<p>I'm an Asian (Indian) applicant interested in engineering; hopefully, I will be academically qualified for such schools by the time I'm a senior. However, I'm worried about my ECs. My plan for next year (sophomore year) is as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>Join Physics Club (no academic clubs available freshman year)</li>
<li>Join Math Club, take AMC 10 etc.</li>
<li>Join Chemistry Club</li>
<li>Volunteer at/participate in an organization emphasizing student research - from what I've heard it's fairly small and not very well funded, but hopefully it will grow over the next few years.</li>
<li>Continue participating on the school tennis team - hopefully I can climb to varsity before senior year</li>
<li>Continue participating on the school swim team - Honestly, I suck at swimming, but it's fun.</li>
<li>I've been forced to drop out of our school's fairly prestigious audition-only orchestra for the rest of high school due to scheduling issues, but I'm going to audition (I forgot to mention: I play cello) for two local youth orchestras. Based on my knowledge and as corroborated by others, I should be placed into the second-highest level of the more prestigious orchestra, and the highest level of the less prestigious orchestra. Wow, that was a mouthful : P</li>
<li>Participate in varous music festivals/concerto competitions for cello</li>
<li>Continue playing piano; I'm not good, but I don't suck. I probably won't achieve anything worth mentioning.</li>
<li>Look for jobs involving fixing computers/cars </li>
</ul>
<p>To me, this seems to fit in almost perfectly with the "Asian stereotype," which seems to be a very negative thing in college admissions. Do you guys have any advice on how I could improve my ECs? Anything would be appreciated : )</p>
<p>HYPSM caliber ECs are in general things that go beyond the high school. While they do take some very high achieving academic students, those for whom ECs are a big boost most often have achievements in one areaon a national/international level, they are the lopsided super achievers.</p>
<p>This is the biggest problem for younger students looking to get into top schools.</p>
<p>The ECs that matter are the ones you love to do. They’re the ones that you gush about in your essays, that you talk about with corny and passionate language.</p>
<p>Now, if you’re passionate about all of the above, then that’s great. There’s no need to “improve” your ECs by adding in other I-need-this-to-get-into-Harvard activities if these things are what you love to do. There’s no need to plan out your life so as to please admissions officers; they’ll see through it. Long lists of ECs are useless if the admissions officer can’t locate the passion behind them.</p>
<p>And if there are other things you are truly passionate about that aren’t on this list, you should be able to think of and find the opportunities yourself if you really care that much about them.</p>
<p>What impresses top schools isn’t the kind of laundry list of activities that you seem to be planning to do. You seem to be erroneously assuming that the length of one’s activities list is what impresses places like Ivies. That’s not true. </p>
<p>What impresses top schools is having a deep interested in activities and having had an impact on those activities. This is most likely to occur when students pursue activities that interest them, and then use their energy and creativity to do far more than is typically done with the activity.</p>
<p>For instance, being president of a club isn’t going to impress top schools. Being a club officer who implemented a new program, however, could impress top schools.</p>
<p>Honestly, the first thing I think when I look at your list is that there’s no way in hell you would have time to meaningfully commit to any of those. This isn’t to say that only the incredibly lopsided applicants get into top schools, but that you’ll need to narrow your focus a little in order to do something impressive. If you become truly passionate about any of these activities and perform at a level impressive to top schools, it will become too time consuming to continue other activities. </p>
<p>Listen to NSM. And Study Hacks - Decoding Patterns of Success - Cal Newport has some great advice regarding ECs and the “laundry list fallacy” as well, and can put them a little more eloquently than the CC mantra, “quality, not quantity.”</p>