Club/Varsity Soccer 9-12- Captain, division champs, state playoffs, more individual accomplishments
Non-Profit 9-12- not going to explain(too revealing) but volunteer in different things such as events, blood drives, etc. Also teach/tutor. Very high leadership position. Essay was on this.
Science Club 10-12- cofounded and high leadership position. won science fairs and stuff. Mostly regional
FBLA 10-12- high leadership position, not many awards/accomplishments
Environmental Club 10-12- officer, nothing much
National Beta Club 10-12- officer, mainly volunteering
Summer:
Hospital Volunteer 10- selective program
STEM Research through a program in my state 11- very selective program, well known
Please try to rank these activities from 0-5, 5 being the best(harvard accept).
I think it ultimately depends on the extent of your soccer accomplishments. If you’re involved in soccer for hours everyday and have notable accomplishments, than that alone is a huge extracurricular. Your research might also be impressive, depending on what you actually accomplished. Other than that, everything else is okay, but not particularly impressive. I’d say a 2.5 overall.
Judging from other posts I see, your ECs such as the clubs and their positions… I see it all the time- and admissions officers prob have too- I’d try to differentiate myself from other applicants
@gearsstudio Soccer is the activity that takes up a lot of time for me, also have notable accomplishments. Do you think that I would be competitive(regards to EC’s) for many of the top schools(duke,etc)? I know that I don’t have a very unique list of EC’s but I hope colleges understand.
Alone, they may not be impressive. It comes down to what you accomplished in each.
Club/Varsity Soccer - Were you on the US U-21 Mens National Team? Are you a D1 recruitable athlete?
Did your Non-Profit partner with a national organization? Was your work commended by Obama? Was this organization mentioned in the Times or were you invited to appear on Good Morning America?
Did you go on to become an Intel ISEF Semifinalist through your Science Club? Did you mentor other members and help them get into ISEF as well?
FBLA 10-12- Did you go on to win national level competitions?
Environmental Club 10-12- Did you help to frame some clauses and pass legislation in the US Congress concerning environmental safety regulations?
National Beta Club 10-12- Did you establish a unique service project that was commended by the Chairman of the National Beta Club and adopted as a core project in hundreds of Beta high school clubs in state or thousands of schools across the nation?
STEM Research - Were you first author, coauthor, or second author of a publication that was published in a high-impact factor journal? Was your research published in Nature?
Of course, I am sure that not every applicant has extracurriculars like these. But, you asked for ECs that stand out, and these in my opinion are ECs that can stand out.
@PartyNextDoor Wow! Besides the non-profit partnering with national organization, I have not done any of the things you mentioned. Makes me feel stressed if these are the candidates I am competing against. Thanks for the information.
I would give your ECs overall a 2 maybe 2.5 like others have said nothing really stands out to me. The research is probably the best of your ECs but even that is normal for kids applying to top tier schools. If it comes down to ECs at those schools which it very well could because they get so many academically qualified applicants your ECs will put you at a disadvantage.
@hssenior27 I figured that they would be a disadvantage. Just curious, how do other students make themselves stand out? What activities do they do? Cure cancer?
The comments on this thread make me :-/ Of course, for admissions to top schools ECs need to stand out but the way people responded, you’d think all you did was have a membership in two typical school clubs. It’s like people don’t realize how much time these all take and even if they’re not unique, people don’t need to be so harsh.
Maybe I’m just saying this because I’m in the same boat but it’s like people on CC expect every student to cure cancer, have dinner at the White House regularly, and host some nationally recognized science fair in order to have accomplished anything in life. lol
@bksoccer7 I can’t give you a formula for how to stand out I just think the things you do aren’t all that different from other top applicants. You don’t need to cure cancer or anything like that it doesn’t need to be over the top impressive like what you responded with it just needs to be different. I’m saying this as someone who has the same sort of general ECs as you (peep my thread if you want to see) so I don’t want you to think I’m being overly harsh because that would be self-deprecating to me too. I just think there’s nothing different from any applicant to the upper echelon schools I’m sorry.
There is something important you are missing here.
Unless you are a recruited athlete or have received serious recognition in one of you activities, admissions officers could hardly care less what your ECs are or how many of them you have.
Admissions officers do care, however, about how you feel about or have learned from involvent in your ECs (as shown in essays and recs).
These guys are harsh. Tbh these are as good as school based ECs get without winning national awards. They won’t retract from a Harvard application too much as long as the rest of your app is solid.
I’d say 2.5/3 because there is almost too much variety. I say this because top tier schools like to see students focus on and be passionate about one to two things. For example, if you are interested in science they really could care less about FBLA. Low involvement in a lot of activities is actually more detrimental than having high involvement, passion and leadership in a few activities. Speaking for myself, I am interested in politics so I have done things like a Senate Program, founded a politics club, interned on a state senate campaign, volunteered as a poll worker and other leadership roles. To reiterate, less is more in this case.
@dnstudent26 What if you are not set on one passion? Colleges can’t expect every high schooler to know what they are going to do. My EC’s are basically a sport(which is more of a hobby), Business(1), STEM(2), and Community Service(4). Besides those 3 passions, I don’t think I have spread myself too thin. Also I have high involvement in each of my activities.
I understand where you’re coming from and yes you are partially correct. Obviously, most colleges don’t expect you to have your whole life planned out but you have to take in to consideration you are stating you’re applying to the best schools in the country: Stanford, U of Chicago, etc. The point I was trying to make was that students who get accepted at such prestigious schools have something that makes admission officers go “wow that kid is gonna do something great”. Admissions officers want a student who excels in something rather than being average at many things. Don’t get me wrong, however, there is nothing wrong with diversifying your interests. Community service is something that is a necessary thing but is something that should compliment your other interests.