<p>Sorry if this post is considered one that should be in a separate board, I just figured that since it was in relation to Stanford, it should be here.</p>
<p>Anyway:</p>
<p>I'm very confused on what a true extracurricular activity is...</p>
<p>I'm looking into colleges right now as a prospective Junior in high school and I've been noticing that Stanford, as well as many of the more higher-end universities admire a strong extracurricular background. What does this mean in specificity?</p>
<p>For example, I've currently done:</p>
<p>iPhone Application Development (Programming exclusively with Apple's program) for a year - I also consider it beginning entrepreneurship which some universities tend to admire even more (i.e. Stanford)</p>
<p>I was able to volunteer as a leader at a camp this past summer where I earned well over 175 hours and I plan to do it again next summer</p>
<p>Two summers ago I worked as an intern for a business's web department, which allowed me to learn more about the specific industry and how things worked within the department.</p>
<p>I've been signed up to provide tutoring to elementary aged children (a basic thing to do, I know - so it's most likely not very "unique" per se)</p>
<p>What do you think about what I've done so far, and while I know it's definitely not "enough" is it a good list so far?</p>
<p>Thanks for all help given, it's deeply appreciated.</p>
<p>PS: Please refrain from shooting me down; I've gone to a couple other sites (yahoo answers) and people don't understand how to refrain from using a negative tone. A succinct answer would be perfect ;)</p>
<p>Those are definitely ECs. They sound fine. What top schools tend to look for is commitment and passion. I’m not an accepted student or anything, but I, for example, only have two ECs. But, between the two of them I have over 1800 hours (35 hours/week) between the two of them. So, I’ve shown that I’ve chosen something and that I love it, and that I’ve stuck with it. Find something you love and show it.</p>
<p>yea those are fine, a stanford admissions officer that i talked with said they dont really care what they are (they dont have to be leaders of clubs, or helping orphans in africa) they just have to be there, and show that you cared about them</p>
<p>said another way, they want to know you’re thinking and doing things for real reasons that truly matter to you, not just to have a community service EC piece to check-off. Or as the Northwestern admission officer called it “yet another Costa Rican mission application”</p>
<p>In your guys’ opinions, how much more should I do if I’ve done what I’ve already specified + another iPhone Developer membership next year and being staff at the camp again as well as being a tutor? (I’m also aiming to get an internship somewhere during the summer, but most large corporations require an intern to be in college at time of “employment”)</p>
<p>Compared to other people’s posts on this forum, I feel that I’m under matched. Of course, that’s quite normal especially for a school of Stanford’s magnitude. Not to get too off topic (I plan on making a couple more threads sometime later) I plan on writing at least one essay from the application about a combination of what I’ve done in the iPhone ec and possibly in academics as well in order to emphasize my passion for “never giving up.” Would this seem a worthwhile idea?</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t worry about the essays until senior year. </p>
<p>If I were you, I’d just continue what I enjoy doing. You don’t want to stop doing everything, but I’d advocate to not pick up a new EC just to put in on an app. So yeah, keep with your app stuff and counseling and tutoring and things should work out. If you have loads of free time and really want to fill it, find something else you’re interested in or go deeper into what you already do (like make more apps or tutor more kids).</p>
<p>Oh yeah. I just meant as an example. I’m actually planning on doing SCEA, so I’d theoretically start working on the app right before summer '10 so that I’ll have time to go over it thoroughly. But that’s beside the point. From what you know, would presenting any app itself to Stanford make for a good presentation of the ec? For example, those who do a lot of art tend to include paintings, photographs, etc. The only problem is that you can’t simply give away an app, but that’s a different story.</p>
<p>you could provide a link at the least to where it can be downloaded. If you made a website showcasing your various products, that’s even better. I know Caltech accepts (and asks for) research papers, so they’d likely accept code for an app or whatever. I don’t know Stanford’s policy on supplementary material though. </p>
<p>You should eventually email an admissions counselor and ask. Stanford adcoms, if I recall, don’t like to receive extra materials which they don’t authorize.</p>
<p>If you just provided the name of your iphone app, they could look it up on their own if they were interested. Also, you might want to include some stats about it, like how many times it’s been downloaded.</p>
<p>In general, Stanford wants people who are committed and engaged - they don’t really care how structured the activity is. So your work in software is fantastic (Stanford has a popular iPhone Application Development class that you might like). But they also want to see that you’re committed to something outside of your schoolwork, and they’ll ask you to estimate how many hours per week you spend on each activity. They want to know that you’re doing something constructive outside of school/homework and not just watching 8 hours of tv a day.</p>
<p>this may sound odd, but one concern may be that you’re asking on cc for advice and you’re thinking of what ec areas you should bolster/promote. The admitted Stanford students I know are extreme performers yet they don’t promote their success, there’s an understated quality to them. And I know in a a couple cases that admissions discovered their state or national successes by reading the rec letters, the student never mentioned high achieving ec’s themselves.</p>
<p>Imagine how powerful that is to admissions to be reading all about say an applicants public speaking successes in hs and then read a rec letter that describes the applicants starring roles on television, you’d be like ***, my applicant didn’t even mention this.</p>
Maybe, but who knows how many people get rejected because they didn’t put their best foot forward? It’s a risky proposition to wait for someone else to toot your horn for you. Do you really want to rely on a gimmick like that to get into college?</p>
<p>I know there are some fantastic applicants out there who write really focused college applications and leave some of their more peripheral accomplishments for rec letters. But I think it’d be foolish to leave one of your primary ECs or awards off your application in the hopes that your rec does it justice. After all, will the reader see that you left off something big and think “oh, he’s so understated for not mentioning his main EC”? Or will the reader think “well, this must not have been very important because he didn’t even bother to mention it himself”?</p>
<p>There’s certainly something to be said for humility, but I think you can be humble and understated about your successes while still conveying them fully in your application. It’s part of being rightfully proud of what you’ve accomplished.</p>
<p>Hmmm, good suggestion. I’ll make sure to take note of it for next year. Haha, I’ve actually seen the iPhone Development course it’s not too thorough in my opinion, but yeah, it’s one of the classes that I’m hoping to sit in on next semester when I take the Discover Stanford tour. Interesting points there. That’s one of the benefits of it, I believe. For instance, while it has averaged roughly 1500+ downloads, there will most likely be another application to be released by the time I’ve submitted the application for Stanford. All in all, programming takes hours upon hours, so I see what you mean there Jimmy, and that would definitely be a good idea. I’m going to assume that programming counts as a form of visual art, right?</p>
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<p>I’ve had websites in the past, so that’s a good idea. But recently they were scrapped, so I’ll probably have to create a newer one that looks presentable. Terrific idea though, thanks. I’ll be visiting in February, so I’ll make sure to ask this.</p>