<p>i want to add on to my post above.
I only participate in one/two clubs at the moment. My grades are good, gpa of 4.28 so far. I don’t join many clubs because i’m not really interested in any of them. I’m interested in pen spinning, but there’re no pen spinning clubs. I’m wondering how having no leadership positions will affect college admissions.</p>
<p>Another person out begging for approval…</p>
<p>Is 1st nationally in the online portion of Academic Decathlon for the 3.0-3.75 UW GPA division two years running an EC I should be playing up? It’s not quite like winning first overall in the real thing, but my biggest weakness is my perceived academic work ethic, and being able to say you’re by some measure the best student among bad (relatively speaking) students seems helpful. How do I sell this?</p>
<p>What clubs can I start in school, because my school just has the basic ones like NHS, Math Honor Society, English Honor Society, Key Club.</p>
<p>Any ideas? </p>
<p>Also how do people start a charity organization, I wanted to start one , but I’m not sure how.</p>
<p>Why would someone raise 60k to open up a dog park for their eagle scout project? Seems like such a waste of charitable money.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it’s been said somewhere on this forty odd pages, but for your individual chances, it’s best to look at the type of people who are accepted from your region. That’s the best indicator of the competition you face in admissions–remember that your application is read first and foremost by your regional advisor. </p>
<p>Depending on the range of admissions for the school, this region can be as small as your county or as large as the South. Some regions are even more random, consisting of, say, Texas, Louisiana, and western Europe. (And yes, I made that up, but my college counselor did give me a random list that I can’t remember now.) If you’re from a Northeastern private school, your bar is different (not necessarily higher, as I’ll elaborate on in a second) than someone in Montana. That’s pretty basic stuff. Then you have to account for URM status, recruited athletes, legacies, etc. </p>
<p>Do remember that every school, Ivies included, look first and foremost at the transcript. Transcript. The thing that has nothing to do with how many orphans you saved in Ethiopia last summer. Do not sacrifice your grades for ECs. If you need four hours of studying a night to keep your grades up, you probably can’t be a varsity athlete and president of Darfur Club and yaddayaddayadda. Even if it’s not just a laundry list. Even if you’re saving the orphans or feeding the homeless or creating some quark generator thingamajig with a college professor (however, this would probably get you into MIT, which seems to have a refreshing affinity for the A/B student with a passion for tinkering). Look–if you don’t believe me, I have an anecdote! TASPer, national debate champ, straight up genius, phenomenal SATs…and a 2.something GPA. Rejected by the schools just below the Ivies in that lovely ranking system set up by US News and World. With the transcript, I’m not talking about microissues–if you get a B or an A- because the finals coincided with some big debate tournament or science fair or whathaveyou, okay. But getting Cs or a year’s worth of B’s because you spend every waking moment saving the world is not worth it. </p>
<p>So back to the regional thing. CCers always seem to compare the Northeast to Montana. Keep in mind that if you’re from a fairly rigorous school in the Northeast, colleges know that. They understand that your school doesn’t allow for involvement in several school activities, so they know your ECs have clout. They know your classes are intelligently designed, even if they’re not AP classes, and they know that they’re hard and that you worked your tush off for that A. If you’re from Montana, firstly, I’m sorry that you’re CC’s punchline, and secondly, you’re a hook. It’s the states in between the highly competitive and that almost unpopulated that have the most trouble proving their worth. I couldn’t tell you what your chances are anymore than any stranger. Some people on CC have an uncanny intuition for chances, but no one will deny the seemingly “lottery” style of competitive admissions. Look to your school and region as your best barometer.</p>
<p>Yeah, ECs don’t matter.</p>
<p>Are these good ECs?</p>
<ul>
<li>Internship at hospital for Pharmacokinetic lab work</li>
<li>Cancer Fund: Stride for a Cure Organizer</li>
<li>Environmental Action Group ‘Can Action’ Director</li>
<li>Student Leader/Teacher at Local Chinese School</li>
<li>Hong Kong Sports Institute Tennis Team Captain</li>
<li>School Basketball Team</li>
<li>MUN Delegate</li>
<li>Voice Magazine English Editor</li>
<li>Reporter for South China Morning Post’s “Young Post”</li>
</ul>
<p>(Should I be mentioning the duration of the ECs?)</p>
<p>And also provided that my IB predicted grade is 40+ and my SAT scores are solid (2000+), would I have a shot at some of the top tier universities?</p>
<p>I know what I’m asking is vague, but my school does not provide much support when it comes to higher education and I just need some kind of indication telling me if I’m headed in the right direction.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>what would be a prestigious journal to get a research paper published in (the paper is on childhood asthma)? how would i go about doing this?</p>
<p>This may be a random post, but I hate threads like this where they say that the only way you can get into top 10 schools is to be published in a national journal or have saved a small tribe from starvation. I think all that matter in EC’s is showing interest to get involved and interest to work at it. One of my friends goes to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern (arguably the best journalism school in the country). Her senior year, she was managing editor of our paper. That’s not even the top position within our school paper. The year before that, she was only an assistant section editor. By the time I graduate, I’ll have had more experience on the newspaper that she did, yet she’s at the top school for it. And she wasn’t even writing for our second tier local papers. She just had good grades, and still got in. </p>
<p>I also hate these threads (I know nobody’s forcing me to read them) because they make me feel like no matter what I do it’s not good enough. I’m a leader in all my EC’s, but none would be “Outstanding” or even “good” by nothstarmom’s rankings. I’m the drum major of a truly unique and world class band, next year I’ll be editor in chief or managing editor of the paper, I was vice president of my class (lost re-election…long story). I have almost no time for anything else. This week I was at school until 5:30, 8:30, 7:30, 6:15, and 10:00 due to various activities. I just can’t tand when someone tells me that’s not good enough.
[/unorganizedrant]</p>
<p>^I completely agree with you. I think that as long as you portray some unique aspect about yourself, you’ll be fine. If one portrays passion in their ecs and demonstrates that on their application, it will exemplify a unique individual. Personally, I think that if individuals can show that, they will be fine:)</p>
<p>I was wondering if I could ask for an opinion on two ECs too. I’m self-teaching mainly two languages and was wondering whether that’d count as an EC? I’m hoping to be pretty fluent by college-app time. (: I was also wondering about writing - at what point does it become an EC? When you have something published? Thanks. :)</p>
<p>Do you think colleges care if you start your ecs in your sophmore year and not your freshman year?</p>
<p>Judge these ECs for me and how much they would improve my chances at High UCs.
UCI Cosmos (State Sponsored 30 Day residential program at UC school) Computer Science
Started an Online Gaming Community made ~40000 USD in year. Paying my own way through college.</p>
<p>Anyone want to answer my question?</p>
<p>I don’t think they would care too much to be honest.
^^Also, wow! You’re teaching yourself two languages? That’s awesome! I would say writing would be considered an ec once you got something published. Maybe you could try the Scholastic writing competition?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yep! French & Russian (: And thank you for that! I can’t enter the scholastic writing competition because you have to be in a US school and there isn’t an equivelant for the scholastic uk but I’ll look for other writing contests to enter! Thank you. 
Another other opinions on whether either would count as an EC?</p>
<p>Yes, learning languages is great!! Have you looked for proficiency tests to show how well you really know them? You should include your studies in your essays if applicable, since it is hard to stand alone as an EC without any evidence of achievement.</p>
<p>I’m going to take either the AP test or the SAT II for French but Russian doesn’t have one - any suggestions? (: And I’m pretty sure it’ll feature in my essays or if not, should that be the one I expand upon in the 150 word part about an EC? Thank you! :)</p>
<p>I’d use ALL the essays to either show your strengths or mitigate your perceived weaknesses. Teaching yourslf languages is DEFINITELY a strength, and if you don’t focus on it SOMEWHERE it might get lost in the shuffle. I told GeekSon to try to focus on more social activities in the writing sections when possible because his app already shows the good stuff and he needs to mitigate the bad stuff.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if creating my own website counts as an extracurricular activity?</p>