<p>How are these ECs/potential hooks? I’m looking at applying to MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, and a few safeties. </p>
<ul>
<li>Created and led a jazz ensemble that played music and collected donations to help clean water development in Sub-saharan Africa.<br></li>
<li>Taught myself calculus I in 11th grade and took Calculus II and III along with General physics I and II (calculus based) at community college as a senior.<br></li>
<li>Taught the nuclear science merit badge at merit badge college for boyscouts. (Usually this would be done by someone who has worked in that field for years, not a 17 year old kid).<br></li>
<li>Wrote a paper on string theory that I hope to send in as a supplemental material.<br></li>
<li>Eagle scout.<br></li>
<li>President or equal leadership position of three organizations/sports teams.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Which (if any) of those would really stand out to admissions officers at the sort of colleges I listed?</p>
<p>I’m being forced to choose between my two favorite after school activities - Forensics (Speech and Debate) and our school literary magazine. =(</p>
<p>The whole reason it’s an issue at all is because Forensics is actually a class at my school, except “class” is after school every day Mon.-Thurs. If I ever want to hold a leadership position, I have to enroll in Forensics as a class and attend every day. But the literary magazine meets on Wed. after school, which would prevent me from taking the class.</p>
<p>What should I do? I love both activities, though I couldn’t live without Forensics (haha dork ;P). If I continue in the literary magazine, I will almost certainly be EIC by senior year; a leadership position in Forensics is less certain. Choosing Forensics means I’ll have to quit my staff position on Crescendo and maybe leave Amnesty International; I can still participate in Forensics even if I’m not in the class. Since I’m in bad need of a tiebreaker, which will help me more in the college admissions process?</p>
<p>Wow–our interests are nearly identical lol.</p>
<p>How competitive is your school’s debate team? Since it meets so frequently, I imagine it does well. If you have the chance to be competitive on the national debate circuit, I would take it in a heartbeat. </p>
<p>Is there absolutely no way you could skip debate on Wednesdays for lit mag? Sports at my school (which have incredibly stringent daily attendence requirements not unlike debate for you) usually allow kids to miss one practice a week for another EC.</p>
<p>My school debate team does not frequent the national circuit, though I do know of individuals who have gone to Harvard, Stanford, etc for their debate tournaments. But for a small school and a relatively small team, our school is VERY competitive locally. We sent ~10 people to NFL Nationals this year. IC, I have a good shot at NFL Nationals, but not the national circuit.</p>
<p>No, there is not. :-[ Ultimately, I think I’ll have to forgo the Forensics class. I can’t bring myself to leave the literary magazine. Confusingly, I can apparently still take Forensics as an Independent Study next year and be absent on some days, but - and this is a new rule - captains have to enroll in the class full time. There are actually a lot of funky qualifications that our coaches our introducing for next year, and there’s a lot of talk that things will revert back to normal afterwards.</p>
<p>Ugh. I still wish I could do both, but honestly, would being Captain of Extemporaneous Speaking or Lincoln Douglass Debate really get me into Stanford? I’m hesitantly of the opinion that EIC of the lit mag would be more impressive anyway.</p>
<p>lol, I consider nats to be part of the national circuit. </p>
<p>No, being captain of extemp or whatever will not get you into Stanford in and of itself, but a heavy commitment to debate, one that includes both awards and leadership, could. Nonetheless, it sounds like lit mag is the direction you want to go. Just make sure you extend your interest in writing beyond lit mag. Plenty of HYPS aspirants are editor-in-chief of their school’s lit mag, but fewer are also competitive in writing competitions like Scholastics or work regularly with a local professor of English.</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m not very familiar with all the online terminology lol. Then, yes, we are VERY competitive. Last year, one of our Policy teams placed 9th nationwide.</p>
<p>I have a huge commitment to debate (obviously), and I’m still hoping the rules chance so that I can hold a leadership position. (Or, perhaps, the lit mag will begin meeting in the evenings. We already do for a portion of every year.) Still, we do vote on our captains, so it’s sort of a popularity contest, and I honestly don’t know whether I’d win anyway. :-/</p>
<p>I’ve applied to newspaper, I’ve submitted to local writing contests (Scholastic next year), and I’m attending the Sewanee Young Writer’s Conference this summer, so part of the reason I don’t want to give up lit mag is because I have other stuff going for me. =)</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice, though. I really needed an objective observer to help me figure this one out.</p>
<p>MissxSilverwing
I think it sounds like you made the right choice… if you weren’t completely sure you were going to get a leadership position, it’s better not to take the risk, and just do the lit mag, since you have writing talent and you enjoy it. Nonetheless, hopefully the rules will change and you’ll be able to do both. Your depth of involvement looks very good too, so hopefully you’ll get into the colleges you want to.</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, I have a question, I’m hoping someone will know the answer or give some good advice? Thank you very much to everyone who contributes! :)</p>
<p>Almost all my EC’s and awards are from orchestra (11th grade now), but I have come to strongly dislike the class, the teacher, and the pointless 4 hour rehearsals.
I’ve done it for 3 years in high school so far and reached a state-ranked level.</p>
<p>So how will it look if I quit orch for AP music theory? I’m genuinely interested in music theory, and scheduling conflicts force me to choose between the two.</p>
<p>It’s still music-related so I’m not completely “quitting,” and I’m not slacking off since all my other classes are AP’s that I am very interested in. I’ve also been told that colleges don’t place as much emphasis on senior year classes, since you send in apps during 1st semester.
Quitting also solidifies my top 10 spot [out of 615 in my class], and if I don’t quit, I risk dropping out of top 10.</p>
<p>Any thoughts? I appreciate any advice, experience, stories.</p>
<p>Big one/hook: spending my senior year abroad with Rotary</p>
<p>Orchestra - I’ve played cello since 4th grade (junior now) and I’ve been in the school orchestra every year. I’m the principal cellist.
String Ensemble - I’m principal cellist of the school string ensemble. We play around the community for charity and money. Last year, we went to Germany and Austria to play.
String Quartet - A friend and I started a string quartet and we play for community service mainly
Political Campaign - I worked on a local judicial campaign for the primary and general elections
Amnesty International - as active as I can be, but we don’t do all that much.
Boy Scouts - I made it to the rank of Star Scout and I was a patrol leader.</p>
<p>As far as awards go, I made it to the District level with my cello playing (was 11/100 or so people) and won a Scholastic Gold Key for a shot story I wrote freshman year.</p>
<p>How are these? Not too many, but a lot of leadership and dedication.</p>
<p>Wrestling-Captain, have won most dedicated overall wrestler two years in a row, most dedicated freshman my first year. I lift during the summer and spring at least three days a week, and go to a school in the fall, and obviously the season is in the winter. Last season I went 21-15, I am looking to finish at least top 3 in sectionals this year.</p>
<p>Track & Field-Just started this year, on JV, but having fun</p>
<p>Spanish Honors Society-Member since second semester sophomore year, just got voted president yesterday :)</p>
<p>NHS: Just got in, but I was co-volunteer coordinator for the blood drive we just ran. I will be running for president and hopefully I will win</p>
<p>Volunteered 60 hours at a Jewish preschool and a jewish community center</p>
<p>This summer I will be traveling to Paraguay for 6 weeks to live in a rural community with a host family, help build stoves, and work on community based initiatives.</p>
<p>@WiscoKid: I hate to say that your EC’s aren’t screaming “Ivy” to me (if that’s what your aiming for). You’re obviously doing really well at wrestling (and track?) but aside from that you’re a bit lacking. Honestly, NHS is basically expected if you want a good shot, so it’s not going to stand out. :-/</p>
<p>But if you’re NOT going for Ivy or another top college, then I’m sure you’ll get into a perfectly decent college. :)</p>
<p>Also…are you participating in Amigos de las Americas, by any chance? I plan on volunteering summer 2011 (too young this year >.<) and I’m SUPER excited. Have fun! =D</p>
<p>@0705283: A quick thanks for your commentary on my situation. =) As for your dilemma…imho, you should stick it out in orchestra, since you’re state ranked (I admittedly have no idea how impressive this is). Will there really be that much of a difference between the Top 10 and Top 20? It’s my understanding that most colleges unweight GPA anyway.</p>
<p>Besides, you could always self-study for AP Music Theory. With orchestra, you don’t have the luxury of that option.</p>
<p>Missx, yes I am doing Amigos!! I’m really pumped for it, I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m not aiming for any top schools, my GPA is 4.0 and my ACT is 31, the highest ranked schools on my list are Carleton and Middlebury, and I’m also looking at Reed, Colorado College, and Colby. Hopefully I get into one of those, but we’ll see what happens. I honestly couldn’t imagine adding any other EC in with my schedule between sports and school</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, I understand that the two most important things is that you have to stand out and you must truly have passion and love whatever EC you are involved in.</p>
<p>This might be off topic, but, this is it in my case. I’m an international student (in Singapore), and this country is really great, a lot of opportunities are there for you if you want to take advantage of them. But most of the students here are lazy as ****. 95% of them don’t volunteer for anything by themselves unless they are forced to. Not only in terms of ECs do they show no interest, even in their studies, no one bothers to study more than what is taught at school. They think that the idea of obtaining this extra knowledge is absurd if it won’t help them in their exams. But yeah, they get really good grades in their exams.
I’ve helped out underprivileged children for a year, about 2 times a week, and I hope to continue until I graduate. I started doing this with this in mind - I was gonna do this to build my resume for my college application and stand out from the crowd. But about 2 months down the road, my outlook changed completely. It was no longer about me, but about these kids. We dream about getting into all these prestigious universities like Harvard and Princeton. We dream about landing a high paying job. What do they dream about? I don’t think they even think that far ahead, about college or jobs, they’re glad they were lucky enough to be in this organization. They are getting an education, while kids who are in extreme poverty around the world haven’t even held a pencil in their hands.
I really became attached to these kids, some of them had stories that were really touching and even inspiring. I’m doing my part for them, helping them get out of this viscous cycle. This organization is non-profit and there are other volunteers from high schools too. It’s just a great feeling to know that you may be making a huge change to the kids’ lives. Then when I think about it at the end of the day, I realize that there are so many others out there who are on the streets, uneducated, in poverty.</p>
<p>National Art Honor Society 10-12 (maybe leadership?)
Cross country 11-12
Track 10-12
Citizen Club 10-12 (going to be Vice Pres)(club raises like… $5,000 a year for orphans in Haiti)
School Newspaper Photographer 10-12
Teaching English to children in rural taiwan over the summer
Volunteer as a chinese folk arts camp person
Origami Club (founder/president) 10-12
probably going to get origami exhibition at town and school library
I also want to publish a book on origami diagrams (may not happen)</p>
<p>how are these? Its so frusturating for people to say that these are weak because its what I like to do, and I think that the origami thing is particularly unique. People told me these are too “asian”, yet i am in no math/science clubs… I am in 3 art related clubs… Does it look asian to you?</p>
<p>Is this good enough for like UPenn/Cornell/Duke?</p>
<p>Firstly, you can’t believe posters here when they say EC’s are weak (most of the time). A senior I know got into Yale as president of the pottery club, plus other art-related stuff, like set design, president of the speech and debate team, co-captain of Quiz Bowl, and co-captain of Science Olympiad. That’s still a lot, but I can imagine CC telling him that his EC’s were weak, can’t you? And look where he’s heading this fall. :]</p>
<p>Now on to your EC’s…</p>
<p>Your origima EC is unique; maybe you could emphasize that with essays, etc. It’s also great that you’re going to be VP of a successful citizenship club, and that you’re teaching English in Taiwan (which should be a fascinating experience <em>is jealous</em>).</p>
<p>However, frankly, you’d have even better chances if you held leadership in at least one other club or sport (or both, but that would be difficult to manage, especially with your presumedly rigorous schedule). Is it possible that you’ll be co-captain/captain of track or cross country? It would also be good to look into leadership in the National Art Honor Society. Perhaps you could apply for photo editor at the newspaper.</p>
<p>Those are just some suggestions; to maximize your chances at Duke and Cornell, and especially for UPenn, really go for those leadership positions. Good luck! =D</p>
<p>I am a junior at a large, fairly well-off high school and I’m concerned because I did not get into NHS. The reason I was not accepted was the fact that the advisors did not count my summer volunteering position as leadership. I have been teaching about costal wildlife ecosystems and environmental protection to kids age 6-12 at a wetlands center every summer for four years. When I tried to appeal my rejection, I was told that my volunteering was “bettering myself” rather than leading and seving the community because my main interests for my future are environmental science and children’s education/psychology.</p>
<p>With these other ECs, will not having NHS hurt me too much?</p>
<p>school related:
Spanish Honor Society: 3 years (will be VP or secretary senior year)
Envirmonmental Club: 4 years (will be officer senior year)
Media Club: 3 years with regular reporting of announcements
Hospitality Club executive member: 2 years (basically one of the few students who regularly hosts events in the community and assists guidance counsellors)
Community Outreach Program: 4 years, 2 years officer (essentially coordinating & volunteering 2-8 hours at local events for foster children, firefighters, senior citizens, etc.)</p>
<p>outside of school:
pediatric hospital volunteer: 3 years
assisted living (retirement/nursing home) volunteer: 2 years
-I play bingo and host coffee talks once a week
-I teach the residents who have computers how to use e-mail
-I organized adn help with a pinnochle club, prize system, game night, etc.
summer environmental camp teacher: 4 years
daycare helper at my church: 3 years</p>
<p>So… how ‘weak’ would everyone say those are?</p>
I’m sure you’ll get into some/most of those schools.</p>