Question about extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

<p>the way i see it, judging someone's GPA and SAT scores are pretty straightforward. for the ivies, having a 4.0 and a 2250+ is the ideal threshould.</p>

<p>But the ec's are a different story.</p>

<p>all over CC, I see a ton of people that participate in a million school clubs and hold impressive "leadership" positions (president, secretary). if i want to make my ec's look impressive, do i need to have one or two school clubs that i actively participate in?
Is Taekwondo a strong enough EC to stand alone? </p>

<p>I am a 3rd degree black belt and have been doing taekwondo for 12 years.
I'm a 3-time state champion, and placed 4th at Nationals.
Last summer, i spent a grueling 6 weeks in Korea, where i trained with a top Korean high school Taekwondo team, living in a dorm with my "teammates" lol.</p>

<p>Since freshman year, I have been an instructor at my Dad's taekwondo school. I teach classes and work with 4-12 year olds. (about 5 hrs a week) </p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>Your ECs can be impressive without any school-sponsored activities or clubs. It sounds like you’re rather passionate about Taekwondo and that you spend much of your time involved in it in some way. Thus, it can stand alone as a major EC.</p>

<p>When I say “stand alone,” I don’t mean that you’re likely to get away with having done nothing else. I mean that you don’t have to have much else, but it would still help to mention a few other things you’ve done. That said, don’t do anything you don’t want to do just to put it on an application. It sounds like you’ve had varied involvement in Taekwondo and thus can occupy many of the EC spaces with Taekwondo-related activities.</p>

<p>When you’re trying to sell your ECs with only one strong EC, the best method (in my opinion) is to write your Common App essay (and main essay for schools that aren’t on the Common App) on that one strong EC. It’s extremely logical in theory, and it worked in practice for me :).</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>The question about impressive ECs comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How</a> to Be Impressive](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-art-of-activity-innovation-how-to-be-impressive-without-an-impressive-amount-of-work/]How”>The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save</a> This Grind?](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/09/12/case-study-how-could-we-save-this-ridiculously-overloaded-grind/]Save”>Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.</p>