I have never really been involved in my schools provided extra curricular activities (Basically clubs, sports, etc). But ever since middle school I have been teaching myself things that interest me on my own time. 2D Animation, Game development, Video Editing, Music production, Web design and Graphics design are my biggest interests and I have the portfolio to show it, but are these ECs? A lot of the work I have done is all outside of school, and my school doesn’t really known anything about it. On top of that I don’t really have any awards to show off, I just have stuff that I have done in my portfolio. I am very passionate about the stuff I do outside of school, but are these even ECs?
I would post my portfolio, but I don’t want to for privacy reasons.
Yes, these are EC’s and should go down as such. Sending in a portfolio would be super helpful. Even better, I recommend creating a club at your school where you teach others how to do this kind of stuff. That’s going to be both fun for you and an easy way to explain to colleges what you have been up to.
Is this something you do in your room alone, or something you do as a job, in your community? If not is there a way you can turn this into a part-time job or use it to help groups in your school/community etc (ex. design a website/make a video etc. for a school club, a homeless center, your church etc.). To be honest people on do have CC have different opinions on this topic, but my opinion is that ECs should be things that involve your school, your community, or some outside group in some way. When you sit in your room alone doing something, I consider that to be a hobby rather an EC. But as I said, others will differ.
In the end it is your application and your decision as to how to present yourself.
Yeah it is something I do at home. I do basically work part time now on a game a few friends and I have been working on for almost a year now. I have also tried to get involved with online groups such as discord chats (basically modern IRC). I actually created a now pretty popular chat for electronic music production on discord, and that creation process is actually what I wrote about for my essay. Even though I’m not the most social person, I still really try to help out online as much as possible. But sadly I’m not sure how to really present this information other than in an essay really. Anyways, Thanks for the response!
@happy1 , you and I see eye to eye on most things, but I don’t agree here:-)
I think those are legitimate ECs and if you have a portfolio, even better. Be aware that some colleges are very specifc about the supplemental material they will accept. If they won’t accepta portfolio, you can provide links in the additional comments section. Whether or not they look at it is a different question.
@Lindagaf I noted in my original post that people on CC have different ideas about “what is an EC” so I’m not surprised that people like you who I respect have another opinion. And the final decision about what to include and how to include it absolutely belongs to the OP.
I will say that the electronic music chat the OP created would be an EC that could be easily be included as a line item in his/her application.
Depends on the colleges. Many want to see how you engage with others, IRL, and commit to more. It gives them an idea how you’ll engage on campus. Or not.
A safe bet is a combo- some things that please you, some ways you engage with groups (this starts with the hs ) then the good you engage in, in your community, because you see that need and can get involved.
If all OP has is what he described above, it’s not balanced. Just starting a club to do this same stuff won’t solve that. Online isn’t it.
I think what you’re doing could have lot of value, but how you categorize it depends upon where you’re applying and what you intend to study. I also think that where you did this work is a non-issue. My work is no less valued because I do it from home…
Schools want to see that you’re passionate about something non-academic, and while leadership is great, other things are okay too. You have to be you.