<p>I meant that doing ECs for the purpose of building a resume for colleges is BS. </p>
<p>Do them because it’s what you want to do anyway.</p>
<p>We all agree on the point that EC for college, aka what I call “whoring yourself for EC” is wrong.</p>
<p>Yep I totally agree, I only went through a one week or so phase when I thought I was gonna seriously join crap I didn’t want to</p>
<p>The reason I’m joining activities this year is just because I don’t really have another chance to do them in HS. I think it will be null and void at worst, hopefully doing Newspaper and some essays isn’t too absurd lol:) Asian culture club: Not really a unique commitment anyways, just for fun. I have a job on weekends: did that so I could buy a new computer and because my summer was pretty boring without a job. Community service: school put it as a requirement since we’re Catholic, but I liked it after doing the meager 24 hours required so I’m still doing it</p>
<p>Hey! A job totally counts as an EC.
When/how long did you have that for?</p>
<p>There might be other hobbies you wouldn’t consider to be ECs… I think there’s a thread somewhere you could check out.</p>
<p>Job is always good- think of how it comes across to an adcom. Make sure your comm svc highlights what you did/accomplished or any leadership, because plenty of kids somehow rack up 1000 hours. Any mentoring? That is always fab.
The thing about ECs is they round out the picture of you- show how you might fit on campus beyond academics- that is so important to colleges- that you master the academic challenges, then contribute to the social vitality. Show you’re engaged. No mention of the vid games because that’s a loner thing. k?</p>
<p>Yeah of course no videogames <3 Don’t even have an Xbox any more it got pretty boring. I got all this stuff from the end of last year to this year though so it might look like I’m padding. Is there somewhere that I can make my case on the app that I didn’t purposely do that. I got a teacher who understands me so he might say so, but if they read that last then it would be kinda fruitless</p>
<p>This is becoming too much worrying. You are a junior. You have a job. You now have newspaper and yearbook, comm svc and some outside writing. Make it worth a million. Start maxing contributions to these. Take on a more serious role in one- or some leadership in the comm svc. This latter is where you can nearly write your own ticket: add some sort of planned effort; we don’t know what you do, but there is always some extra need you can identify and gather others to support. This will enhance comm svc, show initiative and leadership- a 3-fer. Mentoring is super-. Write great articles for the newspaper. I have no idea of your stats but, uh, I also wanted to go further than U Maryland.
You may need to lessen your efforts in Asian Culture Club, which sounds like it’s part social, to free your energy for these ideas. Then, you show adcoms how you caught fire this semester. In quality not quantity.
Enough fretting about whether 5 or 6 activities will look like padding. Come up with a plan. Go for it.</p>