<p>A friend's son is ranked #5 at a very competitive private high school. He will probably be a NMF and his SATs are great but not perfect. Other than National Honor Society and the community service required by NHS, he has no ECs. It's the end of the junior year, so he really can't add much (other than a summer job or program) by application time.</p>
<p>Has anyone been admitted to a highly selective school with no ECs?</p>
<p>ha ha well what does he do with his time?</p>
<p>This kid in my class. THIS WAS HIS ACTUAL APPLICATION:</p>
<p>2360 sat, sat 2 : 800 math II, 800 chem, 800 physics, gpa 4.0 UW, essays.</p>
<p>That was his application to all the schools he applied to.</p>
<p>Rejected : Caltech, MiT, Stanford.</p>
<p>Accepted: Harvey Mudd, Berkeley, Upenn.</p>
<p>EC's don't matter a lot imo.</p>
<p>What does he do? Video games, of course, alone at his house.</p>
<p>i was accepted to washu with a rather unimpressive list of ECs (senior class secretary, some volunteering and local government involvement). i suppose i got in on the strength of my academics: 4.0 GPA in mostly AP classes, class rank 1, decent 2200 SAT with strong SAT IIs (800 on math 2).
on the other hand, i applied to a number of ivy league and ivy-caliber schools and was rejected or waitlisted at all but washu. a classmate with similar academics and stronger ECs was accepted to stanford and harvard, so it definitely makes a difference and can be a deal breaker if the dice don't fall in your favor.</p>
<p>berkeley is pure numbers....</p>
<p>"berkeley is pure numbers...."</p>
<p>No, sorry, cgm. For some schools at Berkeley, though, yes. (Numbers more imp. for Engineering, for example.) At other schools like L&S, students with outstanding e.c.'s & excellent but not outstanding "numbers" are often preferred to the "strict-numbers" set. There are variety of factors considered & prioritized in admissions, & those are not all numbers.</p>
<p>Yes, with ECs like NHS and a local level sport. Most of the
students who did go this route though had awesome
writing capabilities (their essays would have been outstanding)
and fun personalities (which may have
helped them a lot in places where interviews counted).</p>
<p>I would guess-timate there were at least 2 every year at my public
HS for the last 2 years that I know of.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>The students I've seen who are admitted to very selective schools despite limited ECs tend to have both truly outstanding academics and a good explanation for how they were spending their time. I'm remembering a student who worked in the family restaurant for a full shift every day after school, a student who worked in the family janitorial business from 4 am to 8 am every morning before school, and a student who battled a serious health condition.
A spring and summer before senior year allows plenty of time to get off the sofa and do something interesting.</p>
<p>Let me share with you guys a little secret: ECs aren't nearly important as they're made out to be. They're only as important as you can make them look. Joining clubs and sports teams and music organizations is basically worthless, unless you're truly passionate about one of them. What's important is a "hobby," a good one. Something you do outside of school but for which you can still provide documentation and with which you have won awards or done other really cool things. Going home every day on the 2:30 bus isn't nearly as bad as it's made out to be.</p>
<p>I got into Stanford with few ECs and no interesting hobbies to speak of. I do, however live and work on a family farm, and I really played that bit up in my essays.
I also got Regents' at Cal, UCLA, UCSD, and UC Davis.</p>
<p>So yeah, ECs aren't everything, but I think you do have to demonstrate that you do something with your time.</p>
<p>My friend got into Carnegie Mellon with like no ECs. He had soccer, NHS, and tennis.</p>
<p>Friend got into Amherst with very few ECs, but he's exceptionally smart. He had near perfect SATs and a perfect GPA.</p>
<p>About 10 years ago my nephew (a passionate geek) got in to Stanford with few to no ECs. He had been raised in a cabin in the woods with no electricity, and few creature comforts. He was a 4.0, high SAT scoring kid with a very unique outlook on life which I'm sure he expressed clearly and strongly in his essays. He now works as an innovator in the alternative energy field after pursuing this interest to the max at Stanford. This was a win-win for him and Stanford, and was an excellent match. It wouldn't have mattered a bit if he had also played the oboe. (Nothing against oboes. I like them.) He got an excellent start in his field, and Stanford got an enthusiastic, creative student/leader (within his area of interest).</p>
<p>I think "cabin in the woods" or "worked on the farm" trumps this kid's "sat in the living room in the suburbs playing PS2."</p>
<p>"I think "cabin in the woods" or "worked on the farm" trumps this kid's "sat in the living room in the suburbs playing PS2.""</p>
<p>That may be true, but I believe they are truely worried about the kid who spent every waking hour on SAT prep and extra credit homework. If it takes a kid 24 hours a day to get those amazing stats, they won't have the extra bandwidth it takes for college classes. On the other hand, they can give up the PS2 time once they get to college.</p>
<p>My ECs are not at all impressive- I do Quiz Bowl (though I was the captain), the yearbook committee and the Gay-Straight Alliance. I did have a rather time-consuming job during my junior year, though, for what that's worth. I was accepted to NYU.</p>
<p>Two students from my HS were accepted to Stanford last year with virtually no extracurriculars.</p>
<p>One of them had a programming job (only EC). He had a 2310 SAT and 3.9-something UW GPA. His sister graduated from Stanford, but I hear that sibling legacy has virtually no weight.</p>
<p>The other (my brother) took community college classes (post-calculus math and higher physics) and was a camp counselor in training (CILT) for two years. He also attended EPGY at Stanford the summer before junior year. His scores were 2290 and 3.9-something UW.</p>
<p>Miracles can happen =P</p>
<p>
[quote]
senior class secretary, some volunteering and local government involvement
[/quote]
gee horrible ECs!</p>
<p>It does happen. Nephew got into a prestigious honors program at UCSanta Barbara with only soccer and surfing as his ECs (but great grades and test scores.)</p>
<p>A friend's daughter got oos to Berkeley with no ECs except a junior year abroad in Ecuador. (Ditto on grades/scores.)</p>