<p>How important is involvement in school clubs? Can you get into a top school without doing clubs? </p>
<p>I play a sport at school, and outside of school in a club, spend lots of hours refereeing that sport and training and teaching kids that sport. I spend AT LEAST 20 hours a week involved in all of this, and along with 6 AP classes, i just don't have time to participate in clubs at school. </p>
<p>(Most of the time I just sleep during lunch because I'm too tired after hours of intense training and homework)</p>
<p>So will not doing any clubs affect my chances of getting into a top school? (ivy league, etc)
Also, how many leadership positions is a good amount? A lot of kids at my school have like 10+ leadership positions, president of 3 clubs, vp of 4 clubs, treasurer of 2 clubs, etc etc.
I, on the other, hand only have 1... :(
I've been the captain of my school team for the past 3 years, but that's about it.</p>
<p>Sorry if I made it long. To sum it up, does it look bad if a student isn't involved in clubs? And is it bad if the student only has 1 leadership position and 1 extracurricular activity?</p>
<p>It’s hard to say exactly how many clubs one needs to be in because there has to be a balance. The main thing admissions offices look at for clubs is not only leadership but passion. Your passion for the sport is clear, but you could have variegated more. If you explain the commitments that you had being involved in that sport, you would demonstrate a passion that those crazy club leaders at your school don’t have which you can use to your advantage when writing the essay.</p>
<p>The question about impressive ECs comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with comments by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. Since this is what you say you’re aiming for, reading thru that thread will tell you what top colleges think about what you’re doing. 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</a></p>
<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>