I’m currently working on my UC activities list, and am unsure of what type of extra curricular UCs want. For example, would “coding club mentor” be something interesting enough for admission officers? Also, what would be a good range of the number of UC activities I submit? I currently have ten, but could possible add more. And is it ok that I won’t be submitting any volunteer/community service? Thanks!
Hello fellow applicant. I’ll just tell you a bit of what I heard (mostly general advice for ECs) and what I am doing in my application. For context I am planning on going into Pure Mathematics.
I have a general theme for my ECs. I started a STEM Club at my Community College, I represent STEM in my Community College’s Student Government, and I am a volunteer Math tutor at my Community College.
Sure it’s only three ECs (only for my 12th grade year, I listed others for 9th-11th) but:
- They align with my planned Major almost perfectly.
- I've taken leadership roles in every activity, and subsequently
- I dedicated mass amounts of time to these specific activities.
Other things I put was I did Private tutoring (again in Math) from 9th Grade Summer through 11th Grade and also put that I sat in the Linear Algebra class the entire semester, taking all the quizzes and exams (although I wasn’t in the class the professor was nice enough to grade everything and help me in office hours) under Other Coursework.
This means I had 2 ECs, 1 Community Service, 1 Work Experience, and 1 Other Coursework. So I had a spread of everything, and each item shows my deep interest in Math.
Some people will say to take tons of ECs in each area to seem well-rounded, yet I’ve also heard the opposite that colleges don’t want a well-rounded student, they want a well-rounded class.
If you are able to show general interest for Coding in your application through your personal insight essays and it somewhat aligns with what you want to do (ex. You want to study/major Comp Sci), I would highly recommend putting it on there. As long as you don’t fill all of the 20 items with you were just a member of _______ club, and instead highlight the activities you were in leadership roles, or had genuine interest in and therefore really dedicated your time to, I can’t imagine it will hurt you. Good luck x
Again just a fellow applicant, so take this advice with a grain of salt and do what you think will frame you as an ideal candidate. 
There is no “best” EC or “best” number of EC’s for any school.
Here is what the UC’s are looking for in your application.
- Demonstrated qualities in leadership, motivation, concern for others and community;
- Non-academic achievement in the performing arts, athletics or employment;
- Demonstrated interest in major.
one thing to add here - they are a relatively minor consideration vs GPA and test scores - having really killer ECs won’t make up for a 3.0/950.