<p>Hello, everyone! With all the hype surrounding the importance of having at least semi-focused extracurriculars, i have begun worrying about mine. could you please glance over my list, and see if it appears that i have been "padding" my resume?</p>
<ol>
<li>mayor's youth council</li>
<li>class treasurer</li>
<li>Habitat for Humanity President</li>
<li>German Club Board Member</li>
<li>International Relations Club Board Member</li>
<li>German Exchange Program organizer (with sister school in Germany)</li>
<li>Academic Team 2-year Captain</li>
<li>NHS Officer</li>
<li>Tutor at my school and downtown</li>
<li>Captain of Baseball team (not good enough to be recruited :/</li>
<li>Captain of Cross Country team</li>
<li>Work at DQ in summer</li>
</ol>
<p>I joined the clubs that interested me, and in no conscious way tried to pad my resume. I'm just worried I'll come off as just another crazy-busy high schooler to the big schools. My three biggest passions are German, government, and community service....is that clear? Should I delete NHS and Tutoring? Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>Write about the ones you are really passionate about, and show how hard you worked in them and display “insider knowledge” about it and so forth.</p>
<p>My short activities essay on the commonapp is about the mayor’s youth council, and my longer one will be something to do with German. I think I’ll submit a supplemental essay (the one for yale or princeton, if i ever get those done/started) about either community service or my interest in government.</p>
<p>The way I see it, you do seem a little spread thin…I’m not totally sure what you could do about it, aside from deleting some. But that doesn’t seem like a good course of action either. I would be curious to see others’ viewpoints as to how else you could make your passions clear, besides the activites portion and your essays?</p>
<p>What are you talking about in your essays? and in other parts of your app? For example, you have two ECs about German and going to Germany… Are you taking German classes now? Can you speak German? Are you talking about your experience in Germany? If not, just delete them, cause it might appear as padding. If you never talk about something someplace in your app. and if it does not involve much time, and if, by reading your app, they appear as “unrelated” I’d suggest deleting. </p>
<p>I have five ECs in my app and three of them get discussed or are related to parts of my app. The two other are there, because they involve some time (like 3-4 hours a week or so).</p>
<p>You have not provided any indicator of which years you did which EC’s nor any indication of time commitment. Your list really could go either way.</p>
<p>@raffiki10 - My activity short essay is about mayor’s youth council, so that could tie in mayor’s youth council and student gov’t.</p>
<p>My Personal Statement is about my time in Germany (pretty original…at least I hope), so that should cover a few also. </p>
<p>If I ever finish my yale supplement essay, I’ll probably submit that, too. I think I’ll write about something with government. </p>
<p>@smoda61 - I have participated in all of my activities since freshman year, but NHS and mayor’s youth council since junior year. The thing is, my list reflects who I really am…excited about a lot of things, but without some end-all-be-all PASSION which consumes all of my creative drive. I know I’ll specialize in college. Will the admissions people see it this way, or in more of a negative light?</p>
<p>As long as it will be clear to the adcoms that you didn’t just start all this you junior year, you should be fine. You personal statement will relate to the German ECs. Your extra essay will relate to your government interests. Another way they will learn if this is all real or padding is during your interview.</p>
<p>Sounds like it should work out fine for you.</p>