<p>I know that Harvard looks for students who are very well rounded or the exact opposite. Am I doing too many EC's for consideration at a school like Harvard? Thanks for your time. My EC's are below.</p>
<p>~President of Young Doctors of America (YDA)
~President of the Key Club
~Board Member of a shelter in a city (I oversee things, help run fundraisers, work at the shelter, etc.)
~Treasurer of the Model United Nations Club
~National Honors society
~Board member of another non-profit for young children in the community
~Mentor of a program at my school, somewhat like big brothers big sisters</p>
<p>Is this too much? If yes, what should I cut back on? Thanks.</p>
<p>They look for what you are contributing to each org, so the real question for you is which orgs are you really spending enough time on to make a difference, and which are you just a member? That's a better way to decide.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. With my other time.. I spend time with friends, go to the movies, etc. I have time to have fun, but I do spend a lot of time on my EC's and studies. As for my passion for my EC's; I love everything that I do, and I contribute a lot to all of the things I do. That is why I have so many officer positions. The only problem I have is I think it is too much. I love all of my EC's though. I am going crazy trying to figure out if I should cut down, or keep with everything. Any feedback? Thanks.</p>
<p>my suggestion would be to figure out how to have an impact beyond the school/local level in one thing and put more focus on that, then figure out if you can keep everything else or need to drop something. (obviously some things like Big Brothers/Sisters don't lend themselves to that, but are wonderful things to do)</p>
<p>im applying for harvard too!
that's my DREAM SCHOOL!!!!!!!</p>
<p>im actually quite worried that my ECAs may be insufficient for a tough school like harvard</p>
<p>here are my ECAs: please comment and thanks!
(im love my alma mater like nuts! i was very close to my prefectorial board peers as well as my debating teacher. i used to spent all my free time volunteering for various services in school. so im wasnt participating in ECAs for the sake of getting certificates or anything. im also passionate about social issues, so i was involved in quite a few sociopolitical activities. above all, i dont take part in anything unless im really passionate about the cause involved or that i really enjoyed it) </p>
<ol>
<li> 1st Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit (Delegate)</li>
<li> MIRACLE (Malaysian InteRACtive Learning Experience) Youth Conference 2007 (Delegate)</li>
<li> The Star (largest English daily in Malaysia) youth journalist, written articles for the newspaper</li>
<li> Descartes Education Counseling Centre (educational co-ordinator, one of a few youth volunteers running the nonprofit organization set up by a local politician)</li>
<li> Outward Bound Youth Adventure Course (saved my own money to participate in it)</li>
<li> thecicak.com (a pioneer malaysian youth online political magazine)essay writing competition 2007 (shortlisted, results pending)</li>
<li> Famine 30 Camp (participant)</li>
<li> Perdana Leadership Foundation essay writing competition (consolation prize)</li>
<li> Prefectorial Board (5 years of service, exco member, twice nominated for Head Prefect)
10.Editorial Board (Head of English Department)
11.Public speaking (Both Chinese and English. Both prepared and impromtu. Represented school up to state level. Was sole participant from Perak in the national public.speaking competition in both 2006 and 2007. Travelled alone to Kuala Lumpur to take part in it.)
12.Debating (Chinese at national level. Led school to become first chinese school to break into finals of Rotary Club English debating 13.competiton in the 40-year history of the competition)
14.Taekwon Do (Black Belt 2nd Dan Dan)
15.School hockey team
16.Chinese debating club (5 years of service, secretary)
17.Master of ceremony/valedicatorian at 5th Formers' Graduation Night
18.Completed a Toastmasters International course in public speaking.
19.Taylor's College A Levels Student Council member
20.Scrabble (4th place at state level)
21.Various certificates in international assessment tests, including distictions for English and Chemistry.
22.involved in numerous school activities (science fair, marching competitions etc) and taken part in all sorts of indoor/outdoor camps.
23.Miscellanous certificates (represented school in and won various quiz competitons, Bronze for government reading project etc)
24.Worked as sales promoter, waitress, kitchen worker, office assistant, private tutor etc since 15 years old
25.Draws western-style comics as a hobby.</li>
</ol>
<p>PS. Will be involved in organising Discover US Education Fair'08 next year. Also going to volunteer to run tinkosong.com (a malaysian education resource site). Missed chance to take part in national medical debate because of dengue fever after being selectedd to represent college. Invited to International Youth Leadership Coneference in Prague 2008 but could not go because I could not find a sponsor. One of 5 or 6 shortlisted to represent Malaysia at Greenwich, London Forum 2008 but did not make it into final 2.</p>
<p>gabrielle chong,
Oh my God!!! Too many EC's! You have accomplished so much, but I think the fact that you have listed 25 things is a bit too much. I am really impressed though. </p>
<p>P.S. I was nominated for the Global Youth Leadership Program as well. (I hope we are talking about the same thing.) I am not going to the conference in Prague, but I am going to the one in Washington D.C. and New York. </p>
<p>my suggestion would be to cut back on trying to game the app. process.</p>
<p>instead do your best, and do what you like. if you like doing all of those things then continue doing them. if you are doing those activities to tweak your applicant profile, most admissions officers will <em>probably</em> see through this approach.</p>
<p>as long as you are not doing these activities solely to get into college and you can show a significant commitment to all then pursue them all. if you don't like a few of them that much, then drop those and spend more time on the ones that you like.</p>
<p>p.s. gabrielle chong, scrabble is amazing: i wish i had the time to play competitively :-)</p>
<p>if i remember right, the common app doesn't have 25 open spots for extracurrics. pick the 5-8 that help best distinguish you from the other 20,000 (i.e. everybody's gonna be in the national honor society or play scrabble) and that mean the most to you. if you just love scrabble and can't live without it, by all means put it. but don't send in a resume with 25 extracurrics. that would be a HUGE turnoff. i'm not an adcom but if i see that, i might say to myself that this person would never be able to balance a schedule like that at harvard. he'll have his finger in too many pots and fall behind on his school. be concise in your app.</p>
<p>i hope the adcom would not see it as a turn off because
firstly, i have been able to balance my focus on academic learning and ECAs pretty well, and
secondly, i took part in the ECAs out of genuine passion and not for "tweaking my resume". sigh. </p>
<p>im surprised though, i thought mine is still insufficient. you should see the profiles of some of those who really got into harvard.<br>
and besides, its always tough for international applicants (im a malaysian chinese)</p>
<p>and thanks, bluesky321!
good luck to all of you too!</p>
<p>About that global young leadership thing: Just so you guys know that thing is a scam....well sort of...in that you pay loads of money for a conference to which literally thousands of people get invited to. Unless you get a sponsor or some sort of scholarship I wouldn't advise you to go...in fact, at my school, our principal has this running thing with the people who organize it...we just ask the principal to send them an email and we get invited. They don't even consider grades, GPA, leadership positions etc, so alot of people who haven't done one thing which could even be vaguely considered as leadership get themselves "nominated" and attend to boost their resumes.</p>
<p>I don't mean to discourage you bluesky, I just thought you should know that before you spend a lot of money and time on this.</p>
<p>True. That Global Young Leadership thing is a rip-off. In my school, more than 10 people asked the principal for nominations which they all got. Two of the worst losers in my school attended the conference, wow</p>