<p>I want to major in wildlife biology. I have one very good extracurricular. I interned at a wildlife rehabilitation center for five hundred and twenty five hours and did lab work (fecal tests and gram stains), force fed sick birds by gavage and with solid food, cared for young birds, released rehabilitated animals back into the wild, bottle fed young mammals, educated people about wildlife,did physical exams on new intakes and helped diagnose their illnesses, prescribed their medicines and calculated the dosages using medical math formulas,I helped splint and do blood tests on birds, did lead tests and watched surgeries and necropsies. I also took the test to be a certified wildlife rehhabiliator and will be licensed after my test is graded. I also learned something about bird anatomy and illnesses. In short I think this is very valuable for what I want to study. I do have other EC's such as volunteering at local parks, animal rescues, animal rights advocacy groups and I will be doing a project for the quality of life program on cruelty to animals in factory farming. However I think all of them other than the internship are worthless because I Iooked at the common application on commonapp.org and they ask for the amount of hours you did at the EC's. At the other places I did very few hours, Im talking 4-5 hours each at two EC's and 20-25 hours each for 3 EC's and 2-3 hours at one so I think it would be foolish to put them on.My sat score now is a 2030 but im hoping to at least reach a 2100 in october. On AP Us history I got a 5, in AP biology I got a 4. MY gpa is a 93.62. I may go into some clubs this coming year.This comming year (senior year) i will be taking AP calc, chemistry and english. Will my lack of EC's decrease my chances of getting into good colleges to a great extent. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you inadvance</p>
<p>I am extremely sorry for the grammar mistakes. </p>
<p>It will depend upon which colleges you plan to apply. Some schools put a huge emphasis on EC’s and others do not.</p>
<p>You ECs are amazing. Colleges don’t expect you to do 10hrs for one EC every week. Most require relatively few hours per week. You’re fine.</p>
<p>For the other EC’s besides the internship I meant 2-3 hours and and 4-5 hours period not per week. Did I misunderstand you post? and do you think that the high quality of the one internship I did will outweigh the low amount of EC’s I have because this is really worrying me. Thanks for replying so quickly.</p>
<p>These are terrific ECs and really show your passion and dedication. It doesn’t matter that you had several periphery ones that were low hours. Put them anyway! Honestly: I think most adcoms would MUCH rather see this EC list, which clearly shows your passion, than a longer list of generic high schools clubs with leadership roles like most kids on CC have.</p>
<p>Of course, you need to continue in this same vein this semester. What can you be doing NOW that is related and is several hours per week? Can you volunteer at a local shelter or vet? Does your school have a wildlife/bio-oriented club or can you volunteer work with a bio teacher in your school or local elementary school a few hours a week? Are you doing any private research into something you’re interested in on your own time? Don’t forget that you can list that as an EC as well.</p>
<p>Also, look into these scholarship for naturalists/wildlife biologists: <a href=“http://www.nwrawildlife.org/content/nwra-scholarships”>http://www.nwrawildlife.org/content/nwra-scholarships</a>
<a href=“http://www.rmef.org/Conservation/ConservationAwardsScholarships/WildlifeLeadershipAwards.aspx”>http://www.rmef.org/Conservation/ConservationAwardsScholarships/WildlifeLeadershipAwards.aspx</a>
There are more, too… do a search.</p>
<p>Your EC is fine. You do have one thing really standing out and shows your passion.</p>
<p>Whether it was 200hrs total or just 2-3 hours total, we can see a passion and it is clear that you have pursued that passion. Continue your volunteering and your certification is a major plus :)</p>
<p>what do you mean by private research, If I just research a topic I’m interested in over the internet and with books I can actually put that down. Thank you for replying.</p>
<p>What colleges do you mean by top colleges?
With the >500 hours you described, it seems good enough to make up for not other great EC’s. Your sat score is too low for some of the most selective schools though. Maybe consider the act?
Also your schedule seems light to me, but is it the most you could do with the available resources at your school (like few AP’s?).</p>
<p>Those are not the only classes im taking whith the other ones that are not mentioned (that I need to take in order to have enough credits to graduate but are not ap) my scheduelle is allmost completely full. The highest I can really see my sat score going up to is a 2150, thanks for replying.</p>
<p>I’m sorry I wasn’t more clear. I’m not sure I can give you specific examples of something you might be doing, but here’s a real life example of something I’d consider worthy of listing as an EC, that is completely on the student’s own time and is outside the realm of anything school/job/volunteer related:</p>
<p>A kid is really interested in insects and hopes to become an entomologist. She spends many hours every week observing insects in the field and collecting them, pinning them for a collection and identifying them. One day she notices that a specific type of caterpillar has odd tufts and theorizes that it might be to mimic parasitic wasp eggs to avoid predation. She does online research to see if anyone has studied this. She collects some caterpillars and eggs, keeps them in her bedroom, and watches their growth over a period of months. She studies them under the microscope. She tries to capture wasps to test her theory. She seeks out other caterpillars that are related species to study their tufting patterns.</p>
<p>^ So that’s something this kid did just because she wanted to. If it had been done under the guidance/supervision of a teacher or something, it would have a fancy official-sounding title and obviously be a legit EC. There’s no reason it can’t be listed just because the student did it on her own. In fact, it might be looked on even more favorably in some cases since it shows the student’s passion and initiative.</p>