<p>Yeah, I was kind of in a hurry so I forgot. I generally don’t punctuate contractions or proofread when I’m typing on an internet forum or texting since it requires more time.</p>
<p>Trust me, my grammar skillzzz are way better than this…</p>
<p>Passion is irrelevant. Colleges can’t tell passion from 6 pages of paper when they never see your face. Do what clubs you’ll get leadership positions and win awards</p>
<p>If your passion does not show on your resume or essay, you don’t have a passion. Period.</p>
<p>Resume is based solely on your achievements/positions etc, so if they all point one way it’ll look like you have that as a passion regardless of whether that’s true or not. Essays can definitely be faked and many colleges don’t ask yju to write essays about your passions.</p>
<p>"Colleges can’t tell passion from 6 pages of paper when they never see your face. Do what clubs you’ll get leadership positions and win awards " </p>
<p>I feel anaconda is giving iffy advice here.</p>
<p>In his arithmetic, he posits that club leadership positions, listed on an EC box of the Common App, mentioned in passing in some random personal statement and some awards – are BETTER than a person trying to honestly express himself or herself in the essay format? Certainly memorable ECs and rare awards are nice boosters to an application. </p>
<p>But if one downplay the essays, you do so at your own peril if you’re talking about the very selective schools – the schools that are really trying to distinguish actual scholars, actual people with initiative and concern for others, actual people who think outside the box. That distilled formula mentioned above is super cynical and is IMHO, poor advice.</p>
<p>I’ve had the good fortune to attend college with many people like that. I’ve interviewed hundreds of kids – some who have displayed that “WOW” combination of talent, ability and character – even in the already crazy high caliber pool of applicants. And I’ve talked to my regional Admissions reps who sometimes share that impression and sometimes don’t – but it’s all good.</p>
<p>I think if you join swim team along with track, you will get into Stanford.
You may also want to consider joining NHS.</p>
<p>Track is good, so is swim, assuming your performance is good.</p>
<p>One academic team or club could also could be good, but it might be better imo to do one outreach / community service type thing instead (or in addition too).</p>
<p>Try to leverage your strengths - for example, maybe your outreach could be coaching kids in track or volunteering to teach a swim class.</p>
<p>So if passion is based on just positions and achievements, then joining a club or team with not a lot of people would be good right? Since there is less people to compete with you on leadership or achievements.</p>
<p>I ask this because my school’s tennis team only has 3 people on it and only one person from grade. I would be able to play a whole lot including varsity since there are not many people.
Should I join it then?</p>
<p>The bowling,golf, and hockey teams also have almost no one on the team. While the football team has 110 guys…</p>
<p>Some sports will be good, but the time committment from sports is so huge that it is really inefficient if you’re just doing it for college, do it if you want though and you’ll have fun.
If I followed my passions, I’d be playing a lot of basketball at a level not good enough to make the school team and doing recycling club instead of winning math awards and science awards. Yeah that would really have served me so well for admissions.
Your passions better be what you’re good at, or you better pretend so for college apps. Awards and leaderships validate that you successfully followed your “passions”, no one will believe it without stuff to back it up. And if you’re a talented enough writer you’ll display this passion whether it’s real or not on the few essays on the topic</p>
<p>^ Not necessarily. Otherwise, there will be no one doing volunteering as there is no award on that. A few hundred hours of volunteering may be viewed as important or even more than the achievement by a few hundred hours of training in sport. Only the top ones may get a medal on something or be the president of a club, majority of the students do not have either on their CV. If you really rely on those “titles” to show a passion, then most students do not have a passion at all. Of course, you are good at something and lead a club, it will demonstrate your strength and passion in it, but it is not the only way.</p>