"Those ECs are weak...."- So what's good?

Chance Me / Match Me!
441

<p>I hope I don't get a lot of criticism for this but i have a different philosophy, which somewhat makes this forum obsolete.</p>

<p>You shouldn't be worrying about these petty things such as extracurriculars or even college. I promise you, no matter how passionate you think you are, if your goal or your dream is to go Princeton for college, you will not get there. If your dream is to build and manage a school for impoverished families and Panama, then yes, your genuine efforts will most likely lead you into one of these colleges; but if you set the bar that high, it won't matter where you.</p>

<p>I am not saying that you need to know right now what you want to do; I am a junior and don't have that much of an idea myself, but you should definitely aim higher than just getting into the most prestigious schools. Don't do something because someone else will like it, do something because you love it.</p>

<p>For example, I am learning Chinese and Arabic but my parents are Indian (I was born in the U.S.)... okay so maybe this will look good on apps, maybe not.. I don't care. I picked up these languages because I like drawing and I specifically love the writing styles of these languages. My interest in learning about other cultures, as well as my love for drawing, has led me to aspire to be in the United Nations, so this year I joined the Model UN club at my school. I worked hard all year to get into as many tournaments as I could and learn whatever I could about the actual UN. </p>

<p>So maybe I will go to a community college, maybe I will go London School of Economics, but as long as I enjoy the ride to my goal, it's not going to matter what path i take.</p>

<p>I hope I was able to get my point across.</p>

<p>Just remember, you won't think differently about a guy who went to a third-rate school if he is the one to cure cancer..</p>

442

<p>Swoop,</p>

<p>You have your head on straight. I teach, and I see my students just padding their resumes with all sorts of clubs because they believe it looks good. They believe that if you do not play a sport, no college will look at you. </p>

<p>One senior girl said that she did not think my son, who, like you, is a junior, would have any schools wanting him because he did not participate in sports. Never mind that he has stepped to his own beat, excelled in his classes, been in a leadership role for several groups and held a part-time job. He reads all sorts of novels, because he wants to read them, not because they have been assigned. He does what he wants because he enjoys it, not because it looks good. And if he does not go to the big-time school, and he's really some pressure about it from other students and teachers, that's all right, too.</p>

<p>Like you, he will never say that he did not enjoy the ride.</p>

443

<p>How do you think college would view this as an EC:</p>

<p>I am an administrator for a major Real Time Strategy (RTS) Gaming Website (<a href="http://www.gamereplays.org)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.gamereplays.org)&lt;/a>, that does news, previews and reviews, strategy articles, and a specialty service called "replay reviewing" (hence the name of the website). Players can upload replays, files that can be loaded in game and that replay a past game (sort of like watching past sports games on TV), and get them reviewed by website staff, who will offer critique aimed at improving a player. The service is completely free, as it only requires membership to the website. As you can tell from the fact that revenue from games has already surpassed revenue generated by movies, the games industry is expanding in a huge way, and my website is certainly feeling that impact in the form of increasing traffic, compounding by the fact that our name is getting out their more (the goal being to compete with sites such as IGN.com, gamespot, etc). </p>

<p>How do I come into this? Well, I have helped run the website in numerous staff capacities, most recently as an administrator, for nearly 3 years now. In those capacities, I have learned the ins and outs of website management, website traffic and advertising, and how to recruit and lead a team of staff made up of people from all over the world.</p>

<p>I have also had the fortunate opportunity to come into a high level of contact with a paid employee of EA Games, who's job is to manage the so-called "internet game community." Through this contact, I have helped run a $5000+ game tournament and raise sponsorships for numerous other tournaments that I have personally run (from getting sponsorships, to rules and planning, to advertising, to the actual tournament it-self) each with hundreds of $ of prizes. </p>

<p>I was also invited to attend a global media event prior to the release of the studio's latest title to represent GameReplays.org (the expansion for C&C3, called Kane's Wrath), where EA payed for my flight, food and (luxurious, 5-star, I might add :P) accommodations to come down to LA, CA and play their game long before the public could, as well as offer feedback on it (many of our comments were directly implemented into the game). </p>

<p>Through the website I've also written quite a few feature articles including a game review, and interviewed several of the world's best players.</p>

<p>What I'm wondering is, how do I present this to a college in the best way I can, without making it sound like I spend all day on my computer playing games and internet surfing (which is quite the contrary - I run of of time usually after doing website work and can't play)? I have plenty of other ECs, especially athletic, but I'm still worried as to how I would tell a college about this passion of mine.</p>

444

<p>Are my EC's good?</p>

<p>Mock Trial - Attorney
Debate Team
Character Counts
French Club
Key Club
NAACP Youth Council - Treasurer
Amerian Cancer Society - Treasurer
Environmental Club
Track
Cross Country
DECA
Show Choir</p>

<p>Over the summer:
Academy of Law & Leadership
Mock Trial Camp
Blank Park Zoo Volunteer</p>

<p>I want to go to Howard University in D.C. with a 3.05 GPA. Do I have a chance?</p>

445

<p>I am only involved with two clubs, however, they're not ordinary clubs like, say, ______ appreciation Club, or <insert academic="" class=""> Club that is created for AP students in the aforemented Academic class in my school.</insert></p>

<ul>
<li>Academic Decathlon - rigorous competition that is geared towards testing a well-rounded individual.</li>
<li>LEO service club - 80 hours/semester. ~3xx hours total</li>
</ul>

<p>I've accumulated a plethora of medals from Decathlon. (:</p>

<p>Acadec / Scholastic medals
[Various Regional and State Competitions]
- 1st Super Quiz x3 I loveeeeeee Super Quiz.
- 1st Science x2
- 4th Science x1 I still wore that ugly, pink ribbon with pride!
- 1st Literature x2
- 2nd Literature x1
- 1st Art x3
- 3rd Speech/Interview x1
(my math scores were detestable)</p>

<p>Non-Club Activities:
- GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) 3 years
- Various artwork displayed in district VAPA festivals
- freelance 'opinion writer' in school newspaper
- student government/legislative involvement</p>

446

<p>Does an internship count as volunteer? I don't have as many volunteer hours as I'd like an I'm interning this summer.</p>

447

<p>@somegirl I relaly think you should look at some of the past posts, like people have said many times earlier, it's not how many activities you have, it's how dedicated you are to them, how much time you spent on it and if the club actually interests you. I think that it is quite impossible to be dedicated to all of the clubs you have listed as we only have so many after school hours lol. So my advice is to pick 2 or 3 clubs that you are really dedicated to and you will be fine. =]</p>

448

<p>How do these look for someone applying to school for FILM:</p>

<p>In my Community Health class, which is an Honors version of health sort of like "peer educators" we took a once a week course on Breast Cancer and Cigarette Smoking's Effect on the Body, and taught it to students and teachers around the school which took up a whole class. For the Cigarette Smoking lesson I edited a video for the presentation.</p>

<p>And how does the New York Film Academy summer program look in regards to ECs?</p>

449

<p>This question has been asked a few times, but no one has really answered it. I'm wondering if anyone could give any insight on how foreign language-based EC's are evaluated. Specifically:</p>

<p>--How does it look if you learn a foreign language on your own outside of school/take classes at a local college or community center? Do colleges view this as a substantial achievement? Will they want some sort of proof of achievement if you learn it at an institution that doesn't give grades (local community center, for-pleasure adult ed classes, etc)?</p>

<p>--For those of us not taking Latin and thus unable to get JCL awards, how do colleges weigh similar awards for other foreign languages? AATSP for Spanish/Portuguese, AATG for German, le Concours for French...I've regularly won my division in the state (not a large one) and ranked 3rd, 4th, and 5th nationally in two different languages. Will colleges be impressed by this?</p>

<p>I love foreign languages, and I'll continue to pursue these activities regardless of their pull in the college application process. It's just that they (along with foreign language honor societies, foreign language clubs, and foreign language-oriented volunteering) make up a pretty significant portion of my resume, and I'm wondering how colleges will view that. And it seems as if more than a few other people have asked similar questions (to no avail) in the past.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

450

<p>Just a hint out there for all you in MUN, it's not about how many conferences you go to---it's how you do at the conferences + leadership. So, instead of focusing on joining the club, focusing on excelling. :)</p>

451

<p>I don't rthink I properly understood the whole concept of EC?
What I basically want to know, do</p>

<p>-self-study Japanese with now real proof of proficiency so far
-Drama-class(in my school we can only take it as a class, and get graded for our performance. Still it requires a lot of after-school time for rehearsals and stuff)
-Choir(Same as with drama, though not that time-consuming)
-Writing(I write poems and stuff since I'm 13, mostly for myself, didn't really publish anything, am still waiting for the outcome of europa-wide writing-competion)</p>

<p>count as ECs? </p>

<p>On some threads I saw others asking similar questions, yet they got different answers. Could somebody maybe answer my question or explain to me, why they do/do not count as ECs?</p>

452

<p>@ _silence
while your activities are interesting, I think only drama class and choir count as ECs only IF you participate in shows outside of the class period (ie. your class puts on a production for the school)
studying jap and writing aren't really 'ECs' but more like hobbies. I dont think they're ECs because they dont really 'benefit' others except yourself. [I know that the definition of EC doesn't necessarily mean something that helps others, but that's what it usually is] You can make your passion of jap and writing into ECs by starting a club at your school or teaching Jap to elem. students or something. However, they are good topics to write about on college essays.</p>

453

<p>@sushifureak
Yeah we the whole point(or part of it) in Drama and Choir at my school is to have something, that can be presented at the end of the school year, at one or two nights. Normally for everyone who is interested.
Yeah and I thought that writing and self-studying japanese are probably just hobbies, well whatever, that doesn't make them less likeable for me or something. </p>

<p>Thanks a lot.</p>

454

<p>To reassure any obsessive people (especially students in their summer before senior year--because I remember how that was) who think they need to cure cancer to get into HYP, I got into Princeton and Yale and was wait-listed at Harvard--and I'm from the urban Northeast, not a URM (I'm Asian) and come from an adversity-free middle-class background.</p>

<p>My extracurriculars mostly involved officer positions at school clubs and one or two local pre-established community service programs. I didn't do any selective summer programs and wasn't in student government. I had a number of B's on my report card.</p>

<p>It's all about the essay. Take an ordinary academic or extracurricular experience you've had and make it extraordinary and memorable. Or alternately, try to turn a weak point in your application into a strength or at least, an interesting, memorable quirk.</p>

455

<p>I'm kind of a special case - I'm not in any clubs or organizations at my school, but have won quite a few honors in activities that I'm involved in OUTSIDE of school. I dedicate a significant amount of time to them per week. But will colleges necessarily view my lack of participation in school-sponsored activities as a bad thing?</p>

456

<p>^ I second that question.</p>

457

<p>^ I third that question.</p>

458

<p>To the three above posters: distinguishing yourself in outside-of-school activities is great, and these activities count as "extracurriculars," too. I don't think that it will be a huge disadvantage that you're not involved in activities in school, but are you sure there aren't any school-sponsored clubs in areas of interest that you would enjoy and to which you could contribute?</p>

<p>Here's my unrelated question, x-posted from a Brown thread because I'm lazy:</p>

<p>What if your extracurriculars don't demonstrate passion in one area, just... dabbling in several areas of interest?</p>

<p>My ECs are all over the place and I haven't done anything extraordinary with any of them. I join clubs in my areas of interests and have very few "leadership" positions (none as of now, but a few potential ones have been offered to me senior year. I hate the idea of getting leadership positions just for the sake of having them, but especially as a senior, I'd love to be a part of keeping clubs organized and active.) I'm on Math Team and in Art Club; I participate in computer programming competitions and was a member of Photography Club and Literary Magazine for two years (until the meeting dates conflicted with other clubs); I'm part of a program that donates computers to needy students and helps them learn to use them; I'm in the French Honor Society, Art Honor Society, and NHS; I've taken classes over the summer in areas of interest; etc.</p>

<p>I know that colleges in general hate to see a "laundry list" of extracurricular activities, and at first I planned on focusing (in my applications) on one or two of my more important activities (PCs4Kids is very rewarding, Art Club is a fun way to practice my love of art and use it to help out in the community), as seems to be the preferred method according to the general consensus in this thread: elaborate upon one or two passions and what you've done with them. But then I decided that it would be more honest and representative of me to present myself as having used my spare time to participate in ECs in all sorts of areas of interest to me. I want to write my extracurricular essay about how participating in all sorts of activities, even though I didn't pour a bunch of time into any particular one, has been rewarding because I've used my HS time to explore my (multiple) passions.</p>

<p>My biggest passion relevant to my studies is cognitive neuroscience -- but as I just decided in the middle of last year (my junior year) that this was what I wanted to study, I haven't done anything in that field. This summer, I'm taking a two-week course at Summer@Brown on the nervous system; also, next school year I'm going to secure an internship (my school system has a great intern-mentor program) with a scientist who does at least somewhat-related work. But besides these two things, I'm not gonna have any activities that demonstrate my interest in the subject.</p>

<p>Anyways, I just want to know what you guys think about the whole not-doing-anything-big-but-having-lots-of-interests thing. :/ I hope I haven't screwed myself over for college admissions by, you know, spending my spare time doing things I like! -___-</p>

459

<p>What if your extracurriculars don't demonstrate passion in one area, just... dabbling in several areas of interest?</p>

<p>I don't think most schools are expecting high school seniors to know exactly what they want to do in life--some level of dabbling is probably expected. However, I think it would be to your benefit to find some kind of overarching theme to your interests, academic and non-academic. This theme doesn't necessarily have to be art or business or something career-focused but you should seem to have some kind of direction.</p>

<p>For example, my ECs were all over the place too but because I decided before applying that my interest was journalism, I tried to relate my different experiences (none of which were organized around one theme at all) to communication. For example, I wrote about how an internship I did at a psychology lab helped me develop a more scientific understanding of how people communicate. Use essays, the common app question on your most meaningful EC and other short answers to demonstrate how your maybe scattered and unambitious-seeming list of ECs (I'm not saying yours' are but mine's were) have helped you discover your interests and skills.</p>

460

<p>lala 10 chars</p>