<p>Here's the story: I'm a junior in high school looking to go to college on the East Coast or in the Midwest. I'm a good student, with a gpa of 4.0 and an ACT score of 30. I'm very interested in medicine and plan on pursuing a degree in biology as well as completing all pre-med required courses. I've got extracurricular activities that include Boy Scouts, 4 year Varsity Captain, Teaching a religious education class, 200 community service hours tutoring, and a surgical internship in which I observed operations, met with patients, evaluated scans and filed patient paperwork.</p>
<p>The extracurricular that I am most passionate about is my golf team. I come from a small charter school that has very few athletic teams. I decided, as a freshman, to start this team from scratch. I've put in so many hours making this team run, I'm worried I won't be able to convey that in a college application. </p>
<p>How do I let the adcoms know that I've worked my butt off for this team? I'm afraid that students starting varsity teams are few and far between, and adcoms won't recognize the sacrifice one makes by doing so. How do I use this extracurricular to enhance my overall application?</p>
<p>Get a letter of rec that talks about how hard you worked - that’s the best possible way.</p>
<p>But sports are pretty useless unless you seem likely to join the school’s team.</p>
<p>Getting a recc from the advisor would help as would writing your essay about what you learned through the experience of starting the team. Adcoms also know how hard it is to start a club that really is successful, not just something that exists only on paper.</p>
<p>I agree with NSM about the essay. Through your essay, you can make it obvious what kind of work you put into starting the team. As she said, focus on what you learned through the process so that the essay shows your growth as a person. Did you have any “wow” moments – wow, I can’t believe I just had a meeting with _<strong><em>; wow, I can’t believe the team has grown to xx athletes in so few years; wow, I can’t believe I overcame _</em></strong> (obstacles)? Concrete examples of your efforts and their results will help the admin folks understand why this particular activity made you proud.</p>
<p>Thank you very much. I will focus on writing an essay that conveys all of the hard work I put into the team. I will also talk to the athletic adviser soon about writing letters of recommendations.</p>
<p>Talking about activities in essays = weird as hell in my opinion. But that’s just me (and the students from the book of 50 successful Harvard essays I read).</p>
<p>I’d use my essays to convey stuff about me that other parts of the application can’t.</p>