What EC's should I put on the common app?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I’ll be applying to colleges next year, and as I looked over the common app I saw you can only report 10 extracurricular activities which worries me. I was looking over my list of EC’s and each one is important to me. I don’t know how to narrow the list down! Here they are:

-Junior Boosters (Executive Board, a group of specifically appointed students). Basically, I act as a liaison between the student body and the Boosters club, which is a parent group that financially supports all the extracurricular activities at my school.

-Student Council (Treasurer Junior and probably senior year)

-EMERGE sophomore leadership program (Junior Facilitator). This is a community service based club for sophomores that teaches specific leadership skills at bimonthly workshops. As a junior facilitator this year, I help run the program.

-NAACP (President 2 years). Weekly meetings where we discuss race at the school, state, and national levels. I really LOVE this club. It should also be noted that as president, I made huge improvements. I doubled the membership, organized service activities, and organized several black history month events and a school-wide race conference.

  • School Volleyball (Captain 3 years, MVP 2 years)

-Club Volleyball- not that important, but it took up a lot of my time and energy.

-Team ASAP/Peer Tutor. This club seeks to increase the accessibility of AP courses to all students and be a support system to help other students succeed academically in upper level courses. Through the club, I tutor other students at my school.

-Model UN

-Hospital Volunteer. Loved it and spent nearly me entire summer after sophomore year there! Also received an award for my dedication.

-Started and developed curriculum for a mentorship program in which high schoolers mentor 8th graders in a one-to-one pairing. We help them to develop skills that will be crucial for a successful transition to high school. We do essay writing, a tour of the high school, course selection, and stuff like that.

-Science/Medicine summer program at Emory University. BTW, it isn’t one of those programs where anyone who pays can go. It was a free program for minorities interested in medicine.

-Biomedical research at the NIH this summer. Super excited for this and I get to live in DC for the summer!

-Freshman, Sophomore, and National Honor Societies. For some schools this is like a club, but at my school it’s more like an award.

-Started a HOSA (which is a health science based organization) chapter at my school. I worked really hard to get this started and recruit other students to join. Next year, we plan to attend 2 national conferences. Who knows; maybe I’ll win an award.

What do you guys think? If it helps, my intended major is biomedical engineering. Also, is there any where else I can squeeze this type of information into my app?

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Anyone? I’m really in need of some outside opinions.

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I started HOSA too and made a project statewide…! My chapter also elected a state officer in its first year!!! (My friend is a state officer!) You should put that cuz HOSA is amazing. I qualified for Nationals but could not attend cuz of sumemr programs but all other officers are going so yeah!!

Also for summer program couldn’t you mention that in your essay rather than putting it in your ECs? Cuz I would think that you would have a lot to say about it.

Also you don’t have to report all. Put all that you have worked on a lot and that matters to you. I have like 14 clubs but am putting only like 8.

Give me some feedback also!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1772777-what-range-of-schools-could-i-get-into-next-year-p1.html

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How do you attend 2 national conferences when there is only one?..

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compile them into their common areas- aka their lowest common denominator

leadership,

sports,

health related,

misc

Start with the ones that show the most commitment/ passion about- I’d guessing that would be the health related EC’s
structured this way adcoms can quickly see the strength and depth of each EC area and get an better understanding of what really interests you! .

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@Frigidcold
By national, I meant out-of-state, as in there will be participants from schools around the nation. I didn’t mean THE national conference; it is only our 1st year running so we won’t be sending anyone there.

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@CCuser528 Oh, thanks for clarifying. Going to nationals this year, was too busy last year. Hope it’s worth it.

@jhgong What did you compete in?

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chem olympiad/science fair/math olympiad/HOSA/Beta… etc

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Can someone give me an actual list of the extracurriculars I should include? Also, are my EC’s good enough to be considered for admission to Ivys and other elite schools?

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A few notes:
(1) Do NOT use acronyms (unless the word limit is an issue).
(2) List is not in any specific order.
(3) There are several reasons that the Common App has a restriction on the number of activities you may include. For one, you should report only ones that are significant to you. Even though you claim to be greatly involved in each activity, many admissions officers (mainly those at top universities) will see your EC list and think, “Oh, another one of these kids with a bunch of clubs and what-not.”

Activities list (currently at 9):
-Junior Boosters (Executive Board, a group of specifically appointed students)

-Student Council (Treasurer Junior and probably senior year)

-EMERGE sophomore leadership program (Junior Facilitator)

-NAACP (President 2 years)

-School Volleyball AND Club Volleyball under the same activity tab (you do not appear to be involved enough in club volleyball to warrant a separation)

-Started a HOSA chapter

-Team ASAP / Peer Tutor

-Model UN (seems similar to NAACP)

-Started and developed curriculum for a mentorship program… (possibly group with peer tutoring)

Academic awards list:
-Freshman, Sophomore, and National Honor Societies

To write about in an essay showing your dedication to the medical field:
-Science/Medicine summer program at Emory University

-Biomedical research at the NIH this summer

-Hospital Volunteer

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@1golfer1
Thanks so much for your response! NAACP stands for the National Assosciation for the Advancement of Colored People. It is the oldest and most active civil rights group in the U.S., and is not at all similar to Model UN. I think it is important to my application because (1) I plan to continue my involvement with the organization in college and after graduation and (2) because the principles of the NAACP strongly coincide with my personal feelings about race and advancing opportunities for people of color.

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One more EC I forgot to write about:

Art History Club. I know it seems so random and not at all related to my interests, but that could be further from the truth. I took AP Art History sophomore year, and it was my favorite class that I’ve ever taken. I feel liked I learned a new language. I can now look at art and architecture and analyze it in a meaningful way. I actually go to art museums and know what I’m looking at. I plan to write one of my essays on how that class changed my perspective and how it has developed into a lifelong interest of mine.

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That is a really good topic for an essay because it will shed further light on what makes you “tick”.
List only the EC’s that are verifiable and show long term interest, commitment and participation. You have plenty of them already .

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That is a really good topic for an essay because it will shed further light on what makes you “tick”.
List only the EC’s that are verifiable and show long term interest, commitment and participation. You have plenty of them already .

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I know this is unrelated to the topic of the thread, but if you don’t mind me asking, how did you hear of the summer program at Enory and what is it called? I’m very interested in learning more about it for next summer.

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It is called the Summer Science Academy. I found out about it just by surfing the Internet for science summer programs that were free or cheap. To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend it. The program coordinators weren’t very organized and I was one of the smartest students there so I didn’t learn that much new material. However, it was a fun experience, I got to see Emory’s campus, and I did learn more about careers in science and medicine.

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Bump

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Bump