The Choices Dilemma - planning your high school career

Applying to College
1

<p>I just saw a post about someone claiming they 'swamped with work' and consequently received a C in Calc. That led me to this question:</p>

<p>Given the importance of ECs, as long as an applicant challenges him/herself with their course selection, does it really matter so much if the applicant hangs around the mid to high B to low A range IF and ONLY IF they are REALLY succeeding in some EC? </p>

<p>Colleges give nationally ranked athletes a break on their grades because of their great committment to an athletic activity. Does that custom apply to kids who really work and succeed in music, art, debate, speech, etc?</p>

<p>So - let's universalize this - when figuring out how to spend your precious time in high school, do you find a nice balance b/c ECs and academics (so near the top of the class, but not on top), do you go hardcore academics (get on top of the class) and do a few but not very meaningful ECs, or do you do what I first questioned about - focus on the ECs and get low As and/or mid to high Bs?</p>

<p>I think at this point in time, we know that the 'well-rounded' idea is fallacious, and that one needs to be well rounded PLUS a nice other activity. So the question is... how far do you go in your ECs?</p>

2

<p>Let's picture this: A girl graduating at age 16, valedictorian, won a prize at the international math olympiad, hardly any ECs. Will she be admitted to HYP? Most likely.
Another scenario: A super athlete, maybe the number one nationwide in his discipline right now, top 25% of his class at a competitive school. Does he stand a chance? I guess so.
And a third case: The well-rounded guy, top 2% of class, strong leader on local level, great essays and recs. He has a reasonable chance as well.</p>

<p>My guess is that if you were to give a point-value to the strength of several parts of an application (academics, awards, ECs, minority status...), it is sufficient to reach a certain number of points overall to be admitted to the very elite schools, regardless of how these points are distributed.</p>

<p>When you look at more average (below tier one) schools, the significance of ECs dimnishes.</p>