dchow08

Poseur, this is what admissions people mean when they say to get involved and passionate in a few areas and not just have a laundry list: they want students who are active in their activities and get something out of it. As long as you're not just doing things just to impress people, you're fine.

And about the leadership--what's important isn't so much whether you have a leadership position or not, as much as it is that you're active in what you do and make positive contributions. For example, I didn't have a leadership role in our school's chess team, but I played as much as I could, worked hard, and helped our school score big in the state and national tournaments. That matters!

boho_girl

^^ I completely agree.

Also, Poseur, your activities don't look as scattered as you may think.
Math Team, Computer Programing, PCs4kids relatively fall into one category. You love computers (I don't know much about programming, but I believe math skills are somewhat related)
Art Club, Photography Club, Lit Mag, Art Honor Society - arts.
I think both your art and programming interests show that you are creative.
French Honor Society (as well as Math Team) - you excell in two different areas.
NHS (as wells as PCs4kids) - community service? And for the NHS, you're a great student (but your grades and recs will show that anyways).

I wouldn't say your list of ECs is a laundry list, laundry list would be if you participated in, say, Art Club for one trimester, then next trimester you drop it and participate in PCs4kids, then next trimester you drop it and take up Knitting Club - all just for the sake of being able to list them on your college app.
But you have done things you liked over a course of time, and that will help you write good on your apps.

And I wouldn't worry too much about not having done anything (yet) on your potential future major. Many kids have no idea what they want to major in even in their freshman year, but you are taking action as soon as you figured it out. Just keep doing things you like and enjoy your senior year!

dchow08

Yeah, and it's not like you have to have a passion when you're only 17. I mean, if you aren't interested in ANYTHING---now that's a problem for getting into college, but you don't have to worry about that because EVERYONE is interested in something at 17, so nobody has to worry about that. Oh good.

I mean, do I have a passion for something? Not really. I'm interested in math and chess, to the extent that I really wanted to keep learning math and keep playing chess and I did math and played chess a lot in high school--and hopefully will in college, but I wasn't president of the math team (I was in the math team) or any other leadership role in the math team, and there are no real leadership positions in chess team, because the chess advisor does pretty much everything. But I was involved in the clubs, and showing up to big math competitions and weekly chess competitions against other high schools (and winning!) does require involvement, commitment, cooperation, responsibility, trust, best effort, enthusiasm, and hard work. And that's what colleges are finding out about me, just from looking at my EC's. And they'll do the same for you.

Poseur

Thank you guys! Your words are very reassuring. I do my best to contribute to the clubs that I'm in, and I'll try to let that shine through in my EC essay. : ]

sam1784

what do you suggest writing about if your most important ec isn't about what you want to study? like, i want to go into the medical field and love science, but i think my most important ec is working at a thrift store. i've dedicated the most time thusfar to it, and think its rewarding in its own way. it doesn't seem very related, and if i wrote an essay about it, i 'm scared it will just confuse the committee. i can see what i'm passionate about through the other things, but i really like this too. opinions? by the way, is volunteering considered an ec?

general list of ec's:
thrift store- 420 hours
hospital ER/currier- 20 hours, but i plan on having way more of both before i submit my apps
summer internship at a college studying dna...stuff
research during the school year in addition to the internship- 4-10 hours monthly
summer @ brown course on medicine and society
plus a bunch of other junk i'm considering not even mentioning.

dchow08

You can write your essay on basically anything--it doesn't have to be about your favorite subject in school or something you enjoy outside of school. There's a difference between communicating enthusiasm and writing about what you're enthusiastic about. Furthermore, I've read plenty of essays that don't deal at all with passion--a girl's affection toward her little brother, how moving from a rural place to an urban city changed the author's perception of his life, what a girl thinks about her name--all of these can work. I don't think there are any really bad topics, but there are bad essays. The point is that your voice comes through. That's important. So you should write about something that's important to you, and if you're enthusiastic about it, and you write naturally, then your enthusiasm and interesting personality will come through.

It sounds like you are worried about your essay because you feel that writing about your extracurricular activities or your passion is important. I think what's more important is that your enthusiasm and passion shows in your essay. You could talk about your passion but sound really boring.

And I'll say this--I wrote my entire personal essay about my desk. But the more I thought about it, I convinced myself that my desk really was important to me, and when I explained those reasons, I show my voice, because it's almost as if I'm talking to my friend, who's wondering how my desk is important to me. And as I talked about my desk, I mentioned some stuff about my interests, such as Latin, math, and chess, but I only went on for like a paragraph about that, and it all related to my desk.

I enjoyed writing my essay, and Swarthmore even sent my acceptance letter early! I was really flattered by that.

So here's what I want you to keep in mind as you write your essay:
- You don't have to write about your passion (if you have one; you don't have to have passion at age 17, nor at age 40), in order to show it.
- Write naturally, and your unique voice will show through.

Equilibrium

sorry, i'm a little confused. they want you to show yourself, but what do these things mean?: MIT Admissions: The Match Between You And MIT

They say you should be social, active with community, friendly, passionate, uniqueness. When your essay, recs, interviews show who you are, do those things listed above come through too?

dchow08

That website has great advice. Yes, those things should show through the things that you just mentioned, as well as the teacher recommendations. Don't forget that.

But they should come naturally. Don't try to worry about, "OMG, I can't find where in my application I show 'curiosity.'"
"

Equilibrium

Sorry ;x,.. It might feel like I'm asking the same question again...but I'm adding some details to make sure you get what I'm asking.

So when you show them who you are, they can see so many little and unique aspects of a person’s character. In your essays/recs/interviews, you can convey all those things about yourself, such as hobbies, feelings, and virtues, passions, things the applicant loves, and ideas. Those things are basically the special unique characteristics of each individual, and will come through the best if the individual writes naturally in his/her voice. However, what about the characteristics colleges want in general? They generally want passion, determination, social ability, etc. Those are also parts of “who” a person is, but my question is can every part of a person come through in an essay?

dchow08

I tried to do that, and thought about, okay, how can I convey that sometimes I'm joyful, sometimes I"m sad, sometimes I'm determined, sometimes I give up, sometimes I talk a lot, sometimes I'm contemplative? And after a while I gave up, because I don't think it's possible. Eventually, I came up with this analogy.

Think of your application (not just essay but everything else) as a portfolio about you, a sort of self-portrait. When you look at a famous self-portrait, you're not going to get every part of a person's character, but you'll get a slice of it. You won't know everything about Van Gogh from looking at his portrait, but you'll know something more about what makes him Van Gogh.

As with drawing a self-portrait, you should think about what characteristics you want to portray, but a lot of it should come naturally. In other words, don't try too hard to sound passionate or determined, because it often comes out sounding fake and not really you.

Equilibrium

Oh, okay, i get it now. Thanks alot for the information.

entrancestone

Ok, this may sound stupid, but how do you choose just one EC to focus on?

I am not in a lot of clubs - Art Club, National Art Honor Society and French Honor Society. I volunteer at 2 different animal shelters.

I think the interest in art can be shown by a supplement portfolio of sorts rather than an essay, but I'm not sure whether to choose French or volunteering as my essay.

I think French would be unique, because I am very involved w/ French at my school and my French teacher is writing one of my recommendations. We have a French Day each year at my school and I alway help out a lot at that (last year the day we were supposed to set up French day we had a snow day, so the day of French day I went to school at 5 AM to help set up), plus my friend and I go to the middle school to give mini lessons to make the kids want to take French. I am very passionate about it, but our honor society has never even had a meeting (hopefully I can change that this year).

On the other hand, I could write the essay about volunteering at the animal shelters & my connection with animals. I could also tie in vegetarianism, but I'm not exactly sure what I could write that would really describe me. Of course I am passionate about it, but I don't know what I would write.

Any suggestions?

Star*

From what you just wrote there, it sounds like you are more passionate about French than the animal shelter (although I don't doubt that you love both), so I'd go with the French. Even if that's not true, if you feel like you can express your passion for French better, that's a good enough reason to write about it, IMO. Both are good options, so just write about whatever feels better.

entrancestone

Thanks Star! I think I will draft both and see which one turns out better, although I think French will be the winner

Butternut

I have a question. For the past few months, I've been debating wether or not to include Piano as an EC. I've played for 8 years, and I'm *relatively* good at it. I'm not extremely involved with it- I play in my church, and then play about an hour a week in addition ( So about 3-4 hours a week). I don't have any awards or anything, don't even take lessons anymore. So...should I list it or not?