I took a full year course of Arabic, I studied Chinese 5 years, I'm really into the Red Cross, I took courses and internships at Harvard, internship at a bank then I worked in a Harvard library, and then I do the school newspaper, then I swim, then I fundraise for Africa and China.</p>

<p>Do they look down at your application if you do stuff from here, there, then there, etc.</p>

<p>But seriously, I feel it makes me looking wishy washy. Medicine, librarian job, newspaper editor, business, Chinese, Arabic, human rights and fund raising.</p>

<p>Doesn't it make me look like I'm unsure about what I want?</p>

2

<p>No. Your experiences sound really interesting! You should be very grateful that you had taken advantage of such wonderful opportunities! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having lots of interests. Mine include math, Latin literature, chess, Chinese language, European history, U.S. history, education reform, and effective college teaching methods. I’m planning to major in math and I want to teach college math, but I also want to teach history. And that’s fine.</p>

<p>It’s pretty much impossible to tell exactly what admissions officers are looking for. My best guess is interesting, smart people whom it would be really great to go to college with.</p>

3

<p>I would say that a laundry list of everything you have ever participated in is probably going to detract from those activities that you really do care about and put a lot of effort into. If you have to expend energy explaining a club-like Volunteering Club-where you put in minimal time and it doesn’t say something special about you, you are taking up valuable ‘application real estate’ on something unimportant. Prune your list and be prepared to talk about why each of these activities is important to you and what they say about who you are. You have a lot of good activities that show leadership and initiative-why undermine yourself by mentioning ‘tutor at library’ unless you’ve been doing this for years and have a real connection with the person you are tutoring and plan to write about it? (Or this is your only paid employment.)</p>