<p>Oh, I think I'm sc<em>ew</em>d.</p>
<p>This is what I requested from my teachers when writing the recs:</p>
<p>...I have also enclosed a copy of my resume and I would be grateful if you could also mention some of the activities I have been passionately involved with outside of the classroom that illustrate my commitment, ambitions, leadership and the depth of my involvement with these interests and activities. I hope you can illustrate that my hard-working attitude extends way beyond the walls of a classroom and reflect my true character.</p>
<p>What they write about me outside of the classroom is totally up to them. I did not ask them to write anything specifically. I guess that is okay because they are doing me a favor by writing the rec and I don't want to come across as "telling them exactly what they should write". Might hurt me in the long run though.</p>
<p>Interesting...I didn't tell my English teacher any area in particular...But he is a pretty unique person and would write his own thing no matter what anyway. He's my hardest teacher, but the best.</p>
<p>It seems like applicants can go anyway they want with the resume bit. I've kept my resume for all the interviewing/applying I've had to do for activities/programs over the years, but I've always kept it to one page. My dad went to a speaker in town who started that IvyBound program (and has probably made millions by charing thousands of dollars to get kids into college--what a sham). Anyway, she passed out a bunch of sheets, and included a few sample resumes that had gotten kids into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. These resumes were 3 to 4 pages each, and were overkill. However, they were nicely formatted, and gave brief descriptions of each event/activitiy/honor/etc.</p>
<p>So basically, the point is, length isn't what's important. Yes, keep your description of each activity to a sentence or so, but say what you need to say to get the point of your involvement across.</p>
<p>Another tip they gave was to put a brief summary of youself as a person/student at the very top of the resume, to emphasize the passions discussed later. A resume is a lot like the essays I guess; it all depends on how you present yourself with it.</p>
<p>Thanks vcv for the information - very helpful. I can't believe 3 to 4 pages for a resume - I agree, way too much!</p>
<p>I like the tip about the brief summary at the top; however, I was going to write something about who I am on the "what else you want us to know" supplement.</p>
<p>For my resume, I was trying to organize it another way but I'm not sure if it is conventional. Instead of listing each activity with a brief sentence next to each; I was going to list 4 of my ECs in which I have clubs associated with each, leadership positions, awards, cc, etc. This is just like how it is asked on the application but there is not enough room on the application to list my involvement with each EC. Would it be bad to write "see attached" ? I really want to convey the depth of my involvement, but there is so little room. It is not as simple as writing "president, organized X activity, received award for X project, etc. The ECs I have been active and passionate about have been for years and in 4 years, one usually accomplishes a great deal. </p>
<p>I guess the "other stuff" (national honor societies, model congress, etc.) I will have to omit all together since I cannot honestly say I particpated in them every week for more than 1 hour. I just hope that I gain a little respect from the adcoms for leaving them off instead of them thinking "gee, she wasn't in any of the honor societies?". But really, there is no place to write these unless I included them in a resume under "other". Still totally confused (like others) about this.</p>
<p>I disagree...I don't any adcom will be happy to see a 3-4 page resume. It might hurt you alot in the long run, in fact.</p>
<p>I agree. When I was considering Harvard and talked to the admissions person there, they said they preferred things as concise as possible. He said that they hate reading a page when a paragraph would suffice.</p>
<p>A word of advice from a mom who went through this last year. Please take my advice with a grain of salt, however, as I'm not a professional college anything.</p>
<p>Honors societies. If you earned this in any way, then do list it v. simply. If you just signed up, your call.</p>
<p>ECs with time commitments and involvement. Do list every one and explain the involvement. But if you signed up for stuff only to put it on your college app and did nothing - leave it off.</p>
<p>Teachers commenting on outside school interests - they have to know about them to comment. My D's English teacher had seen my D dancing, even just pirouetting down the hallways. She included that in the rec, as much because it spoke to who she is as because of any achievement.</p>
<p>IMVHO please don't do the summary statement of who you are on top of the resume. You are high school kids. That stuff to me is pretentious until you are interviewing for a job at director level or above:). </p>
<p>The adcoms know you are teenagers. They are familiar with teenagers. They want really smart teenagers who have retained their authentic self and interest and humor and uniqueness and interests despite the semi-death march that is college prep these days.</p>
<p>I will never forget an article in the New York Times magazine that quoted a Harvard adcom as saying he saw many applicants as the "stunned survivors of a lifelong bootcamp."</p>
<p>Find some way to let the adcoms know that you managed to achieve your 4.3 grade averages and your 1500 SATS without killing yourself because that level of performance is native to your being, that ability and that discipline. That you had some time and energy left over to develop the early stirrings of a self that will have some kind of impact on the world over time.</p>
<p><em>gets off soapbox</em></p>
<p>Enjoy it as best you can. Try your best and if it doesn't happen I promise this setback will not be the one that determines your life outcome.</p>
<p>thanks a bunch Alumother! That was really helpful. </p>
<p>however, do you think its ok if I put the two Honor S where I didn't do much in the academic honors sections and then NHS in the EC section because I am an officier? Or would that just look weird.</p>
<p>The reason I don't want to completely leave off the other Honor Societies is because I know the other ppl at my school who are also applying to Pton are putting it down and I don't want them to think i'm not a member or even a slacker (God forbid!)</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>The reason I don't want to completely leave off the other Honor Societies is because I know the other ppl at my school who are also applying to Pton are putting it down and I don't want them to think i'm not a member or even a slacker (God forbid!)<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Ditto!!!</p>
<p>I think that would work...it would add some academic honors for you without making it seem like you are trying to show off a laundry list of ECs.</p>
<p>Agreed. 8910</p>
<p>The Yale rep who came to our area said "at age 17 your resume should not be longer than a page, even my isn't. If you mow grass for summer, don't write 'landscape architect'." The exact same thing was repeated by Stanford rep.</p>
<p>Princeton was a while back, I think they also said something along that lines.</p>