Too many/Too varied ECs?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

I’m hoping to apply Harvard EA and I’m worried that extracurriculars may be too all over the place or too long of a list (I know schools usually value quality over quantity) I am genuinely committed and passionate about all of them. If anyone could give me advice i’d appreciate it (I have a 3.9, 13 APs and a 36 act if it helps).

-150 hours volunteering at an elementary school.
-2 years of quiz bowl
-U Mich summer biology program
-Library volunteering 50 hours
-BU summer research internship in chemistry(this summer)
-independently learning Swedish and German

  • Ran two marathons
    -NHS
  • founded a club that pairs elementary school kids with high school mentors
  • volunteer at children oriented science mueseum 150 hours
    -hospital volunteer 100 hour
    -shadowed a neurologist
    -peer tutoring
    -volunteered on a political campaign 60 hours
2

This really isn’t a Harvard question but a general admissions question. You can group like items so you can fit as many activities in space allowed.

150 volunteer elem school+library vol 50+science museum 150+hosptial 100+political 60 = 510 hours

.
or you could group like
shadow + hospital volunteer
found club mentors + elem school +

I might leave off marathons and the self study languages if space doesn’t allow.

3

Colleges wouldn’t know you are passionate (sadly). So you would have to drop some of them.

4

This isn’t a question that anyone can answer for you. The Common Application asks you to list your EC’s in the order of importance to YOU. So which 6-8 activities are the ones that mean the most to you? If you were to write an essay about an EC, which EC’s would you choose?

5

I would only post a few of those… Just the ones that you spent the most time on/ cared about a lot.

6

I have ran 5 marathons, and it did not once cross my mine to put it on the common app. I think you should try to categorize these activities. Put all your community service into one, put your like work experiences into another, and your “self individual activities” such as marathon and languages. Also, I know multiple languages (fluently) and I did not put it on there. I would suggest leaving your self individual activities because those are activities that do not really benefit others beside yourself and most colleges want to see activities that are helping to change the world. That is just my opinion though. :slight_smile: goodluck!