What constitutes as "enough" leadership???

<p>I thought that by starting this thread we could evaluate our leadership positions and help one another out. Leadership is becoming soo important in college admissions its hard to know if you have enough leadership. Plus, since i am sure we all have time to improve our leadership ability, i think this thread will help..</p>

<p>My leadership:
-Co-Captain of the State Champion Speech and Debate Team
-Youth Attorney General of South Carolina and hopefully Youth Governor of SC next year, Youth in Government
-Several positions in Boy Scouts including Patrol Leader, Ass. Patrol Leader, Troop Instructor...etc..
-Member at Large in Student Council
-Captain of Academic Team
-Crew Leader at Job
-Just began this Youth Leadership Class sponsored by our city's Chamber of Commerce, supposedly prestigious.
-President of my own business, computers, websites, etc..</p>

<p>Do I need more leadership positions especially for Beta Club and National Honors Society??</p>

<p>You are well above average. Showing leadership in multiple, un related areas shows strong leadership potential. You are good in this area.</p>

<p>There is no need for more leadership titles. After a while, adcoms will wonder if you are just padding your app with a lot of titles, but are not really DOING anything in the leadership roles.</p>

<p>i have absolutely NO leadership positions whatsoever ;)</p>

<p>The length of one's list isn't important. What is important is what you accomplished in terms of leadership.</p>

<p>There are lots of students who get leadership positions that are basically popularity contests and resume dressing. The so-called leaders do absolutely nothing. Perhaps such "leadership" impresses lower tier colleges, but when it comes to places like HPYS and similar colleges, the colleges want to see evidence that your leadership -- whether a formal title or not -- made a difference.</p>

<p>This evidence can be displayed through: descriptions in your essays or activity lists of projects you initiated; references from advisors who can describe your contributions; what you tell interviewers; awards and other recognition.</p>

<p>For instance, lots of students are SGA presidents who do nothing but perhaps select the theme for the prom. I've seen schools in which the faculty does all of the work while the student officers just have titles.</p>

<p>I've seen other schools where SGA presidents have organized successful district-wide major community service projects over the objections of advisors who thought the projects would be too difficult for teens to accomplish. </p>

<p>As for things like your chamber of commerce's youth leadership activities, it's great to be accepted for programs like that, but what's even more important is how you use the instruction. Some students just sleep walk through the presentations, using the program as a line on their resume. Others make contacts and get ideas that lead to community-wide initiatives started by them. It should be very clear which kind of students would impress the very top colleges, which have an abundance of applications from students with impressive titles.</p>

<p>Now what if your leadership positions aren't all popularity contests?</p>

<p>President of the one of the largest chapters of a human rights organization in the country
President of a debate society
Co-Pres of an wildlife and nature society
Editor of newspaper
Math team business manager</p>

<p>what if you accomplish major things in all of your posistions?</p>

<p>Browncow,
Of course those would be very impressive leadership positions because of the impact. If also accompanied by high grades, good class rank, a rigorous curriculum and high SAT scores, one would have above average chances of getting into places like Ivies.</p>

<p>Most people who accomplish a lot in their ECs and leadership positions don't have the kind of scores (a minimum of 1800 on the new SAT), grades (minimum of 3.0) and coursework to be competitive at top colleges. Many people who are passionate about their ECs and have impact with them unfortunately don't put effort into coursework so have lousy grades.</p>

<p>Leadership positions always seemed like popularity contests at my school. My only position is webmaster of the science honor society and I was lucky to get that. I ran for webmaster/publicity but there was only one vote difference between me and my opponent so the position was split between us. Once someone has one position, they can ussually use that as leverage to get other positions b/c they demonstrated leadership in the past. To get the position I got, I told jokes about how I'm such a computer geek and everyone laughed, and I started talking about how I would help the society before I was cut off for time. The girl I was running against didnt really say much and probably got more votes than me because she had more friends in the club. I also didnt get much of a chance for leadership until I was an upperclassmen b/c we can't join any honor societies until then. Fortunately, I don't care if I don't make ivy leagues. Does the number of leadership positions matter much if I have decent stats to get into a college? Is just one ok for UVa?</p>

<p>At our school most of these positions take soo much work. For instance the debate team, i am never home cuz something is always up with it, we have tournaments every week and so many practices. Does it count saying your teams accomplishments while you are team captain??? like a state championship or finally getting national recognition?? So basically if I describe things I did for each of my positions will I be alrite and furthermore should i not add any other leadership positions?</p>

<p>"At our school most of these positions take soo much work."</p>

<p>Great! That indicates that at your school, leadership positions really mean something: They aren't just resume dressing.</p>

<p>" Does it count saying your teams accomplishments while you are team captain??? like a state championship or finally getting national recognition??"</p>

<p>Sure. You also should say what actions you took that contributed to the team's doing so well. For instance, if you instituted summer practices and had incentives to encourage people to participate, that would be an example of actions that you took that contributed to the team's doing so well.</p>

<p>" So basically if I describe things I did for each of my positions will I be alrite and furthermore should i not add any other leadership positions?"</p>

<p>From what you've said, you have no more time to do more leadership positions. Seems to me that if you're really doing leadership with the positions you already have, you would not dream of adding more positions because you'd either have to take time away from what you're already contributing to or you'd simply be taking on a leadership job in which you really do nothing. That's not fair to the organization, and it also won't impress colleges, who know how many hours there are in a day.</p>

<p>Someone asked about U Va. -- Virtually all public universities make admission decisions mainly by stats. The exception probably is athletes. Consequently, leadership positions may count for things like merit aid, but not for things liek admission. Check their common data set (links to colleges' common data sets is posted at the top of one of the CC boards), the college's admission web site or the US News ultimate college guide's web site (You have to pay about $15 to access their website from Aug.-Aug., but it's worth it) for detailed information about each college's policies.</p>

<p>damn.. I dont think I have any leadership activities under my belt which I can easily think of..Does this hurt my chances? My passion is flying aircraft and playing the Tablas ( Indian drums... Not too good at it since I started playing 6-7 months ago but getting better :) ).. </p>

<p>Could you guys please list some indirect activities in which leadership is involved in case im missing something?</p>

<p>Any organziation at your school. You could start a tabla band hahaha lol, but it does count. Anything which you lead in your community, maybe a food drive something like that. If you start a business or club. THeres plenty you just got to get invovled.</p>

<p>Does starting a language club ( which I had planned to do in junior year but didnt get time ) in my senior year look fishy?</p>

<p>Tablas are fun to play. I got to learn for about a week while I was in India but I failed to keep it up in the US :(</p>

<p>It doesn't look fishy at all... Just do it, you will regret not doing it.</p>

<p>what about founding a string ensemble to play for communities like weddings, churches, nursing homes, etc.? while im at it, i'm also vice-pres/librarian of tri-m where i created a music library and organized benefit concerts and i'm treasurer of my orch, where i wrote an essay to the principal trying to improve music facilities at our school. do these show commitment in leadership? i also have vice-pres of span honor society, feature editor of newspaper club, pres/editor in chief of a community newsletter, and i helped start a vitamin collection organization at our school. i'm active in all of these, cept maybe the span honor society, but do i still appear "superficial" if so, how can i make it so that im not? thanks a lot for any advice.</p>