<p>can i count basically everything i've done, even if i'm no longer involved in those activities?
would that would allow me to include:
piano- 1 year (8th grade)
clarinet- 1 year (5th grade)
violin- 1/2 year (4th grade)
yearbook staff- 2 years (7th and 8th grade)
gymnastics- 5 years (scattered throughout my life)</p>
<p>im 10th grade now...</p>
<p>You should include EC's that tell someone about yourself. This isn't one of those games in the newspaper where you try to come up with as many words as possible from a 10 letter word they give you.</p>
<p>Your goal is to give the schools a clear picture of who you are. Although I could make the argument that lots of abortive music careers tells us something about who you are, I don't think I would go out of my way to share that insight.</p>
<p>You really have to make the decision as to whether these things help clarify who you are and what makes you tick. Even if it seems insignificant on paper, is there something about that experience that makes it worth sharing? Or are you only putting it down merely to give an "appearance of activity and involvement" or to fill in empty spaces?</p>
<p>You might have heard people say that it's the quality, not the quantity of ECs that matters. Well, I happen to agree...but on a different basis from what I think most people are thinking. Yes, being the founder of a soup kitchen is more impressive than four chorus parts in the last four middle school musicals...and, in that sense, quality beat quantity because founding a soup kitchen is a high quality endeavor. I think applicants should also focus on the quality of the experiences in terms of how much they paint a picture of who you are. You can't change your ECs at this stage of the game. To me, the quality ECs are the ones that reveal to others something extra as to the kind of person you are. Some of these activities may fall into that category even if they aren't going to knock the socks off anyone. But my guess, from the way you couched your question, you're just wondering if you should fill in spaces with experiences that you would otherwise think of as "throwaway" ECs. Or maybe they are things that you really had given much thought about and came up with them only after racking your brain. If that's the case, I wouldn't bother with them.</p>
<p>alright that's some really useful advice. i'm definitely going to go over my ec's and consider which really can tell about who i am.
thank you sooo much. i appreciate your input a lot!</p>