<p>I'm a rising senior and I'm pretty involved with a couple ECs that don't really demonstrate my interest in the subject I'm planning on majoring in (BME). Does it make a difference if I become involved in things like Science Club for only my senior year?</p>
<p>If you're genuinely interested in science, of course it would make a difference because you'd have a chance to learn more about a field that you care about.</p>
<p>If your question is -- "Will colleges care ?"-- no one here knows. That depends upon what you do, how you present it in your application and how much the colleges that you're applying to care about ECs. Lots of colleges don't care that much about ECs. Public universities, for instance, tend to make decisions based overwhelmingly on grades, scores, class rank and courseload.</p>
<p>But generally, it's quite suspicious if you join an EC during senior year.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don't think that adcoms are looking with suspicion upon students who join ECs senior year. I think that the adcoms probably are simply not going to pay much attention to activities that students joined senior year.</p>
<p>With few exceptions (such as students joining ECs that may be new in their community), the ECs simply won't carry as much weight in admission as would an EC that a student has been involved in for a long time and has a track record of leadership with impact.</p>
<p>What impresses adcoms about ECs is what the students accomplished with them -- what impact the EC had on the student; what impact the student had on the EC. Laundry lists of memberships are not impressive to adcoms. It is possible, however, that a student may learn a great deal about themselves or an activity by being a member, so being a member isn't a waste of the student's time -- unless the student only joined to try to look good to colleges.</p>
<p>adcoms.</p>
<p>I'm going into BME as well and was in Band, Debate, NHS, Student Council, and Key Club. None of those things scream Engineering major, but I justified Band and Debate, my two favorites, as being very useful for BME. The way I see it is that Band encourages thought, discipline and creativity and Debate developes quick thought, organization, and communication skills...all of these things are vital in engineering. I was an officer in everything, too, so I also had the whole working as a team and leadership covered. </p>
<p>I joined all of that stuff because it interested me, though. Don't join something just because you think it'll look good. You learn things in every EC that will help you later.</p>
<p>Sometimes, people actually join EC's because they LIKE them. It's really weird, yeah, but I've seen it happen before.</p>
<p>^Lol. Really now? Hadn't known those people existed. =P</p>
<p>I joined most of my ECs during senior year. And no, it wasn't just to get into college. I started getting really bored with having nothing to do with myself, so I looked into clubs and volunteering activities that seemed interesting and I joined some of them. One in particular became one of the best things that happened to me and really changed me as a person (which was the theme for my college essays). I'm not going to go into more details, but needless to say, it's not frowned upon to "mysteriously" join some ECs during your senior year...they just don't care that much.</p>
<p>I joined two really nerdy activities (math team and academic quizbowl) in my senior year and I actually truly enjoyed them. I think before that year I was afraid of being teased for being such a supergeek but this past year I simply didn't care but people thought of me and I had the time of my life. I wrote about this in one of my essays and I think it worked :) So don't be afraid to join activities senior year- it's sometimes those new ones that are the most rewarding!</p>
<p>Yes, my questions was really if colleges would look badly upon it. Because next year I figure that because I'll only have 5 classes, I'll have a bit more time to get involved with activities I always meant to but never got around to joining.</p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with joining new things. If you have the time to do it, go for it.</p>
<p>yes jli me and you dominated on those teams</p>
<p>It's fine with colleges if students join new activities senior year. Why would colleges think badly of you for doing that? Hopefully, people continue to try new activities throughout their lives.</p>
<p>Colleges aren't going to jump for joy so to speak if a student who has done nothing before suddenly joins a dozen clubs. The colleges simply will know that the student was probably desperately trying to pad their application. Colleges won't be impressed by such a student the way that the colleges would be impressed by students who had been doing some ECs throughout h.s. and by senior year had gotten some leadership experience in connection with ECs.</p>
<p>I'm just going to focus on your thread title, but you ask is it "worthwhile to join ECs senior year?" yes, if you enjoy it it's obviously been worthwhile to you. Worth it for colleges, now that's another story.</p>
<p>How does it look joining a club that's in its first year of existence even though you're a senior? How is that viewed?</p>
<p>I think it's reasonable, I mean what could you do if you never had the option to join the club, though it all depends on if you even bother to put it on your app any way, so...</p>