<p>not including any academic stats or essays or whatevers, would I be rejected from top schools if let's say I had weak extra curriculars meaning I don't hold "officer positions" and I don't have a lot of extra curricular but I remain faithful to all the extracurriculars through my years in high school?</p>
<p>this is perhaps my biggest weakness (assuming I'll write a good essay- any tips on that?)</p>
<p>It’s possible to get into top 50 schools --particularly public colleges – without having strong ECs. Public colleges make their decisions mainly on stats and state of residence, with in-state applicants being preferred</p>
<p>When it comes to places like HPYS, unless you have a major hook – like parents who’ve donated millions, it’s not likely that you’ll be accepted with weak ECs. For such colleges, your impact – projects organized, funds raised, lives changed – is what counts, not whether you had an officer position.</p>
<p>A friend’s child got into a top school with no ECs. But he was pretty freakin’ brilliant.</p>
<p>At colleges accepting under 20% of applicants, it comes down to ECs as a majority of applicants are academically qualified and ECS become the differientating factor.</p>
<p>At the vast majority of colleges, ECs make no difference at all.</p>
<p>In the middle ground if your academics are top of the pool you can get in without impressive ECs.</p>
<p>thanks for your replies- sure it doesn’t really alleviate my worries but i’ll try to write a good essay</p>
<p>Essays won’t compensate for weak ECs. </p>
<p>At top schools, like NSM said, ECs are used choose a diverse, talented class from high achieving applicants. If by “faithful” you mean you were just a member and didn’t make any notable impact or win any state/national awards, then, yes, it’s unlikely you’ll be admitted to HYPSM-caliber schools. </p>
<p>On the bright side, there are plenty of respectable schools that make decisions almost exclusively based on stats.</p>
<p>okay, does having good EC’s mean that you have to be in some academic/ prestigious organization/ club or you have to have officer positions, or you have to have a lot of EC’s?
if so i’m screwed cause quite frankly, i’ve always been more concerned about my in-school academics (mostly)</p>
<p>Seeing glassearechic’s response, I wished to ask a question of my own.
I am in a similar position, too, not having most outstanding extracurricular profile of a “well-rounded student”. However, I have been very committed to our school’s Academic Decathlon team, which requires tremendous commitment. We have won our county championships every year, and placed third at state. In addition to individual county awards, I have placed 1st in the Essay, 2nd in Mathematics, and 3rd in Sciences at last year’s competition) This year, I am captain of the team.</p>
<p>In addition, I have been playing violin since second grade, tutoring at school for three years, volunteered at a hospital pharmacy for two summers, attended the UC Davis COSMOS Program, and have actively participated in helping the Youth Group form (leader and music coordinator) at a new church for two years. </p>
<p>Would this be acceptable for the expectations of top schools?</p>
<p>Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>You may want to read the fascinating thread about “hidden ECs”. So many HS students think ECs are just school-based and discount their work experiences, family responsibilities, hobbies, or special interests.</p>
<p>
This question comes up a lot. You can see what a Harvard alum interviewer has said about excellent and strong ECs in this post – <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html</a> (edit: I see NSM responded already. Look at her earlier post in the link I gave and you can see examples of what some other kids are bringing to the table)</p>
<p>And ask yourself – if your a solid student but nothing truly exceptional in the national applicant pool why would a top school take you when they have 10 apps from students with that same solid background? They’re going to look for factors that differentiate, and one of them is ECs. Member of this and participant in that, even if maintained for 4 years, is laudable but seldom the tipping factor to get you into a ultra-selective college.</p>
<p>Thank you, siliconvalleymom. That thread is fantastic! I didn’t know that some of my others activities would be “extracurriclars,” too.</p>