<p>I've got good grades but what are some great ec's you guys could recommend to do? like leadership stuff? and where could i find them? i barely have any excpt for fencing team...</p>
<p>Should i join sci olympiad next year and quit fencing? right now i'm kicking myself in the @$$ for not joining freshman year. i'm also kicking myself in the @$$ for not entering my service hours in time for Arista</p>
<p>i want to get into a good college like mit or something</p>
<p>..help!!!! please i'm like freaking out right now.... :( can anyone speak from experience?</p>
<p>If you like to be involved in your schools through your student body, maybe run for class office or join the student council (never really my thing).</p>
<p>If you feel like that you don't like fencing, then quit.</p>
<p>Don't join the sci olympiad unless you actually enjoy science.</p>
<p>you're going to be flamed by the end of tomorrow, so I'll state this plainly.</p>
<p>do not choose activities solely for a resume. do not choose activities solely for college. choose activities that you want to do, and get into them. do you like fencing? keep doing it, and practice. do you want to do science olympiad? do it, and practice. do you really want to volunteer? do it, and enjoy it. spend your time doing things you will enjoy, not what you think colleges will enjoy.</p>
<p>don't look for leadership--leadership will find you. strength garners respect, which garners honor and position. you do not need leadership positions to be a leader. you do not need leadership positions to get into a good college. you need to show yourself in your clubs--your character, your personality, your ideals and beliefs and desires.</p>
<p>You should do things you can do well in. Period. Don't do tennis if you're not good at it. Don't start cramming for bio olympiad if you got a b in the class. Don't quit fencing if you are good at it...that would be a bad idea. And don't do things that every one else in your local area is competing for (unless of course you know you are better). This is what I did and my resume is littered with state/national awards.</p>
<p>If you do not do things you enjoy, then what's the point?</p>
<p>Seems to me you want the college of your choice wanting YOU not some surrogate whose resume has your name on it.</p>
<p>That said.... </p>
<p>I've been a Science Olympiad coach for the past four years. It is an amazing activity that draws in the best of the best kids. If you are scientifically curious, it is a GREAT program. If not, you will totally regret it.</p>
<p>Find your passion. Enjoy high school by actively living in the moment, not what could be four years from now. </p>
<p>Doing it for the resume will only leave you with what ifs.</p>
<p>my opinion only, for whatever that is worth.</p>
<p>Everyon keeps on emphasizing on doing what you like but that just isn't possible these days. There are kids with international awards and more than twenty EC's on their list. If you want to get into a good college you have to have good EC's. BTW if you want to show leadership qualities its a good idea to start your own club or organization that does some sort of communtiy service.</p>
<p>I have kinda very good ECs,
probably among the best in my college.
But i didnot apply to many good college because of not so good grades n SATs..
I am totally confused...
I regret that i dint apply, but sometimes i feel i would not have been accepted if the see my SATs
But ECs make you all rounder and I have learnt a great deal from my participation in different events...
Just Do what u have passion for.......</p>
<p>"There are kids with international awards and more than twenty EC's on their list. If you want to get into a good college you have to have good EC's."</p>
<p>While there is some truth to this statement, one should consider the entirety. 1) What is a "good" college? Seriously ask yourself how you define this.</p>
<p>2) A laundry list of ECs is not as impressive as a genuinely curious person, who is involved due to inner drive and has real character. The kid who does one sport or one EC yet has to work at mom and dad's restaurant 20 hrs a week can be just as or even more impressive than the kid who gets to do 6-7 ECs weekly.</p>
<p>Lastly, echoing what others have said -- find yourself -- not craft yourself into some "ivy-bound" mold. I went to an HYP and I'd say few of my classmates were pre-packaged or in-authentic (is this a word?). They loved learning, loved life and loved what they could achieve with the gifts they were given.</p>
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Everyon keeps on emphasizing on doing what you like but that just isn't possible these days. There are kids with international awards and more than twenty EC's on their list.
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<p>I did stuff I liked for my high school ECs. I got into six US News Top 20 schools.</p>
<p>Now, many of the activities that I liked happened to be fairly good ones for college admissions purposes. But I didn't do any international olympiads, or volunteer at a hospital or in Africa. I wasn't president of a club. I sure wasn't in any 20 ECs.</p>
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don't look for leadership--leadership will find you. strength garners respect, which garners honor and position.
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</p>
<p>Great comment. :) As someone who did student government in college for three years, it was easy to tell who became a "leader" for the sake of being a leader, and who happened to fall into it because they cared about the issues at hand.</p>
<p>Here's another person who agrees with the leadership comment. I tried getting a couple of positions for the sake of it and failed miserably. In one of the activities I really love, I was just doing my best/working like a crazy person, and I sort of just... ended up in a leadership position. I didn't even know until someone congratulated me. My reaction was pretty good, and then I looked back at everything I had been doing and I realized... oh, wow, I do have a leadership position now. Haha.</p>
<p>I was in a bunch of ECs back when I was in HS. Ones off the top of my head were science olympiad, chemistry tutoring, math tutoring, couple of math competitions, quiz bowl (3rd in large state), model congress, model UN, yearbook, and a handful of other things. While talking to an admissions officer at CMU he told me the most outstanding EC I had was my involvement in the yearbook club since hardly any engineers ever do that. I had only joined as a favor to a friend back in sophomore year, enjoyed it through junior year, and quit senior year since the dude who took it over was a complete spaz (actually, I guess I had a leadership position there, since I was the first person, in what eventually became about half the staff, to quit).</p>
<p>So join whatever clubs interest you. There's certain to be something in there that makes you seem special (and even if there isn't, there's thousands of spots at top colleges, and only so many people can win 10 international awards).</p>
<p>half of it is bcs i fiercely want to get into an ivy league, the other half is because i don't get out enough, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Whend did you start w/ all your ECs? was it during freshman year? somphmore year? or did you wait till junior?</p>
<p>i have passion for a lot of things, i just don't have the time to squeeze all of them in... at my school, a lot of clubs and teams are all on the same day...</p>
<p>i figure i'll continue with fencing, because its fun and gives me something to look forward to all day, and join sci olympiad, bcs i'm actually good at science.</p>
<p>^ Join HOSA (google it for more info) if your interested in health care. Oh and by the way, there are plenty of amazing colleges that are not ivy league schools.</p>