If you’re applying to a highly selective college should you list all of your activities and awards, or only those that are exceptional and meaningful to you?
I wonder if listing everything takes the focus away from the more important EC’s. Specifically, should you list:
<li>Clubs in which you weren’t actively involved? especially the more common orgs like pep club, foreign language clubs, etc. I even wonder about listing NHS since this is probably common among applicants to elite schools.</li>
<li>School Awards that have less significance. Principal’s List (4.0 GPA), Sport’s Teams Scholar-Athlete Awards, School Art Prizes, etc. - especially if you have higher level awards at the regional or state level. </li>
<li>State Level recognitions that go to large number of people and are somewhat automatic. For example, our state has an all-state academic team, which is automatic for the top athletes who have a certain GPA. Worth listing or is it redundant for athletes who make the regular all-state team? </li>
<li>8th Grade Awards - what about major competitions like MathCounts?</li>
I’m asking because when I read a number of the “what are my chances threads”, I sometimes miss the truly unique EC’s and awards in the middle of a lot of trivial listings. I wonder if the presentation to a college admissions reader would be stronger by listing fewer but more meaningful activities.
<p>If being in a generic club like French Club is a part of who you are (are you planning to major in a foreign language? do you have foreign language awards? etc.) If it's part of your interests, then I would put it in the application. However, when I was at a tour of Columbia, the admissions officer said that if it is something like Beta Club (every single applicant to Columbia is going to have been in Beta Club) then don't bother putting it on your application unless it somehow adds to your interests or yourself. I don't know if that made sense. For example, if you are a die-hard science person; you have science awards, science EC's, science recommendations, and Beta Club is just in the middle of nowhere not relating to any other part of your life or application, then I would leave it off--I left a few activities like that off my application because I knew they wouldn't give me an edge or show the admissions officers anything new that they hadn't seen already.</p>
<p>Oh, it's a service organization. If you have a GPA that is at a certain level, I think 90 average, you can get in. You do some small amount of community service to get in. I thought it was nation-wide. Well, it really isn't very selective, like 30% or 40% of my school was in it, so it isn't really a big accomplishment worth mentioning on a college application.</p>
<p>is it like national honor society?</p>
<p>yes, but much less selective</p>