I made a post earlier and people said EC’s arent as important as grades, but im scared I wont have ANY EC’s at all.
FYI: I currently go to Davis as an EE but plan to transfer to ucla/ucb as a math major
I just got rejected from an actuarial scholarship and I also applied to a tutoring position, but the lady said they are full right now and will let me know if they need anything. I was counting on those as EC’s, but now I have nothing. I am part of IEEE (the electrical engineering club at davis), but our club is very inactive. I’ve been to all the meetings and they don’t do anything. Our IEEE does not host any projects so I have close to nothing to talk about for what I did for the club. I’ve been to the math club, but honestly the club is so informal. Its a very small club (10 people or so) and half of them are graduate students talking about their mumbo jumbo. The remaining people in the club seem to be close knit. The first time I went to the meeting, everyone seemed busy, and when I tried to ask people about the club, they just said “Oh yeah its informal. just sign your name on the signup sheet and they’ll know you were here”. They usually get some guest speaker to talk about math, so I find it hard to network with other club members cause everyone is listening to the guest speaker.
Can anyone give me advice on what sorts of EC’s i should pursue? I feel like it might be a bit late as internships are hard for me to attain as a freshman. I am thinking of passing the first actuarial exam over summer, but I’m not sure if that is even an EC… even if it is, I don’t think its a valuable one.
ECs are more or less irrelevant. The primary criteria includes having a high GPA, completing prereqs, and having your LOR (ideally - I don’t think it’s an admission requirement, but it would make things easier for you).
That being said, try to pursue some ECs that you feel will benefit you, as opposed to choosing ECs that you think may increase your chances. Look into various internships, research opportunities, jobs, clubs, and so on - just find things that you are interested in. Having a good EC won’t help your application for transferring much, but internships and things particularly WILL help you for jobs after graduation, grad school applications, etc.
@goldencub yeah, I’m trying, but I just got rejections. I will continue looking for them. Also, I thought UC’s didnt take rec letters.
If they do: I did a dual enrollment program during my 12th grade of high school, where I took ALL my classes at CC. I have one teacher that I had a really good relationship with… would it be alright if I asked her? Its not a high school teacher… its a community college professor, so would that make it an alright recommender?
I have no idea. It’s something that you counselor should be able to help you with. It’s better to have it than not (sort of an incentive for them to accept you - having all lower-div major reqs and all GE completed allows you to move on to upper-divs). I don’t think it will kill your chances if it’s not completed, though.
I found student government to be really rewarding and it definitely helped me network with some key staff and student leaders that had almost secret access to scholarships, volunteer opportunities, and internships.
Not necessarily, senator positions can open up at the start of the semester what with peoples schedule changes and stuff, you dont want to wait too long though as the positions can fill up fast