<p>ECs are important because, more than grades, the skills developed and practiced are transferrable to the work world. There aren’t too many jobs out there whose requirements are “ability to study for exams,” “good at selecting the right multiple choice answer,” etc. </p>
<p>When kids focus on one or two ECs, in-depth, they learn leadership skills, people management, communication, time management, priority setting, etc. I think this is another reason why schools prefer a kid who was devoted to one or two activities and rose through the ranks, so to speak, and accomplished something, to a kid who joined 10 clubs and attended 10 meetings a week but accomplished nothing. </p>
<p>In fact, one piece of advice I heard back when my kid was applying to colleges is that they prefer ECs that are “real world” – working at a hospital, reporting for a newspaper, painting houses.</p>