Strength of Extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

<p>Do you think that these Extracurriculars along with grades that are around the average of what strong Ivy League schools accept would at least keep me in the running? Keep in mind that I'm going to become a Political Science major.
Extracurriculars (expected by time of application) are as follows:
National Honor Society
Tri-M (Music Honor Society)
French Language Honor Society
French Club
Junior Class
Senior Class
Interact Club
Leadership Club
Newspaper Writer
Science Olympiad
Please critique honestly and do not be afraid to voice criticisms!</p>

2

<p>I will be applying to NYU, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Cornell, and Dartmouth.</p>

3

<p>So long as you’re not sitting on the couch playing computer games, every extracurricular you (or anyone else) does is absolutely fine for ivy leagues schools – with two disclaimers. (1) All selective colleges are interested in students who are committed to the EC’s no matter what they are. You haven’t indicated the number of years you’ve been doing each activity, so it’s difficult to judge your commitment. (2) Currently your EC’s look very similar to lots of other students who will be applying to colleges, so the biggest weakness right now is you look too much like everyone else – nothing is jumping out and making me go “Wow, that’s something not too many other kids do!”</p>

4

<p>Thank you @gibby, I will definitely work on acquiring more leadership positions and setting myself apart, which is a difficult task in a school district that is constantly threatened by budget cuts.</p>

5

<p>Do you have anything outside of school that you can do? Perhaps a summer job?</p>

6

<p>@AnnieBeats‌ I am going to try to work at a law firm during the summer, and I’ll also try to get a regular job.</p>

7

<p>The way you presented your ECs looks just like a bunch of clubs but does not really show your contributions or something special about you. If I were you I would try to emphasize more. Did you do something unique in any of those clubs? From what you mention I would also elaborate more about the newspaper writer. What did you write about and what type of newspaper? Is not so much the names of the clubs as your role in them. Try to personalize more. For example you could be the literature, scholarly type or the journalist/foreigner affairs type or whatever. Use your EC to show a bit of who you are and your personality. </p>

8

<p>I also agree that you should aim to get some leadership positions in clubs you are involved with. Schools tend to look for depth of involvement rather than how many clubs/honor societies a person is a member of.</p>

9

<p>The question about impressive EC’s comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>As you will see from that link, at the most selective colleges they are looking for depth more than just participation. Stanford, for example, says

Looking at yours, it looks like you joined a bunch of things but don’t have the leadership or accomplishment that elite colleges will look for. </p>