<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? Iāve 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 ECās. 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 schoolās 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. Iām not sure which one, but Iām 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 youāre applying to HYP?</p>
<p>Well Iām 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 youāre a thespian and youāre the lead role for your schoolās play. Or maybe youāre the captain of your schoolās 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 shouldnāt hurt you.</p>
<p>Oh myā¦ reading through this thread for a bit, Iām feeling rather disheartened. Iām already a Junior in HS, but being a transfer and all means I havenāt been in any clubs for a long time.</p>
<p>Would colleges weigh in on the entire āIāve 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 donāt have many ECās. Iāve been in a couple of clubs and I play Varsity Baseball, but thatās about it. I know I need community service hours, 30 or so I believe, but do good colleges really look that hard at what youāve done outside of school? I donāt wanna be that kid who didnāt get accepted to the amazing school that my friend did because he did one or two more ECās than me. I hold a 3.5 UW GPA, and a 3.9 W as a sophomore, and Iām 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 donāt want to sound like a bad kid either, trust me.</p>
<p>0.o How does everyone find time for all of this??? Iāve 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, Iām 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 donāt feel like I could apply myself to all three activities without deteriorating, which is important because if Iām lucky Iāll hold some sort of leadership position in each.</p>
<p>Well for me, I just wanna know some cool ECās that I could look for in my school and in community service. I donāt have any hours yet, because I havenāt looked too well, but Iād like to know some interesting stuff. Iām also Jewish, so Iām not inclined to join any youth groups cause theyāre 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 schoolās 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>Iāve considered majoring in film but lately iāve been leaning more towards broadcast journalism. Yeah, maybe iāll 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 donāt have enough extracurriculars, I think. I mean, I have time to actually go on CC after school, so Iām clearly doing SOMETHING wrong lol. Does this seem like enoughā¦?</p>
<p>Speech and Debate - Extemp, LD - if Iām not captain of Extemp by senior year, Iāll be shocked, because Iām one of two freshman in Extemp at the moment.</p>
<p>School literary magazine - current Secretary, Iām actually the only freshman involved right now, so incredibly likely that Iāll 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 donāt suck but there are some amazing QBāers at my school</p>
<p>Piano - since fourth grade or so, no awards, more of a dedication thing I suppose</p>
<p>Then Iām adding (next year, too late to join either at this point :[ At least Iām just a freshie!):</p>
<p>Newspaper - writer is all Iāll 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 Iāll be an attorney someday??? Idk, this is iffy, Iām planning on joining next year though.</p>
<p>Hopefully THAT will be enough to get me into a Top 20 school. If it isnātā¦wellā¦Iāll 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 Newportās StudyHacks blog (google āZen Valedictorianā) sometime; it gives very good advice. Itās not about HOW MUCH you do; itās WHAT you do and what those activities MEAN to you. Thereās a huge difference between both.</p>
<p>Donāt join ECās if you just want to ālook 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 latterās definitely a very fun and creative activity. :)</p>