<p>I am looking to apply to top tier schools. </p>
<p>300+ hours of community service at a camp for mentally disabled persons
2 years of NHS
4 years of Key Club, pretty active (many community service activities)
4 years of recreational basketball
4 years of academic team
Internship at Grameen Bank (2006 nobel peace prize) in Bangladesh working with microlending
Intership at Brac Bank in Bangladess
*I may get a summer job at a standard fast food resteraunt</p>
<p>Other than my two internships, my extracurricular activities seem weak. I would really appreciate if you could comment on my activities and if they are a strong or weak point of my application all things considered equal. More so, i plan on majoring in engineering and i dont have any related activities. Will this make my application look weak as it is more econ based.</p>
<p>Listen, there’s no such thing as “rating” extracurriculars. To put it simply, all colleges want to see is that you have done something that’s NOT related to academics or used your academics to do something more than acing a test. It seems that colleges won’t really care about your EC’s unless you show a genuine passion for in your essays, interviews, etc. Your internships are impressive (of course, it depends on the competition that’s there to get in) but show that you are interested in them and have a passion for them by talking about them in your essays. I just reread your post and I saw that you have a passion for engineering. I don’t think it will necessarily hurt you that you didn’t do much in math and/or science, and so they would heavily weight your math and science grades in high school as well as your math scores on the SAT/PSAT. Also, by top tier schools, that still doesn’t clarify what sort of schools as there really isn’t a set “tier system” in colleges, unless you mean the US News rankings, which really aren’t that helpful at the end of the day. If you’re looking at the tippy top schools like HYPSM, then those extra-curricalars are a bit weak, but if you have nice grades and scores, you’ll still stand a shot. Good luck!</p>
<p>" all colleges want to see is that you have done something that’s NOT related to academics or used your academics to do something more than acing a test."</p>
<p>Actually most colleges just want to see applicants with good stats. If applicants have good ECs, community service, etc., that’s icing on the cake that may lead to merit aid from colleges that offer it.</p>
<p>You’ll have to tie those activities in with your essays. Leadership roles are also important so those could be stressed in essays if you organized any efforts in volunteering. If you want a rating though, I’d have to say average for the types of schools you’re looking at.</p>