<p>I know everyone here does like 10 thousand ec's and are like president and are passionate about this and that. Other than music (11 years of piano, 3 years of viola) I really don't have any EC's or play sports. Mainly it's because either the clubs met at odd hours that I couldn't get to or I wasn't interested. Like we have a key club, but they met once a month, and it was when I had my SAT tutor come. They had forensics, but I'm petrified of public speaking (also why I didn't do theater). Beyond that though most of the clubs in my school are things that seemed worthless to me (ie anime club or the go club where they played the chinese game go). Will this harm me if my GPA is decent from a competitive HS and I have decent standardized test scores?</p>
<p>Pretty much what I wrote down in my EC's category was 12 seasons of sports, 10 varisty, and 2 captainships ... that's it. I know it's different from your situation, but people would consider my EC's weak for an academic school (especially since I left my community service section completely blank ... I don't do community service end of story), but I managed several Ivys and MIT admissions. Basically write good essays, and have a good interview and you should have a shot at a good school ... but yeah, it could harm you if you don't present youself well on paper, I somehow managed to present myself so I seemed "to have a good personality and would add a lot to the campus" (direct quote from my region's admissions director)</p>
<p>It depends what type of schools you're applying to. For those top tier schools, I mean everyone applying will probably have those grades that you have, but will have other activities and leadership positions. If you're the admissions officer whodo you take? </p>
<p>As its been said over and over, admissions can be a crapshoot, and maybe you will end up like Sklog, good luck.</p>
<p>thanks for the tips guys. and i'll probably be applying to larger schools (i really like nyu, usc, and bu so far). would i stand a better chance there since they accept more people?</p>
<p>Consider applying to Canadian universities. They don't care about EC's (though scholarships they offer may).</p>
<p>I'm kind of in the same boat, except our school offers TWO clubs. <em>sigh</em> Me and my friend were thinking of starting two new clubs, you could do that if you believe your school needs a club that would interest You and other people. My friend and I are hoping to start a Latin Club ( b/c we have no latin courses at our school) and Hearts for Asia to help raise money for Indian and African children. =D</p>
<p>IMO, top schools do indeed like to see what their applicants are doing outside of school, but that doesn't have to be finding a cure for cancer, going to some fancy summer program, being a president of the student body, etc. Why? Those are all very diverse, spread out, unclear, and unfocused ECs. There may be a kid with top grades and a myriad of impressive looking ECs who could be rejected from Harvard. Why???</p>
<p>It's all about passion and dedication. As Sklog demonstrated, he mainly played sports in HS. That showed passion and dedication. For you, it would be music. It changes for everyone. I've done little ECs and community service, but I've been really involved in the visual arts on and off campus. I'm also really into languages and international cultures, especially Japanese, so I'll be studying in Tokyo this summer and will be taking further Japanese language lessons.</p>
<p>Passions are different for everyone. I think that all a college really wants to see is dedication to a passion, not an innumerable and ridiculous amount of community service hours, saving the world ECs, being president of every known thing, lol. PASSION! Always keep that in mind!</p>
<p>well you have music..and if thats the thingg you really wanna do then i think its totally fine to focus more of your attention to that. just write your essay about how big of an impact music has on your life</p>
<p>if you dont have atleast 20 EC's, your soul is doomed to eternal damnation!</p>
<p>What about starting a club? Is there something that interests you that your school doesn't have? That shows really great inititative.</p>
<p>dont like school clubs? start your own :D if music is your focus, make a music club...teach little children how to play piano for free, do whatever.</p>
<p>thanks for the ideas guys, i might consider starting a club, but our school has very little school spirit and like me, most people in my school aren't very big with doing clubs either, so since i'll be a senior next year the club might die afterwards, but it's definitely a good idea about starting one that i'll think about</p>
<p>and blobof, that's actually really nice to know, because i was thinking of applying to a few canadian and european schools.</p>
<p>I don't want to say that anything negative but honestly.....it really depends on where you want to tgo for college and such....however, you would just be like an "ordinary" student. Nothing is wrong with that and certainly everyone can't be passionate about everything. you passion for music and good work is sufficient for some colleges. I think that some service projects wouldn't hurt you. But if you just don't wnat to do anything different, do something more with whatyou're intersted in . say going to senior center to play something. teaching littel kids how to play. volunteering to play for some event.</p>
<p>As for starting a club or something, that is a good option. that would develop your leadership skills and perhaps something more can happen with that. just show more involvement. remember, diversity, focus, and passion.</p>
<p>i would say that many years of music takes a lot of time, devotion, skill, and passion (coming from a girl who took 6 years of piano but had to quit to play two varstiy sports :] )</p>
<p>so don't let people knock you too hard about it.
i mean, you ARE doing something.
and if you start doubting that you're doing something great, then it'll show in your apps and the admissions officers will doubt it too!</p>
<p>don't freak, just keep up the music, and be confident in what you've got.</p>
<p>but yeah, if you want to start a club, go ahead and try it. at least you'll have tried! and even if it doesn't work out you could still mention it in your app. b/c it will show your leadership and think-outside-the-box-ness :]</p>
<p>what would make some universitities wonder is what you did with all that freetime, and what would you add to the campus</p>
<p>I guess as a parent, I wonder wht you did with yourself</p>
<p>and not to rag too much, but what, couldn't find anything to do outside of school, in the real world</p>
<p>not everything should be through school anyway as you grow up</p>
<p>your excuses sound like excuses to have done pretty much just music</p>
<p>unless you are AMAZING and have awards and such</p>
<p>To be honest, at the very best schools, they are looking for leaders, movers, shakers, organizers, people of passion who put their ideas and interests into action. As previously mentioned, nearly every applicant to the very best schools has good scores and good grades, so it is the other factors which differentiate some from the others. Still, you will be able to gain admission to a good school based on good SAT scores and grades.</p>