<p>What if I don't participate in any EC's? Will this significantly hurt me?</p>
<p>I don't want to take EC's just for them to look good on my application; aside from the fact that I'm just not interested. </p>
<p>One thing I'd just like to put out there: I have this unfounded theory that an admissions officer would be tired of seeing a student who tries to mold themselves (in an almost fake way) into a "perfect applicant" and would prefer to see a genuine student who does not necessarily conform to the usual norms. Maybe this is just wishful thinking on my behalf. </p>
<p>I just want to apply as myself, and that includes not taking EC's.</p>
<p>Perhaps your def'n of ECs could use tweaking. ECs don't necessarily only compose of sports, arts, music, clubs, etc. It can include part time employment, voluntarism, family requirements (babysitting, caretaking) and serious out-of-classroom exploration. Do you participate in any of these? In what do you want to apply yourself?</p>
<p>If you can make this relevant, then you don't necessarily have to be brother Spanish Club, NHS, cross country.</p>
<p>IF you just lay on your duff -- then know what to expect as well.</p>
<p>I suspect you already know the answer to this.</p>
<p>Sure, smart passionate students can live a perfectly well-adjusted life without school sponsored EC's. The problem is that their applications look amazingly similar to socially isolated, dispassionate nerds. The two applications are almost impossible to tell apart.</p>
<p>Are you seriously saying that nothing interests you? Nothing in either your entire school or community? Nothing seems valuable to you? No volunteer work, sports, teams, or clubs? I find that hard to believe.</p>
<p>And furthermore, why should a college admit someone who had identical academic performance to someone who managed the same workload while simultaneously juggling sports, clubs, etc.?</p>
<p>As for will it hurt you, you don't need me to tell you that. What sort of schools are we talking about? And has eliminating EC's from your schedule given you a 4.0/2400?</p>
<p>Georgeanne, the OP knows why people should participate in ECs:</p>
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I don't want to take EC's just for them to look good on my application; aside from the fact that I'm just not interested.
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<p>As for the OP: you can test your little theory come admissions time. There's a difference between conforming and pursuing a passion. If you do not have a passion, then that will probably puzzle or displease admissions officers, even more so if you have perfect academic credentials. You can apply yourself toward school all you want, but if you're not showing involvement with anyone else, that looks bad. An isolationist mindset will not get you far in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Try and get involved in something related to your intended major/degree. Medicine - get some volunteer experience at a hospital. Law - volunteer at a law firm, mock trial etc. Sciences - research lab. You get the idea. If you're seriously "not interested" in anything now, you're not gonna show a passion or interest in anything at university or throughout the rest of your life which is very unattractive for admission officers. If you don't have anything in particular you ARE passionate about at this very moment, then you still have showed no attempt to even try and find something, which could be seen as even worse.</p>
<p>Some of us get involved in ECs because we actually enjoy doing them. Before this year I had absolutely no intention of going to an American university. In Australia, ECs are absolutely nothing, it's all grades. Every EC I did during school and after was to do with the fact I enjoyed them and had an interest in the field. You need to find something (even just a job, because everyone's interested in money) that you enjoy and that shows you're not a robot only concerned with good grades. Grades will only get you so far in life.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, ECs are an integral part of the admissions process. It has nothing to do with "passion" or some other intangible quality, but colleges have researched the issue and discovered that those who actively participate and excel in a variety of activities tend to become more monetarily successful later in life and thus donate more money to their alma mater. Thus, even highly talented academics will be rejected because they don't represent an asset insofar as it is not as profitable to accept such people. The best thing you can do is apply to a school that places a higher emphasis on academics -- that tends to include state schools or international colleges (for example, in Canada, Australia, or the UK).</p>
<p>Personally, I'm not engaged in any ECs, either, since those who participate tend to be hyper-competitive individuals who have no interest in the club. Case in point: the president and vice-president of the chess club at my school have no idea how to actually play chess.</p>
<p>It depends on the schools you're looking for. If you want to go to a big public university that bases its decisions almost entirely on raw statistics (eg GPA, test scores), the lack of ECs probably won't matter. </p>
<p>If you want to go to a selective college, having activities that help distinguish you from thousands of academically similar students will help tremendously.</p>
<p>Well, although I'm not quite as jaded as Begoner is about the significance of EC's in the process, they are virtually essential, and whether or not you want to accept it, the majority of students participate out of genuine interest.</p>
<p>I don't think passion is unimportant to colleges. Admissions offices understand that if they accept a bunch of people who won't continue their EC's in college, the college communities will be rather dull. If people remember their college experiences as boring, they're not going to be donating much, regardless of their income level.</p>
<p>And to the OP, colleges don't care much about whether your EC's are school-sponsored. In fact, a lot of the best applicants are engaged in activities outside of school. However, there's a big difference between turning down NHS/MUN/FBLA/Spanish club/Student Council for lab research, internships, and volunteer work and turning down those in-school activities for XBOX, parties, and napping.</p>