<p>One thing I had an issue with my advisor was my list of EC's. I was involved in a lot of things because I was generally interested in them, not because i was trying to "pad" my resume, which is an issue with college admission officers apparently. </p>
<p>my activities were really spread apart and had no association with each other whatsoever, but i definitely was not spreading myself ** too thin.** You could be involved in a save the whales club, poetry society, jonas brothers fan club, and other non-related activities, but i feel like that is such a disadvantage these days because it shows that you are too "spread out".</p>
<p>who cares?
i like the biking club.
i like woodshop.
i like student government.
i like writing for the newspaper.
so basically if i want to get into colleges i have to stick with 1-2 things to show "passion"? what if i'm GENUINELY (and I mean 110%) COMMITTED to ALL of these activities (and state that on my app essay)? </p>
<p>you shouldn't be labeled as "spreading yourself too thin" for loving your hobbies because ultimately these hobbies make you YOU. Getting rejected for having too many hobbies is like getting rejected for being YOU.</p>
<p>it could put you at a disadvantage, unfortunately. however, that depends on the college and how much effort you put into showing that you are genuinely interested in these activities. in my opinion, while your ECs aren’t distinctly related, the four activities you listed do show a certain type of personality. just make sure you make your personality shine through on your applications, and then your activities should make sense and hopefully they won’t put you at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>i actually am not involved in those activities I listed, minus the student government and writing for the newspaper. i just used those as an example, & those are some of the most unrelated activities that came to my mind lol.</p>
<p>anyways, i understand what you mean about shining them in your app, but there shouldn’t be a “cap” or “limit”. as long as you have the academic qualifications and show that you are extremely passionate about your EC’s, you should be able to list as many activities as you want, no matter how unrelated they are. this goes for your intended major as well.</p>
<p>Adcoms know there are only so many hours in a day. And there is simply no way you can devote yourself as deeply to a dozen pursuits as you could to two or three. Thus, you can keep insisting you are not spread too thin, but at some point that will not be convincing when looking at a long laundry list of activities.</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of a “cap” on the number of activities you have. I don’t think admissions officers would be turned off by someone doing too many activites. The turnoff would be if the applicant didn’t seem too committed to any of them, and that’s more likely to happen if someone does more things rather than focusing on a few. I think it’s okay to be in a dozen clubs or something… as long as you have something impressive to show for at least a couple of them.</p>
<p>Did you mean genuinely interested? It’s an interesting typo, especially since I imagine your interests in these clubs are just that: general. A passion is an all-consuming interest, something that dominates all aspects of your life. The published novelist is passionate; the high school news reporter who hasn’t pursued writing outside of school (blogs, local papers, internships, etc) is not. According to the very definition of passion, you simply can’t be passionate about a whole list of activities. You might be genuinely/generally interested in all of them, but without evidence of achievement or extensive pursuit of those activities, your laundry list is unlikely to impress adcoms.</p>
<p>I don’t understand how people expect every high schooler to have a “passion”. I have a lot of interests, but I wouldn’t call any of them my passion. Isn’t high school (and college, to a certain degree) about trying new things and seeing what you like and don’t like?</p>
<p>My DD had MANY activities through the years and lucky her, she was good at nearly everything and didn’t need lots of sleep. IMO, when students participate to pad their resumes, it is a cheat of sorts. However, for those who try many things for the sake of trying many things (and because they are curious), the benefits abound. If you have lots of activities, don’t worry about what adcoms will think. You are the one who benefitted and if your interest in the activity wasn’t because you thought that it would look good, please don’t worry about it looking bad.</p>
<p>@piedpilko: I think you make a good point here. Sure there are high schoolers who publish novels, play at Carnegie Hall, or win the IMO. But even at the countrie’s most selective universities, I believe that these students only make a small fraction. I guess most students who are admitted are of the well rounded type.</p>
<p>Interest will make you get started; passion will make you get deeper. Try to show your motivation to go as deep as you can in one of the activities you mentioned.</p>
<p>I’ll give you an example here: “When Joe was 10 years old, he was fascinated with aviation. Airplanes were his true passion. At that age, he joined a modeling club where he built airplanes plastic models. Later, he joined an R/C club and started to fly radio-controlled planes. At 17, he finally started flying real airplanes and today he manages an airline.”</p>
<p>The above paragraph is the example of a person who was passionate for something and turned a hobby into a serious thing. It is this “progressive timeline” (making things deeper and more serious) that will show your committment to your activities.</p>
<p>Here’s another example: You participate in many different activities (music, summer academic programs, problem solving, writing plays). When the time comes to apply for college, you have decided that you want to major in foreign language and international studies. Looking back on your activities, you discover that nearly all of your activities through the years had an element that used languages or the study of cultures even though it was not your plan to do everything that related.</p>
<p>Piedpilko -soccer is one nice activity ,and your 11 years shows some commitment on your part ,but this is not enough on it’s own .Too many kids play soccer- what makes you special ? Coaching special needs soccer in addition would be good .Playing soccer is all about you.</p>
<p>From what I can gather, the well-rounded types are becoming less and less common at the top schools. The posts from CCers attending top schools tend to say things along the lines of, “It’s easy to tell why each person here was accepted. Everyone’s so good at what they do.” I imagine this phenomenon has something to do with the difficulty of being truly, deeply well-rounded.</p>
<p>I think the key is to focus on 1-2 activities (I’d suggest one academic oriented and one “fun” activity) in your essays rather than try to cover all of them, otherwise your content and analysis will suffer. As long as you can convey that you do these things because you have genuine interest in them and look to enrich your life from them, you should be fine.</p>
<p>Since I’m a total prick, I consider myself “deeply well-rounded”. Math, science, music and (gasp) English. I’m Chinese too. Woops. Now I’m just a cookie-cutter Asian. :P</p>