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

<p>^ Passion and depth matters. If you are doing contests and send portfolios that will be recognized as depth just as holding leadership positions in a club does.</p>

<p>How do I convey my passion for a sport if I am not on the team at my school due to scheduling conflicts? Although I do not play the sport competitively, I have been playing it leisurely for over 5 years now. And its not important enough for me to make it the topic of my essays but I want to include it in my application as an activity that I have put a considerable amount of time practicing and playing for.</p>

<p>Would not participating in a sport affect my chances of getting into a college? Iā€™ve never had much athletic ability and it would conflict with almost all of my E.C.s.</p>

<p>What about JROTC? Is this not a good EC?</p>

<p>Ultimately, ECs are supplemental to your GPA and standardized test scores. As such, unless you can accomplish national or international recognition, dont rely too heavily on ECs. ECs do however make a deciding factor for say if 2 students are similar in stats in terms of grades and scores.</p>

<p>I was wondering what you guys thought about my ECā€™s. I have an interest in the medical field and writing.</p>

<p>President/Founder of a volunteer club that donates money to children in impoverished countries.
Section editor of community newspaper.
Vice president of schoolā€™s debate club.
Medical research at a well-known institute. (Paid)
Member/possible officer position in science competition team at school.
Member of several other clubs.
I work at a restaurant.
I volunteer 8 hours a week at a local hospital. (Will have 300+ hours by the time I apply) </p>

<p>I will participate in a medical program this summer. Iā€™m not sure which one, but Iā€™m looking at a couple right now. </p>

<p>Are these on par with schools like Stanford and Duke? I have good grades and a stellar SAT score.</p>

<p>Bump to annabel985ā€¦ Is not doing a sport a disadvantage to your app if youā€™re applying to HYP?</p>

<p>Well Iā€™m no expert on the whole deal with applying to colleges but I talked to my counselor about that just yesterday and he said that not having a sport is not necessarily a disadvantage.</p>

<p>Maybe youā€™re a thespian and youā€™re the lead role for your schoolā€™s play. Or maybe youā€™re the captain of your schoolā€™s Science Olympiad and you do 20 hours a week of independent research. As long as your passions shine through in other areas, perhaps not in sports, it shouldnā€™t hurt you.</p>

<p>Oh myā€¦ reading through this thread for a bit, Iā€™m feeling rather disheartened. Iā€™m already a Junior in HS, but being a transfer and all means I havenā€™t been in any clubs for a long time.</p>

<p>Would colleges weigh in on the entire ā€œIā€™ve changed schoolsā€ deal when looking over my applications?</p>

<p>I know I may sound like an introverted kid who hates being social (I just pretty much said the same thing twice), but I donā€™t have many ECā€™s. Iā€™ve been in a couple of clubs and I play Varsity Baseball, but thatā€™s about it. I know I need community service hours, 30 or so I believe, but do good colleges really look that hard at what youā€™ve done outside of school? I donā€™t wanna be that kid who didnā€™t get accepted to the amazing school that my friend did because he did one or two more ECā€™s than me. I hold a 3.5 UW GPA, and a 3.9 W as a sophomore, and Iā€™m only going to make that increase, because my last two years are most important. Over the summer, I expect to complete my service hours while attending camps. Is there anything extra that I could do that would look really good, without me hating it? I donā€™t want to sound like a bad kid either, trust me.</p>

<p>0.o How does everyone find time for all of this??? Iā€™ve read about people on CC who are captains of two sports teams and captain of the debate team as well. At my school, that would be practically impossible. Sports teams have mandatory practice until 5 every weekday and the debate team meets four days a week, plus tournaments almost every weekend. To do both would be an amazing feat.</p>

<p>Me, Iā€™m in debate, the literary magazine club, and Quiz Bowl. I might do Mock Trial next year, but maybe not. Honestly, much more than that would kill me and I donā€™t feel like I could apply myself to all three activities without deteriorating, which is important because if Iā€™m lucky Iā€™ll hold some sort of leadership position in each.</p>

<p>Well for me, I just wanna know some cool ECā€™s that I could look for in my school and in community service. I donā€™t have any hours yet, because I havenā€™t looked too well, but Iā€™d like to know some interesting stuff. Iā€™m also Jewish, so Iā€™m not inclined to join any youth groups cause theyā€™re all at the ym"C"a. :P</p>

<p>Can someone tell me how these ECs are?</p>

<p>-Executive Producer (top position) of my high school TV show. When audio/video/technical (in general) help is needed, people come to me.
-Technical Director of the Psychology Journal. I run the website and create the layout for the schoolā€™s psych journal, a nationally recognized journal that we ship around the country (maybe even the world). The only student-run psychology journal in the country.</p>

<p>other less important stuff:</p>

<p>Co-founder of the film club
Co-founder of the school film festival</p>

<p>also, I have a beard.</p>

<p>^ In because of your beard ;)</p>

<p>Lol no, but honestly, your passion for film making comes across pretty clearly. You could potentially write an essay on it.</p>

<p>Iā€™ve considered majoring in film but lately iā€™ve been leaning more towards broadcast journalism. Yeah, maybe iā€™ll write an essay on it.</p>

<p>Which means more:</p>

<p>Varsity Soccer</p>

<p>Nationally Ranked Marching Band #1 on the East Coast played in Lucas Oil Stadium home of the Indy Colts</p>

<p>The band, obviouslyā€¦</p>

<p>I donā€™t have enough extracurriculars, I think. I mean, I have time to actually go on CC after school, so Iā€™m clearly doing SOMETHING wrong lol. Does this seem like enoughā€¦?</p>

<p>Speech and Debate - Extemp, LD - if Iā€™m not captain of Extemp by senior year, Iā€™ll be shocked, because Iā€™m one of two freshman in Extemp at the moment.</p>

<p>School literary magazine - current Secretary, Iā€™m actually the only freshman involved right now, so incredibly likely that Iā€™ll be Editor-in-Chief as a senior</p>

<p>Quiz Bowl - minor officer position by senior year, maybe, if they feel like honoring my dedication lol. I donā€™t suck but there are some amazing QBā€™ers at my school</p>

<p>Piano - since fourth grade or so, no awards, more of a dedication thing I suppose</p>

<p>Then Iā€™m adding (next year, too late to join either at this point :[ At least Iā€™m just a freshie!):</p>

<p>Newspaper - writer is all Iā€™ll ever be, unless I sign up for this specific class that you need to be an editor. Could be worth itā€¦</p>

<p>Mock Trial - maybe Iā€™ll be an attorney someday??? Idk, this is iffy, Iā€™m planning on joining next year though.</p>

<p>Hopefully THAT will be enough to get me into a Top 20 school. If it isnā€™tā€¦wellā€¦Iā€™ll find out in three years or so, lol.</p>

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<p>No. No, no, no. This way of thinking is completely wrong and NOT AT ALL what top schools are looking for. You absolutely do NOT have to overload yourself, making yourself unable to spend time on CC or do other things that you find fun (not saying that surfing CC is funā€¦ XD) in order to get into a top school. Read Cal Newportā€™s StudyHacks blog (google ā€œZen Valedictorianā€) sometime; it gives very good advice. Itā€™s not about HOW MUCH you do; itā€™s WHAT you do and what those activities MEAN to you. Thereā€™s a huge difference between both.</p>

<p>Donā€™t join ECā€™s if you just want to ā€œlook good on paperā€. Pursue the ones you are genuinely interested about. Right now, just by looking at what you posted, it seems as though Speech and Debate, as well as the literary magazine, would be good areas of focus for you. Coming from a lit mag editor here ā€“ the latterā€™s definitely a very fun and creative activity. :)</p>