<p>Have worked at a local grocery store since the end of 8th grade, promoted to Front End Manager (16-ish hours a week, 30-ish in summer)
Volunteer at Animal Shelter- participate in fundraisers, fostering dogs, etc.-since beginning of junior year, 30+ hours overall
British Virgin Islands Service Trip (Summer 2010- 3 weeks, 100+ community service hours)- recieved Presidential Bronze Community Service Award
Joined Latin Club for junior year
Won 2 medals in the 200m in Spring Track (9th grade)
Played on JV then Varsity Basketball team (11th and 12th)
Played DAA Basketball and Beach Volleyball 3 consecutive years
Did Ski Club 4 consecutive years
Joined NSHSS (not sure if this hurts or helps me since I paid for it...)
Raised about 1000 dollars for Muscular Dystrophy Association and about 500 for Breast Cancer through a hot dog stand every Saturday in April for 2 years
Student of the Marking Period in Honors Chemistry and AP Calc AB</p>
<p>First let me ask you this: What colleges are you applying to? For some, your ECs are stellar. For others, they’re average. Let me explain.</p>
<p>The grocery store is GREAT. The promotion looks very good, shows dedication, and on top of that you’re getting paid :). The Animal Shelter volunteering looks OK, but it’s nothing to swoon over. The Service Trip looks GOOD. I would say mediocre, but the fact that you won an award pushes it up to the next level. Honestly, anyone can pay for a ticket and fly down to an underprivileged country, but your award kind of makes up for that.</p>
<p>The Latin Club has to go. If you didn’t do anything significant, don’t put it. The Track looks alright…do you still continue running? If not, it could actually look bad if you don’t have a legitimate reason as to why you’re not continuing to run, especially with your awards (this may also bring down the legitimacy of the awards). </p>
<p>Basketball looks solid. Nothing to swoon over again, but definitely good. Beach volleyball looks pretty different from the norm, so that’s definitely something you’d want to mention.</p>
<p>Ski Club is definitely interesting, but what have you done? Did you win any races? Did you host any fundraisers? If not, then it looks like an item on a laundry list.</p>
<p>NSHSS (Idk what this is…), but if you paid for it, it’s probably not worth it.</p>
<p>The Hot Dog stand is INCREDIBLE. I say this because it’s something significant that you’ve done to help our your community. If you’re passionate about it and/or write your essay on it, then it’s definitely an eye-catcher.</p>
<p>Idk what the Student of the Marking Period thing is…please enlighten me haha</p>
<p>Anyways, if I were to rank you on a scale of 1-10 (which is very hard to do for ECs, but I’ll attempt it anyways), I’d give you this:</p>
<p>Top-50 school: 8/10
Top-20 school: 7/10
Ivy-League/Top-10: 5-6/10</p>
<p>Hope this helped! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!</p>
<p>Wow, that was EXTREMELY helpful! About the Student of the Marking Period award, it is an award given to the student with the highest grade in the class every marking period (in my case it means twice a year). I wouldn’t say it’s that great, but it shows my distinction in my classes maybe? </p>
<p>As for Ski Club, it was just school-sponsored trips to the nearest mountain to go snowboarding… Not really considered a “sport” per say… But since then snowboarding has become my favorite hobby</p>
<p>I think its definitely a good idea to scratch Latin Club, track, and NSHSS, but if it asks for athletic involvement on the applications i shouldn’t even mention that i did track in 9th grade?</p>
<p>Also I did Relay For Life for 2 years (which involved raising 100 dollars each year), which isn’t that great either but is still okay to put right?</p>
<p>And I’ve just recently decided my list of colleges:
Berkeley
Duke
University of Michigan
McGill University
UCSD
Boston U
Lehigh University
Georgia Tech</p>
<p>If you wouldn’t mind I’m going to post my stats and you can tell me which ones are the best fits for me (believe me I know Berkeley and Duke are a HIGH reach but nevertheless…) Don’t worry this is totally not necessary if you don’t want to/ don’t have the time don’t bother!</p>
<p>GPA (unweighted): 3.89
GPA (weighted): 4.09
SAT: 2090 (660M, 730CR, 700W)
SATII: (750Math2, 750Phsyics, 800French)</p>
<p>Will have taken 8 AP’s by my senior year (Macroeconomics, European History, US History, American Lit, Calc AB, Calc BC, Physics C, French) and in all the hardest classes available
Have received A’s all throughout high school except for B+ in Euro, B in US, and B in Honors 10th grade English (struggled with teacher)
AP exams:
Calc AB: 5
US History: 3
European History: 3
Planning to get 5’s on all Ap exams I’m taking this year (b/c I’m a braniac in math/science and struggle w/ History)
High School doesnt rank, but almost positive I’m in at least top 10%
Teacher Rec’s are great, same with essays</p>
<p>For track… where did you win those two medals? If state - then mention that, if it’s not state or another equally important meet, then I feel like there’s almost no point in mentioning it. Almost everyone wins medals sometime (no offense).</p>
<p>You’re right, it was just at a regular meet so I probably shouldn’t mention that at all. But can I still say I did track in 9th grade under athletic involvement or no…</p>
<p>If there’s a spot where you can list your athletic involvements then I would - I mean you did do it. (:</p>
<p>Right that’s what i was thinking, thanks! What about history day? I mean I participated in it but didn’t get any awards or anything and the project was very time consuming</p>
<p>if your history project is worth mentioning, you would have won an award 
. You’re EC’s look pretty decent, and don’t underestimate the power of working for many hours a week; I also have a year-round job, and know that it can limit involvement elsewhere.</p>
<p>These are good enough. Stop worrying</p>
<p>McGill would be a match, Boston University would be a safety in my opinion.</p>