I was advised that I should not list a few clubs and activities that I have participated in on my college apps simply because I was only in them for a short time.
It is only natural to try something new and perhaps change your mind but to colleges it will simply look like a lack of committment. They always say it’s quality not quantity so I was just wondering what everyone thought about this.
Thanks! (:
<p>College guides like the word "passion". The standard advice is that adcoms want to see passion and long-term commitment in one or two activities rather than a long list of unrelated activities with little involvement in any. You want to use your EC's and essays to stand out from the crowd and be unique. Another standard bit of advice is that colleges try to build well-rounded freshman classes, but don't favor well-rounded applicants. They want a wide range of people, but each person should have a focused and accomplished interest.</p>
<p>I would not take particularly remove activities, but try to package everything so that it looks as if you have one/two strong interests. Sometimes it is only a matter of marketing.</p>
<p>It's kind of sad...discouraging people to be well-rounded.</p>
<p>Although showing A LOT of interest in several activities may be good for you application, colleges certainly won't penalize you for being wel-rounded.</p>
<p>If you're only doing an activity/sport for one year, would it be wise to put it on your application? What about two? I'm really confused now..</p>
<p>just write it in, especially if the one year was senior year. though we are all told to have passion and iniyiative, i seriously doubt that ALL the kids at HYPSM have the level of passion we are talking about. well-rounded is not bad. it is obsurd to ask a highschooler to know exactly everything they love and are good at, and everything they want to accomplish at life</p>
<p>I was wondering this too. Most of my EC's are in art and music, but I did two sports my freshman year before deciding I was crazy to do sports and discontinuing them. I didn't know if I should include them. It may look like I didn't commit, or it could look like I'm not afraid to try new things but decided my passions lay elsewhere. What should I do?</p>
<p>I agree with the comments, but I think it is more like ... They don't want three people who can each play the guitar a little and who can each draw pretty well, and who all have been in a few high school plays. They want one person who can play classical guitar and has given concerts, another person who is destined to be a great artist and has already won awards, and another person who has done dinner theater for four years and will probably be on Broadway someday. There are about 1.4 million high school graduates each year. Harvard has about 15000 applicants and accepts about 1500. All of the extremely selective colleges put together only accept about 30,000 to 40,000.</p>
<p>The good news is that the admissions insanity drops off sharply after you get out of the top 10-15 colleges, and that you do the same things to try to get into the #20 ranked school as you do to try to get into the #1 ranked school. I am not trying to tell anyone not to apply anywhere. You should apply if you have a chance. Most people get into one of the schools that they considered a reach. Also, you don't want to regret not having applied. However, it seems that there is sometimes way too much brand-name consciousness with people saying that their life is ruined if they don't get into some school. I don't see why people feel that way.</p>
<p>A good book about applying to college is "Acing the College Application" by Michelle Hernandez. It is concise and relates everything to the application itself. A good book for someone applying to the extremely selective colleges is "Harvard Schmarvard" by Jay Mathews.</p>
<p>Don't leave EC's off of the activity list. Just try to look like you are extremely interested in one/two things in particular, and that you have done a lot in that area and accomplished something with it.</p>
<p>Do you guys think doing four clubs (w/ leadership), play piano (superior ratings at federation/solo ensembles), drawing (1st place at local student art shows), and making webpages be too much for all four years??</p>
<p>Why would is be too much?</p>
<p>I tend to believ that you really can't have to much. The list above is probably less than most write down. See, you can have as many as you want, including things you only did for a year, that is fine, as long as you committed in a couple and show some passion for one or two. As long as you have the passion and committment in a couple, the others become mostly irrelevant, but there is no way it is going to hurt you to put them down.</p>
<p>phantom, are you asian by any chance?</p>
<p>Yep! =) Why??</p>
<p>but can't it hurt you by showing some kind of so-called lack of commitment?</p>
<p>I can always identify an Asian by their ECs!!! LOL!</p>
<p>So say you've been in like 3 clubs for the past 4 years and were a member of like 3 other clubs just freshman or soph year. Do you list all six or just the first three?</p>
<p>It really isn't the number of clubs, but the number of interests. They want people who have "passion" and long-term committment to one/two interests. The extremely selective colleges do not want well rounded people. They do not want three people where each of them play chess, play the piano fairly well, and have all been in one or two school plays. They want one person who is obsessed with chess, another person who wants to be a concert pianist and has already given concerts, and a third person who has done dinner theater for six years already and has auditioned for Broadway shows. There may be 1.4 million high school graduates each year, but Harvard is only accepting 1500 of them. This is not to say that being well rounded is a bad thing. You just may have less of a chance at getting into Harvard. </p>
<p>I would NOT omit any EC's. I would try to pull them together into a common theme. If you are on the school newspaper, written poetry, and been in a school play. That is not three different EC's. That is one. You are obsessed with being creative in an artistic way. :)</p>
<p>Chocolategirl, as you as you are committed to two or three things, the others don't show a lack of committment. THe colleges realize that you are experimenting to find what you like, and that you have to make sacrifices with your time. Put them all on the app.</p>
<p>any opinions on listing one-time events that might be a big deal? i.e. being a speaker at a national conference or a judge in an international film festival??
it seems odd to list them w/o referring to # hrs/week or weeks/yr</p>
<p>"any opinions on listing one-time events that might be a big deal? i.e. being a speaker at a national conference or a judge in an international film festival??
it seems odd to list them w/o referring to # hrs/week or weeks/yr"</p>
<p>This is why I like the "activities list" idea to be included with your application. This type of thing could be listed as a one time deal on a separate activity list.
On the app, it doesn't really fit, yet I think it's interesting and tells something about the student. This is one reason why "online apps" leave something to be desired, imo.</p>
<p>Also, some colleges love well-rounded students. yale, for example. Don't sell yourself short.</p>