<p>I'm freaking out as I skim through the "chance me!!!" threads in this place - everyone has won thousands of awards and are presidents of this and that club. My ECs are rather pathetic in comparison, as I haven't done anything for more than 2 years and although I had the chance to be on a 4-year varsity sports team, I gave it up because I didn't enjoy the sport as much as another. How much are lousy ECs going to hurt my chances at top schools like Columbia, UPenn, and UCLA? </p>
<p>Apart from that, I think my scores and abilities are pretty solid - 4.1 unweighted GPA, 2260 SAT I (yes, on the low side, will probably retake in Oct), 780 SAT Math II, 760 SAT Lit, 760 SAT Chem, IB diploma at a (sorta) prestigious international school in China, strong writing skills. Could this make up for the shoddy ECs? </p>
<p>Also, I'm Chinese. Why do I feel like that's a disadvantage?</p>
<p>ECs are important, but they vary based on the student and what they have to offer.</p>
<p>in general international students are involved less because those opportunities are not as valued than at american schools.</p>
<p>ECs usually come in the form of offering three things - 1) demonstrated leadership, 2) demonstrated skill or talent in a non-academic way, 3) demonstrated skill in an academic way. For the later two either longevity of commitment or awards showcase this. as for leadership Columbia and Ivies are seeking self-starters and not just followers, so leadership remains important.</p>
<p>As is your stats are pretty run of the mill for a columbia applicant, including kids that get denied each year. No being Chinese doesn’t put you at a disadvantage per se.</p>
<p>But here is a hypothetical - suppose there are two students with the exact same scores, but one student is only slightly involved and the other is more heavily involved in school, who would you admit? And all things being equal Columbia and UPENN (can’t speak for UCLA) will take the kid who has the good stats and the involvement. Though I should say admission to a school like Columbia or UPENN is still very difficult for someone who has 4 year commitments, it really is hard to get into these schools: don’t know how much more I can emphasize this.</p>
<p>The academic end-around: I hark on this to students a lot on here, the one way to make up for some slightly shoddy ECs is to truly, unbelieveably and fully engage academically with a subject. Schools like Columbia are schools first, activities places second. Students ought to showcase themselves as a true academic powerhouse in their school, complete with research above and beyond what is asked of their classwork - IB lets you do this with the Extended Essay. Take advantage of it. This is of course not a guaranteed way, but it is certainly a means of helping stand out.</p>
<p>Your problem? I’m assuming you’re a rising senior, it is kind of hard to invent a past that you don’t have.</p>
<p>theyre like the proverbial icing on the cake; they can’t stand by themselves, in the same way a pile of spectacular extracurriculars and mediocre academics wont get you in. However it sure makes your overall application nicer, your presented as a rounded person…someone ready to contribute to the school and wont just live in their dorm 24/7 and as admissionsgeek stated it showcases your leadership skills and so on. If someone is also able to maintain a high academic standard and be heavily involved in extracurriculars they will probably theoratically be better able to handle a college workload than someone who is doing about the same academically but isnt doing much otherwise.</p>
<p>I’d say you should start a club about something you’re passionate about! I’m kind of in the same situation as you (Asian…mediocre ECs/stats although I do have one really impressive EC). But I got an idea from a girl at my school who started a Green Club last year. They picked up trash around the school, got the school to start recycling, handed out trees, etc. That combines community service, leadership, passion, and an EC all in one!</p>
<p>wildflower - i appreciate what you brought to this forum, but i am going to bring a bit of admissions reality based on some experience here. the girl who started the Green Club, that idea wont really wow an Ivy adcom. its interesting, but lacks panache.</p>
<p>and inherent in this struggle of making your life about admissions is the fact that something that appears dishonest or half-hearted, is looked down skeptically.</p>
<p>one thing is to recycle in your school - let’s scale it up? in your town, in your city? there are huge green beautification campaigns started by citizens in china. that’s true leadership.</p>
<p>thousands of kids start something every year with the hopes of impressing adcoms, thousands are denied quibbling, why? i did what you wanted. if you really think that green causes are a critical issue, don’t be pedantic about the solution. and that’s hard to balance - the scope of the solution with the massive effort it takes to start something.</p>
<p>this doesn’t mean you have to be an international star, there are small things wrong at every high school in the world where a dedicated persons efforts can drastically improve the lives of their fellow students, community members or the like. </p>
<p>the hardest part wildflower and OP is deciding what that issue is for you, how you wish to attack it, and how are you going to make your efforts different than any thousand Green clubs in the world. and that’s what takes for something to be an impressive EC.</p>
<p>often it is far easier not to start something, but to perfect something - make the newspaper award winning (such that the advisor says you were the best person ever), take over some sort of community event and make it bigger. instead of remaking infrastructure, reusing it.</p>