College Discussion - View Single Post - "Those ECs are weak...."- So what's good?

Ferny Reyes · 07-06-2006, 03:30 AM

See and this becomes an issue for people like me :0

Look, part of the reason that many parts of the nation are underepresented (my part being South Texas) is because these kinds of EC's are ridiculous.

I don't have ANY of your excellent or good EC's. I mean, dangit, I played in the Marching Band. I kind of was a member of Student Council. I did theater, journalism, math...

But I don't have regional awards. (Well, besides SAT/AP/PSAT based ones). (This was at the time of ap, now I'm a State Champion)

I don't have community service where I ran it or funded it. I helped at the doggone nursing home for Christ's sake.

This is the type of mentality that EC's have to be like "superstudent" like to get into Ivy league's that creates severe underrepresentation.

I live in a small rural town in the middle of South Texas, one of the most economically depressed areas of the country, working a full time job (apparently, me being just a worker there isn't good enough. I needed to be a night manager for my EC to be worth a crap) just to pay for bills.

I didn't know about TASP. I didn't know about RSI. I didn't know kids played at freaking Carnegie Hall. Hell, I've said this at least ten times now. If I had known about CC before applying to Yale, I wouldn't have applied.

So, yeah, when I see comments like 'weak EC's", to me, it's like "What the hell? What else do you want me to do?"

You know what makes it sadder? There are thousands of students in areas of the nation that will never apply to the best schools because of fears of dealing with superstudents who live in New England who have every opportunity to do amazing things that students without such opportunities have never even heard about. Yet the saddening fact of that is that they are probably just as qualified.

They just can't do those things.

And as for summer programs, hell, I did one at WNL, which according to people on this site, isn't worth a crap because you can get in with a 24 on the ACT.

To me, I thought that was the epitome of awesomeness. If only I had known about TASP.

Yeah, and they say life is fair.

07-06-2006, 03:30 AM	#18
Ferny Reyes Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Threads: 4 Posts: 184	See and this becomes an issue for people like me :0 Look, part of the reason that many parts of the nation are underepresented (my part being South Texas) is because these kinds of EC's are ridiculous. I don't have ANY of your excellent or good EC's. I mean, dangit, I played in the Marching Band. I kind of was a member of Student Council. I did theater, journalism, math... But I don't have regional awards. (Well, besides SAT/AP/PSAT based ones). (This was at the time of ap, now I'm a State Champion) I don't have community service where I ran it or funded it. I helped at the doggone nursing home for Christ's sake. This is the type of mentality that EC's have to be like "superstudent" like to get into Ivy league's that creates severe underrepresentation. I live in a small rural town in the middle of South Texas, one of the most economically depressed areas of the country, working a full time job (apparently, me being just a worker there isn't good enough. I needed to be a night manager for my EC to be worth a crap) just to pay for bills. I didn't know about TASP. I didn't know about RSI. I didn't know kids played at freaking Carnegie Hall. Hell, I've said this at least ten times now. If I had known about CC before applying to Yale, I wouldn't have applied. So, yeah, when I see comments like 'weak EC's", to me, it's like "What the hell? What else do you want me to do?" You know what makes it sadder? There are thousands of students in areas of the nation that will never apply to the best schools because of fears of dealing with superstudents who live in New England who have every opportunity to do amazing things that students without such opportunities have never even heard about. Yet the saddening fact of that is that they are probably just as qualified. They just can't do those things. And as for summer programs, hell, I did one at WNL, which according to people on this site, isn't worth a crap because you can get in with a 24 on the ACT. To me, I thought that was the epitome of awesomeness. If only I had known about TASP. Yeah, and they say life is fair.