<p>Forgive me, but I had to make light of something that has been plaguing me for the last year or so. I'm a junior in high school, and it is my dream to attend NYU CAS for Journalism. I am a very good student. No, I don't have a 4.0, but my grades still allow me a shot of acceptance. I have yet to take my SAT/ACT, but am confidant that I will do well. I'm not worried about the essay portion of my application, because writing is my prevailing strength.
So... the only gaping hole in the quality of my high school transcript is that I have zero ECs. Not even the cheese appreciation club. :-( (and no, we don't have a cheese appreciation club)
There's really no good excuse for freshman and sophomore years, except that they were trying times for me emotionally, and I devoted my time solelely to my school work and nothing extra (at the time, I had no idea that this was a bad thing). This year, however, I vowed to change. Well, this year has been Murphy's Law personified. Absolute choas. We've moved to a completely alien town in the middle of the year, been homeless for a month, and now we're just getting on our feet again.
So... what it boils down to is this:
I plan to go what I can in the way of community service over the summer and will finally have some ECs under my belt at the close of next year. Will my utter lack of participation make me an automatic reject from my dream school?
P.S. I know I certainly won't have the best chance anyone has ever had... but I want to know that I'm still hanging in there.</p>
<p>Well, I don't tend to nitpick that which I type on casual internet forums. If you want to get techinical, you cannot criticize me when the post through which you expressed your criticism also contains many grammatical errors (no capitalization, misplaced elipses, negation of apostrophe, double periods... some of which I was also guilty of in my post).
But I really don't want to trade insults. I asked a question. That's all.</p>
<p>trust me when i say this, ec's aren't everything. just do what you can (ie community service over the summer and make sure you stay active senior year). also, make sure you do well on your sats and keep that gpa high. i can tell you from personal experience, the gpa and sats carry a whole lot more weight than the ec's.</p>
<p>No way your getting in to NYU with out at least 1 extra curricular, and how much community service do you plan to do? 10 hours, 15, 20? That is not enough if that is your only EC. You woulld need like 200 or 300 hours if that was to be your only EC. And as for ACT/SAT we can't really tell you your chances off of you saying that you think you wil do good. Don't get overconfident, and if you haven't taken the ACT or SAT by now your screwed, because from now to admissions time (I assume your aplplying to NYU EA?) you don't have much time to take the test again to improve if your initial score was grotesque. You have to work quickly or your going to get burned...badly.</p>
<p>EDIT: You know if your applying to CAS, and you say you are a n excellent writer, maybe you should write a short book or something and sen it in with your application?</p>
<p>dvlfnfv5- That is not entirely true. What about all the other apllicants out there with the same GPA's and SAT/ACT scores? What sets them all apart? Their EC, their passions. That is a huge deciding factor, colleges want diverse students, not all 4.0's and 2400's.</p>
<p>if you start doing your community service now, you'll end up with more than 20 hours of service. how do you write a decent book in 6 months? even a "short one" at that. just concentrate on your work and your scores. while having a passion for something certainly aids in distinguishing oneself from a myriad of candidates, it is essential to have good scores. i can guarantee you that a student with a 4.0 and 2400 is going to get into any school they want with minimal ec's. likewise another student competing for the same spot with 3.6 gpa and 2100 and great ec's is probably not making the cut. sadly, the admissions process is very shallow.</p>
<p>i wouldn't consider making extra curriculars just to let admission officers look at me for it. i'd rather do my own thing :) (i'm a frosh mentor, ap chem tutor, elementary school tutor)</p>
<p>admission officers will defintely see that, "oh look he's a show off!!"</p>
<p>I recommend explaining your homeless situation in your essays. This will show the college of your adversity, and will explain the lack of ecs in high school. Do some comm. service, and also try getting a job if possible.</p>
<p>First off, no... I'm not in a wheelchair. But I've used crutches since I was five. So that elliminates mostly all sports.
To the person who said ECs aren't everything: as much weight as they claim to place on them, that's pretty much what I've deduced. I'm not slighting those who are heavilly involved, because it is a positive thing. However, as many rejection stories as I've heard, I've also heard from many who seem to have been accepted based on one or two outstanding aspects of their application (IE the essay, or astronomically high standardized test scores, or some combo of both), so I guess, while there are certainly guidlines to follow, it's pretty much a crapshoot.</p>
<p>Only 1600 Valedictorians gained entrance into Harvard last year. What does that tel you? More than 1600 students applied of them who applied only 1600 of the valedictorians got in. I am not saying academics are not important, because they are very important. Yet, just because you have perfect score doesn't mean you will get into every where you apply, ESPECIALLY without EC.</p>
<p>Either buy or read at your library the "Writers Guide to freelance writing." If you want to be a journalist, you definitely need to have some experience getting published, something that your age nor being on crutches would prevent your doing.</p>
<p>I know people who have had news articles published in professional papers when they were as young as age 10. What is needed is good writing skills, the ability to spot good story ideas (which are everywhere, even in small towns), and the courage to pitch your stories to suitable publications.</p>
<p>I do not suggest that you do some random EC just to look good to NYU. Since you like writing, pursue some kind of writing-based activity that will allow you to get published or to assist with a professional or student publication. There also are writing camps and conferences throughout the country that you could attend. Some are inexpensive. Just Google to find out more info.</p>
<p>Here's what I would do:
Think about your experience as a homeless family. Do some research, write, and get involved in that issue. You may find that since you have first hand experience, you are really passionate about helping others in that situation. Do as much as you can to help. Once you've accomplished that, bingo- you've improved your community, given yourself a great essay topic, and made yourself stand out among applicants.</p>