<p>Varsity Cross Country
Varsity Track
Hospital volunteer (200+ hours)</p>
<p>I think I don't have enough ECs, but running is my passion and I dedicate a lot of time and energy into it and I usually only have weekends to do community service. I'm also a member of several school clubs and hold a few leadership positions. would my ECs be viewed as "too weak?"</p>
<p>also, I really can't do much this summer such as hold a job because I'm going to the philippines for a month (my first time visiting my homeland since birth =]!!). will that hurt me?</p>
<p>I'm not sure if this is the proper place to ask, but do colleges have any interest in accomplishments you made during middle school? At my school, there were many school-sponsored EC's offered in middle school but not in high school. For example, I won the school spelling bee in 7th and 8th grade, and was runner-up at the regional spelling bee in 8th grade. I was a member of Power of the Pen, a writing contest, in 7th and 8th grade, but there is nothing similar offered at my high school. Should I even bother to list these pre-high school accomplishments on my college application?</p>
<p>I'm personally sick of people posting "your ECs are weak" when a person has some solid ECs. We can't all build schools in Zimbabwe and intern at Harvard Med over the summer, so ****.</p>
<p>Would an online company count?
My friend and i have an online forum and company we have our own professional vids and layouts made by us.
youtube page.</p>
<p>not like a legit company obviously..
Would that count as starting own business?</p>
<p>It's alright, dont let that be your sole EC though. It's a good EC, but if that is the best EC you have then you're in trouble.</p>
<p>Is going on a mission trip for 1 week long enough to be counted as an EC? The trip is non religious and it's to help surgically repair kids with cleft pallets. I'll probably be helping change over rooms and assist with moving patients and registration.</p>
<p>Rh, I think you need to plead ignorance on this one. First of all, having only one serious activity is not a bad thing. For someone to be 20th in the country in a demanding, skilled sport (or in any sport) requires a tremendous amount of single-minded devotion that, combined with schoolwork, leaves little time for anything. Even more critical, it is not just "an EC;" It is a varsity sport at many of the top universities in the country (6 of the 8 Ivies, Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, Hopkins, Tufts and yes, MIT) and all of these schools recruit their athletes. Being in the top 20, I would think, should make you highly recruitable at least at some of those schools - and if you're a good enough student to even consider MIT, then it's likely that you would be competitive - even moreso as a recruited athlete - an all of the others. For better or worse, particularly in the Ivy League, being an athletic recruit puts you in a highly favorable position for admission (though less for a fencer than say, for a football player)</p>
<p>If the ECs are focused enough and not a laundry list, I'd say yes. When I say focused, I mean you actually try to do something with them, probably leadership position, some sort of award.</p>
<p>@Rh: It is true that that may actually be quite a good EC at the upper level schools, especially at 20th.</p>
<p>Hypothetically speaking, would it be better to do an internship (say NASA internship) over the summer or do volunteer work involving Boy Scouts. This is actually a conflict that may occur in the future, and I'm trying to figure out which would be the better choice. Right now, I'm thinking internship.</p>
<p>[thread=546604]Is this a decent EC list? ("focused five")[/thread] I'm not planning on changing it, but wondering how it would be looked at.</p>
<p>Even if fencing is your sole EC, greenenhawk, the level you're at makes you recruitable. Not only that, but colleges will highly respect the devotion you've had to that sport. To be at that level is much more difficult that a school team and they understand that it involves a lot of time. If you've balanced that with a solid academic record, you're looking at the top schools, MIT included.</p>
<p>@computergeek, I agree that an internship would be more impressive. It promotes a specific interest of yours, while Boy Scouts is something that young men of every future career can partake in. Boy Scouts is a respectable organization that promotes a lot of good things, community service being one. But that doesn't stand out quite as much as getting a likely somewhat selective internship with a prestigious organization.</p>
<p>The whole point of extracurriculars is to prove that you're not just a NERD and that's what most colleges are looking for. What I don't get is that some people exaggerate their success on their activities when writing the resume, or hide certain aspects of their activities they don't want to show. It's sorta like using the truth to lie.</p>