<p>well, im a sophmore in H.S. and i feel i dont have enough E.Cs to promise me a spot in a good college. my GPA and Sat 1 and 2's are no problem. i've been volunteering weekly since freshmen year, and im a member of Key club and chess club.. any advice or help would be appreciated...</p>
<p>well, first thing you gotta do is browse through the sections here at CC that address your issue (it's a very common issue by the way)..please, when you have more specific questions...we all can better help you out.</p>
<p>umm, well, i guess i have one question in mind. Are high GPAs and SAT scores enough to guarantee me a spot in private schools lower in prestige compared to the Ivies, such as boston college? i hear that E.Cs are important more to the Ivies than to the lesser prestigious schools</p>
<p>Don't fool yourself. Simply having a high GPA and SAT scores will NOT GUARANTEE you a spot ANYWHERE. State schools are the ones that traditionally admit by the numbers and place less emphasis on EC's, etc. But even that seems to be changing. Nothing is a given.</p>
<p>whether or not you have ec's for college, you should just go out and explore for YOURSELF. high school SUCKS in comparison otherwise, seriously :)</p>
<p>Think of it this way (this isn't exactly how it works, but you'll get the idea):
College receives your application and first looks at your grades. They take everyone with a high enough grade to survive and do well (which is a big chunk of the applicants) and then move onto the next step. The ones that have lower grades are basically rejected. Then they look at ECs and anything that separates you from the pack. Colleges want someone interesting - not someone with perfect scores.</p>
<p>Scores will keep you from getting rejected immediately
ECs will get you in...</p>
<p>dude but you shouldnt do an EC just for the sake of doing it so it looks better for colleges...
really...colleges look at grades first? Hmm...I would think they look at national awards/huge achievements first...</p>
<p>but i dont think having like lets say 8 ECs is so much better than 6 ECs...i seriously doubt most of the top colleges dont care about that unless those ECs are somewhat important...otherwise im just going to randomly join clubs i dont like and say (no disrespect to those clubs) "hey guys im in science olympiad, french club, key club, chess club, video game club, math club, and whatever else club" and that must mean im really really involved when they probalby dont give a crap about those things, just wanting to impress colleges (and frankly people in my schools do that)</p>
<p>ohh.. lol.. i guess that makes sense. thx for all the advice</p>
<p>I think Key club is too generic...at least 99% of all the asians in my schools do it. Unless you're like the Key club prez or organized a big event, it's not going to count much...like CSF</p>