<p>“When these activities rise from the level of minor league clubs to a major league passion then they speak very eloquently beyond stats about who someone is and what they’d bring to a campus”</p>
<p>That’s very true, however most colleges make admission decisions mainly on stats, due to getting many applications from students who lack the stats to be able to be successful at a particular college. At most, for most colleges, ECs, community service may be major factors in merit aid. </p>
<p>In general, it’s only the very top colleges for which ECs, volunteer work are very important in admission, and that’s because such colleges have an overabundance of high stat applicants, so pick and choose from among those high stat applicants using ECs, service, and other factors to select students in order to create classes that are diverse and will contribute to an active, wideranging, campus life.</p>
<p>The students who did ECs and service only to decorate their resumes or to amass what students think are an impressive # of hours aren’t likely to impress such colleges that are evaluating ECs and service by the results, effort, creativity, independence, responsibility, etc., not by the hours students put in. Such colleges know that students can amass lots of hours by simply showing up and staring off in space at many places.</p>