The Un-Nerd

I agree with Eternity_Hope2005. I'm no college expert, but I would add (and I could be wrong) that you only need to have one activity. One-road-leads-to-many perspective. One focus of personal interest in your life. You don't need to hand out food at shelters and missions and volunteer at a hospital and travel to africa to help the poor children to sound and look like you have done "all that". I believe one heart-felt mission that you personally have undertaken and that has made you feel good about yourself in the sense that you have contributed your bit of grain to the welfare of the world should suffice and impress the admission officials at any university. One month as a volunteer to a children's hospital where you make children smile (especially if the officials know you want to be a doctor) should make the cut. I believe it's all about passion. Those who truly believe in the work they're doing will come forth in their essays. Those who lie in their essays, regardless how amazingly they write it, will not be very believable as those who do not lie. I don't mean make the officials cry with how hard-rending was the sight of children with some type of disease and how it brought tears to your eyes. I rather would think they'd want to look at your whole philosophy and how passionate you are, or were, about that "extracurricular" activity. There's no reason not to impress anyone when you care for the world and you demonstrate it. Be ambitious, of course, you want to get into "that college". Nothing wrong with that! But you also care about the world, or at least a part of it. One activity is enough, because it leads to many other activities. It's like a job, you start doing one thing and then you end up doing another within the same company, work is related but man it is so different. Everything coming from one place.

alexandrafitzmor

@lsjny09: You should definitely have record of your volunteer hours. If you expect to get credit for some requirement, they will need documentation. For the purpose of college applications, your word is generally honored. However, if your teachers/counselor/essays don't seem to match up well with the number of hours you state, it will cause you to lose credibility. Just double check your numbers, hopefully you've been keeping personal record of your hours, so that you don't risk sounding fishy.

alexandrafitzmor

@afraidtoapply: good luck, with whatever decision you make! I hope my advice and the other CCers advice helped! I don't think the test scores (since you're eligible) will make any dent. So work hard at whatever you end up with!

flyingllama

So I just discovered this 51 page thread. it seems to have a lot of important advice but I'm probably not gonna read it all. Was there a post summarizing what's been said? Or is the first post enough? I'm really interested but ahhh 51 pages is beastly....

GetToCollege

I read thru all 51 pages.
Lots of great information (and lots of 'chance me' stuff that didn't need to be there)
Thanks to those posting good information, together with their own success and/or failures.
Starting essay 'application adventures' for admit to the College Class of 2014.
Ready, Set, GO!
Wish me Luck!

Millancad

I also kept no record of my volunteer hours and have no official documentation of which I can think. My sister, who applied two years ago, estimated that her hours would equal out to about 3 hours per week. As at the end of senior year I will have been in the club for 3 years, I would guess I will have done approximately 360 hours, but I have no proof, and our club is student-led, not teacher-led, and the sponsors are only in name, as it is with many clubs at my school, so there's no adult to back me up on my hours. I mean, my counselor believes me and whatnot, but there's nothing official. The nature of the club is also not suited to doing just one thing, so that might make it look like I'm not passionate. We volunteer at pretty much a different place every weekend, though there is one place we come to once every month.

Anyway, I'm planning to mostly list my ECs about education, and perhaps write essays on them, since I do a lot and am quite interested in education, and though I don't plan to choose teaching in a career, I would be very interested in doing Teach for America for two years, especially since I have done (and will do again next summer, and likely throughout college) an internship which leads into that. So I've tutored, for free, in my own time, and as a job for which tutors are handpicked by my school's staff. I've also tutored 2nd graders at an underperforming elementary school, and, what is undoubtedly my biggest EC in this area, I was a teacher-intern for a summer in a well-recognized, national program.
What I'm not sure how to do is weave my other big ECs into that theme. I dance ballet a ton, about 12 hours a week, and it's probably my most obviously "I'm not just doing this to get into college" EC, since I've been dancing since I was 4, so that's obviously something I want to mention, as it's a huge part of my life. I play piano and viola too, but I guess the viola is an in-school thing, mostly. And I ski, in a club, not as a sport, which is pretty obviously not just for college since it's fun and non-competitive.

Ehh, and here I was thinking I had pretty decent ECs.

r.bateman

i really liked your post. very well said. thanks a bunch, this is surely going to help me a lot!

archi92

I would like to ask about the independent studies, do you need a certification from anyone to serve as a "witness" or anything like that?

afraidtoapply

For all of you who say we only need to get 1 or 2 EC: did you really get into a top college (HYP MIT or Stanford)? If not then the statement is unfounded, because from what I see in the admittance thread in the Ivy Leagues' box, very few people have 1 or 2 ECs got accepted. Moreover, in a 2003 book about the admission in Wesleyan ( sorry I forgot the name), one case of a student with only 1 passion: horse riding was rejected. Although she got many awards for it and demonstrate it well, the admission committee prefers " at least 2 different ECs"
Besides, in a few pages back, there's on student who soars in four ECs but bad test score is rejected as well

Ju_liaa

Guys you might also wanna check if your school keeps track of your community service hours. My school does it for us and i am SO GLAD. The secretary says that i have over 900 hours. AAAHHHHHHHHHH Hope it helps me out in some way or another...

nerdykay

I had one major EC that consumed the majority of my time--ice skating! I trained approximately 30-40 hours per week and traveled extensively. I was nationally ranked. My grades definetely suffered but I still took a rigorus load--7 AP's and 5 honors, ranked 18th in a class of 300,attended girls state, and was in NHS. SAT's--only 1800 but I still got into UCLA! I think they saw what I was capable of doing--not a long list of EC's that I was not very committed to. Foloow your passion--it worked for me!

mskwon

I have a question, I'm applying as a transfer applicant, do my ec's from high school hold a significant weight?

Also, I've been interning at the Orange County Board of Supervisors office all summer, that doesn't count as an EC, I realize, but I can still write about that as a significant activity/time commitment, right?

RAIRAIRAI

Great response dude. Exactly how I feel. In my junior-college (I'm an international student), I just did whatever I interested me and had a passion unlike most of my peers who were trying to fill out their CVs. Sure, I may not have CVs as long as theirs, but I know I'm more passionate and involved than most of them and I think ultimately taht's what we have to show to the Admissions people. Thank god for essays yeah! 8]

dzmcmaster

Why of course research is an EC. Most colleges will accept a research paper under the additional info page or as a supplimental material. Talk about the feeling that research gives you and why you donate so much time to it. Make it a passionate EC. I assume you're applying to a science program or college?

helen_mes

Great article, could not agree more. After reading this one, I thought about another article that I read that I thought was very helpful in a similar fashion - namely, how to present yourself during an interview to leave a lasting impression.

Successful College Interviews with Admission Officers or Alumni - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com