<p>Well I was just wondering what kind of things you guys did to get in Princeton.
Currently I have 900+hrs or community service b/c I've been playing in my church band for the past 4-5yrs.. and I've been doing other music/church related stuff but I feel as if those extracurriculars aren't strong enough for a top notch school like Princeton.</p>
<p>Please Help :)</p>
<p>So… Does anyone want to answer my question?</p>
<p>Sure, I know several kids at Princeton, and they all have a few things thing in common. They all have good footwork, they all have the ability to disengage while either advancing or retreating, they all have good tip control, and they seem to share an uncanny ability to land flicks. These shared traits probably explain why each of them was on the USFA senior NRPS as high school juniors.</p>
<p>I hope that helps!</p>
<p>I started a marathon for burmese refugees living in Thailand. Hope that helps me get in.</p>
<p>@InnrCityPressure: I don’t think you need exceptional ECs to get into Princeton. I mean, don’t get me wrong; you certainly need a few ECs that you’re passionate about but it’s not like you have to start a charity, be the president of 10 clubs, etc to get in. Compared to Harvard and Yale, I think Princeton focuses a bit more on academics in the admission process. And I don’t know if this helps much…but I know an Asian girl who got into Princeton with only one extracurricular (cross country captain) but strong academics.</p>
<p>ECs that make one stand out are ones that the community will value. Are you a leader? Do you take initiative?</p>
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<p>GoldOwl, care to show us some links to prove your points here?</p>
<p>One of my roomates was an IMO Gold Medallist, another owned a cost-effective water purification patent, and the third played football.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about this for quite awhile as I’ve perused questions asking the same thing about certain selective universities. The straight and easy answer to your question might be an application that includes community service, leadership, unique ec’s that show passion, etc…but why does it always seem that we have to commit ourselves to an activity just for the sake of getting into <em>insert highly selective college here</em>.</p>
<p>I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear (and probably highly contrived), but maybe you should do something YOU enjoy doing. While doing all those activities might increase your chances at Princeton, it might not, and if you perhaps do get accepted, now what? You just wasted your high school years doing activities just for the simple goal of pleasing colleges. In this I advise for you to find your passion(s), fulfill your potential in that activity, and see where it leads. I think we lose sight of how important our happiness can be and subsequently, that getting into Princeton (or Harvard, Stanford, Williams, etc.) isn’t going to magically make us happy and/or give us a free ride to achieving all our goals in life. Perhaps this isn’t relevant to your situation, but I sure had to fight with that concept for the longest of times. I guarantee that if you find something you love to do and find satisfaction in your work, whatever it may be, you will be successful not matter where you end up, be it Princeton or a state university. Of course I want to get into Princeton, Stanford, and Yale, but I’ve come to the realization that it’s not going to define how I live my life. </p>
<p>Sorry about the slightly unhelpful rant, and I wish you luck in your future endeavors!</p>
<p>@InnrCityPressure – these answers are all over the map because you’ve given us an impossible question, is your extracurricular activity what the Princeton admissions committee is looking for? People get into Princeton or any other top notch school with all sorts of extracurriculars.</p>
<p>@onecircuit. Just look at the stats from last year’s Princeton results thread and then compare it with that of Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. I think the distinction is fairly clear. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do ECs…I’m just saying that you don’t necessarily need exceptional ECs to get into Princeton.</p>
<p>Goldowl, you’re assuming that results posted on CC are a representative sample of overall admissions… which it is not. There is a very high degree of self-selectivity on the types of people that use CC and among those who post all their stats online.</p>
<p>I generally take stats posted on CC with a grain of salt. Most of the people I knew from CC understated their ECs and other identifiable activities online for obvious reasons. It’s only when you get to Princeton you realize that this person who only listed “maths club president” was also an IMO gold medalist. Most people who are good enough to get into Princeton are more concerned with real achievements in life rather than anonymous online gossip.</p>
<p>And owl, when somebody asks you for proof to back up quite a contentious assertion you made, trust me when I say that citing an anonymous online forum where information can neither be verified nor in any way representative will dent any credibility you have in real life.</p>
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<p>I take anything I see on CC with a grain of salt. If someone wants to post an impression they have as GoldOwl has done I file it away in my memory bank for later. If I see the same assertion many times from different sources I start to give it some credibility. I can’t tell you how much I have learned from CC this way. Where there is smoke there is fire so to speak. Sometimes I never hear an assertion more than once so I ultimately dismiss it. Sometimes even an assertion made multiple times ends up not being true because CC does have biases based on who posts here.</p>
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<p>First of all at least he attempedt to back up his assertion, which is more than a lot of posters do. I also felt that he did so with reasonable evidence. You poked some legitimate holes in his argument but this statement was going to far. This is an online forum and GoldOwl is an anonymous poster. Anything he or anyone else posts doesn’t in any way affect their credibility in real life. In fact I’m hard pressed to think of an environment that has to do less with real life than cyber space. His citations don’t need to stand up to the scrutiny they would if he was writing a paper at Princeton.</p>
<p>I for one appreciate the input from both GoldOwl and you. I now have two data points, one that says the ECs that are needed to gain admittance to Princeton don’t have to be truly remarkable, Princeton focuses more on the academics. The other says that the ECs of people who are admitted are indeed truly remarkable. These data points are both interesting enough that I will remember them and when I hear other tidbits in this same subject area I will be able to add them to the mix and maybe at some point I will have my own opinion.</p>
<p>“If I see the same assertion many times from different sources I start to give it some credibility”</p>
<p>Your view that people should be the judge of information they receive is perfectly reasonable. However the fact that people many different people once believed the world was flat did not make it true. </p>
<p>There are many kids or occasional browsers who read these forums who don’t have the time to review every post and history. The very fact that you appear to seriously contemplate what he/she just said is proof of that. For their and your benefit, it is best for there to be as little misinformation as possible. </p>
<p>The fact is that differences between the top few colleges are over-exaggerated. As much as we like to define the Princeton experience as completely different from that of Harvard, there really isn’t that much difference. When it comes to admissions, the pool of students at these top colleges are largely inter-changeable. To suggest that any one school is biased in one direction is simply misleading. Take it with a grain of salt if like, but I know what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>+1 “data point” :)</p>
<p>To future applicants and parents reading this. While you’re not expected to have won an IMO gold medal, don’t think in any way that in this increasingly competitive college admissions process that you can get away with anything less than stellar ECs. </p>
<p>Last year, the middle 50% SAT band was around 710-800 for each section. That means at least 25% of students admitted scored 800 on at least 1 section of the SAT. Factor in the fact that less than half of students with a perfect 2400 were admitted should tell you that while academics do matter, only ECs, essays and recs can differentiate you from the competition. Any suggestion that academics matter more at Princeton compared with Harvard and Yale is silly because almost all admits at these schools were at the top or at the very least, close to top of their class.</p>
<p>As my mom used to say “work hard, play hard”</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies!</p>
<p>Well first of all, I asked this question because I wanted to get a general feel on what kind of people tend to get accepted so that I can see if this school is possible for me to get into, or to face reality and try other schools.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s not like I’m going to try to do the things you tell me. I’m going to do activities that portrays who I am. And if princeton doesn’t like me, then screw them (jk… plz don’t throw away my app b/c of this)</p>
<p>Being in a church band doesn’t count as volunteer credit, unless your band played weekly for a specific cause/organization.</p>