To college admission boards, what's better? (regarding ECs)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>What's better - A huge laundry list of clubs/random activities, or a lot of commitment to 2-4 activities?</p>

<p>Whenever I look at people's posts on this site, I see that they're an officer/pres/VP of like 20 clubs, which is intimidating to me, a guy who's not in any real "clubs," but is committed to what he does. </p>

<p>I've been playing piano for almost 10.5 years (I'm a sophomore right now), and have won several local awards, and practice for 45 minutes to an hour every day. I've been playing cello for 4 years and been in orchestra for 5 years. I'm in debate, and am fairly successful at local tournaments (which I go to more than 6 weekends every school year), and will have gone to 3 summer institutes, each 3-4 weeks long, by graduation. I'm also in NSHS, which will inevitably end up being my "laundry list" club.</p>

<p>The problem is, 4 activities just looks physically worse on the application. I see this box with 15 rows on the application where you can put activities you've done in high school, and feel like I won't be able fill up more than 5 of 'em...</p>

2

<p>I personally think the trend right now is towards smaller amounts of clubs but much more involvement in each club. And after a while, a lot of the clubs become very repetitive (like community service clubs).</p>

3

<p>That's a relief. I still kind of worry though, cuz I can't really write "president" anywhere on my app...</p>

4

<p>Well, being an involved officer does count towards something. It'll show leadership capabilities and it'll better you as a person, give you a bigger pool of experience. But in my opinion, having like 20 minor positions won't really do much.</p>