azn&proud

I don't know about my ECs, people tell me they're better than I'd like to believe (I really don't think they're that amazing). I have a feeling I'll be counting on my academics more or less. Any comments? Here they are:

EC's:

NJ Science League (Test each month for four months a year)

NJ Chemistry Olympics (~ 3-5 hrs/wk for meetings/research from late Feb to early May)

Medical Careers Club (Running for Officer Next Year)
(~ 1.5 hrs/wk for meetings)

Science Competitor's Club (Officer, will run VP or P) (~1.5 hrs/wk for meetings; occasionally addt. time for projects)

Junior Statesmen of America (Chapter and NJ Dir. of Debate; will run VP or P for club and try to make Regional Dir. of Debate next year)
(~3-4 hrs/wk for meetings, debate writing, and political compositions (some of which I will consider submitting))

March of Dimes (Running for Officer Next Year) (~ 2 hrs meetings once a month; lots of additional time committed outside of that for fundraising)

Genetics Research (~ 40 hrs/wk for 8 wks over the summer 10th & 11th)

Piano (not school; played 4.5 yrs; ~ 2 hrs/wk with lessons and practice; I'm not that great at all)

Tennis (not school; played 8 yrs; ~ 3 hrs/wk club practice on Saturdays since 9th and tennis camp 9th summer; more like a hobby; don't really have the time or motivation (and possibly not even the skill) to try out for my school team lol)

Community Service (~300 hrs by application time; ~5 hrs/wk)

Robert Wood Johnson Mini-Medical Program (Wednesdays now thru April for ~2.5 hrs; nothing huge (although it's kind of competitive since ~500 people apply and only ~200 get in); just a part of my interest in the medical field)

Honors, Recognitions, Awards, Programs (Kinda weak right now):

NJ Science League (NJ Participant 10th Grade; Didn't Qualify out of my school this year)

National Latin Exam (Silver Medal in 9th; Gold Medal in 10th; test for 11th tomorrow)

Commendation from Governor/NJ State Legislature (in certificate form and given to each member of our chapter for setting up a March of Dimes fundraiser that raised thousands of $'s)

JSA Best Speaker Awards (Several in recognition of debate performance at conventions and conferences)

National Honors Society/National Latin Honors Society (11-12)

Predicted National Merit Semifinalist

Pending (Other Competitions Planned/Participating: USNCO (need to study hard for this one, coming up soon), Chemistry Olympics (in May), Siemen's Westinghouse/Intel (next year, with additional research conducted over next summer))

Well, I mean, my ECs are ok I guess, but not nearly as good as some people I know. For instance, because I have no time to study this year, I didn't make NJ Science League or AMC (). What do you guys think?

lolcats4

Nothing totally AMAZING, but very good nonetheless.

AeroEngineer3141

Hmm, could having a Private Pilot's License be listed as an EC or achievement? Lol...

hamburgler2

How do colleges look at a summer program of junior statesmen of america?

joeshmoebx

Just out of curiosity is starting a non-profit organisation a good EC?

Da_Elite101

I think it's pretty good... Its definately something unique.

Does anyone know how colleges consider USNCO National exam qualifier vs. USNCO Study Camp qualifier?

ms_perfectionist

Sorry, I'm all kind of new at this--I'm a freshman (haha and already looking into colleges etc.)
but I was wondering if Model UN was prestigious/outstanding EC because a lot of people on this forum listed it as one of their EC's?

Also, has anyone been invited to the Brown + MIT + Yale conference?
Is it good/worth the time- or just a scam?
Thanks!

veryzesty

I know a lot of people on here have said that ECs are what will set you apart from other applicants with great grades. What about someone who has good (but not GREAT) grades, and has a lot of really diverse, respectable ECs that demonstrate his or her passions?

pr0crastinator

Okay I have a question.
I've heard so much that colleges would rather have an applicant with 2 or 3 ECs that they are passionate in, rather than a dozen that don't really have to do with each other, right?
Well I'm a freshman so I'm trying to figure out what all i want to do the next 3+ years [since the year's coming to an end].
But I'm interested in many different things that don't have to do with each other..!
I like French alot, I want to be pre-med, I like being on the yearbook, I think I'd like to do track if I could get in shape, and I love animals. But if I'm in the French club (officer or not), volunteer at a hospital and join a medical club, am an editor/the editor of the yearbook, do track and get things for that, and volunteer at an animal shelter, I would be passed off as someone who doesn't have one or two true passions. One might say to pick two or three and forget the rest, but I want to do all that^!
Answer please.

Btw I decided I'm going to make a new board for this so... yeah

az1698

^I think you'll be fine with that

khaki

I don't really have enough time to read the entire thread, so I apologize if what I'm saying here has been said before.

The whole mentality here (and presumably at top-school admissions) offices strikes me as totally absurd. Consider, for a moment, the list of "outstanding" ECs on the front page.

I'll use myself of an example for why having things like those as requirements at top schools is ridiculous. I am currently a junior—my third year as a member of the fencing team. I'm not sure how clubs work at other schools (since apparently some people manage to be head of 16 clubs at once), but all of the clubs at my school meet at once. That means that it's virtually impossible to be a member of more than one, and completely unrealistic to expect to become head of more than one.

Freshman year, I was in the newspaper. I lost interested in that and left sophomore year, because writing stories about non-issues around school just for the hell of it is, to me, a waste of time. I didn't do any activities last year, and this year I'm a member of the debate team. If I get lucky, I might become captain of the debate team next year, because there's generally more than one captain, and I'm the second-most-qualified, but that may go to someone with more seniority than me. Anyway, considering the circumstances, being captain of the fencing team, head of a very poorly-named club that donates a bunch of money to charity, on the debate team, and having an "editor" position at a student-created newspaper doesn't seem too shabby.

I live in the New England. I go to an elite private school; one of the oldest in the country and one of the top couple non-boarding schools. We don't have NEARLY as many activities as most schools seem to, and nobody has ever mentioned anything to anybody I know about doing anything nationally. Hell, I think I know of one person who did any impressive-sounding ECs that weren't a school club: he raised money (mostly from school) to buy care packages for soldiers in Iraq.

Oh, before I forget, I think 25 seniors (out of maybe 150) from my school were accepted into Yale this year. So, this leads me to a few conclusions:

- The people who are heads of eight billion activities must have zero competition in those activities.
- The people who are in tons of different activities, log hundreds of community service hours a year, and play varsity sports must go to awful schools if they still have time to get even decent GPAs with time commitments so huge.

Therefore:

Most people who post here must a.) go to crappy, un-challenging schools where they can essentially dominate everything unopposed with spending minimal time scoring 4.0 GPAs because of easy classes, or b.) be unimaginably intelligent and devoted prodigies who spend zero time relaxing.

Look, I don't mean to sound bitter. I just find some of what people are posting on here totally unreasonable given normal constraints, especially when compared to what the people I know—who are some of the most intelligent and devoted people in the country—are doing.

It's kind of ironic really. I'm sure I'd be president of a thousand ECs and have a 4.0 UW GPA if I had gone to public school. Heck, AA already discriminates against people who go to expensive private schools in NE. It's pretty sad that I'm in a MUCH worse position right now than if I'd gone to a crappy school.

/sigh

khaki

The other thing that kind of bothers me is that the people who have ECs like this are essentially resume whores: people who have been padding their resume since freshman year. I understand that the system is set up to find the people who are really driven leaders, but no sane person would join eight clubs and play varsity sports each season as a freshman for any reason other than becoming head of each to announce to colleges.

Yeah. I'm at the stage where this whole thing is just driving me nuts.

tomackze

find a major and have a lot of EC's for that...

like Intel would look good (not really EC but counts in that case). But only if you have a science major

coconnor

what do schools think of varsity sports if youre not planning on playing in college? are they good to do cause theyre a huge time commitment?

also, are the cum laude society and spanish national honors society anything special?

100%Tuna

Extracurriculars:
An active member of the JC Drama Club; performed in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare and Ovidia Yu’s “Death on Cue” for public shows. Also, performed for many school events like National Day Celebrations, Open House etc.

I am the Creative Head for the Indian Cultural Society (ICS) of my school. I designed the college ICS T-shirt, won a silver award at the Singapore Youth Festival in the Cultural Dance Category. I was Audio-Video i/c for the National Tamil Drama Competition, for which I received best Lighting and Technical Crew. Also, performed (Dance) for the Mardi Gras Festival (2008)

Am in the college cricket team and played the 8-a-side and 11-a-side A division national tournaments. We won the 2nd runners up for the 11-a-side version of the game. Received the East Zone Colors Award for exceptional performance as a cricketer.

A Mazarin Leader for the school; Mazarin- a group (invitational; based on academic, EC performance, write-ups and interviews) which works for the benefit of the school and the community in general.

Taught in a “Free School”(Zero-fee schools for the impoverished children) in Haryana, India during the summer-break last year completing a total of 140 hours of service.

Member of a non-government organization, Dhriiti (India) which works for the cause of the upliftment of the rural poor and disabled, giving them financial backing and expert-guidance to start a business and be self-employed and also helps them in fighting for their rights through petitions.

Headed the “Shoes for a Cause” Project which aimed at collecting recyclable shoes to aggregate money for poor school children in Indonesia.

Participated in the Raffles’ Community Leaders’ Forum; an avenue where students are selected from various countries like Singapore, India, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, USA, UK etc. to come together and discuss various problems facing the world today and solutions that we as the youth have to offer.

Participated in the Go-Green Day for collecting recyclable wastes, the proceeds from which went to various Singaporean charity organizations.

I worked for 2 months last year with a media marketing company (won't name it here) and worked on the design of the current KFC marketing plan for Singapore (2008), contributing this year's Singapore version of the Brand Positioning (i.e. something similar to the "I'm loving it! for McDonalds"

Completed a short-term Diploma course in 2-D animation and Basic Cartooning.

Was the Vice-President of the Students’ Council in my Secondary-School. (India)


Honors and Awards:
*AMC12: School Topper (115.5) (First Attempt)
*AIME: 9
*Qualified (based on merit) for USAMO (couldn’t take due to Indian citizenship)
*Singapore Mathematics Olympiad: Bronze Award
*NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest: Honors
*Virtual Business Challenge: Finalist (Hope to win this year! =) )
*College Summer programs: Not Offered
*Recipient of SIA-Youth Scholarship (offers fully-paid education at Pre-University Level at a Junior College in Singapore)

THIS IS MY LIST OF ECs. I'M ACTUALLY AND INDIAN NATIONAL STUDYING IN SINGAPORE. SO DO THEY EXACTLY QUALIFY AS THE "WOW!" ECs FOR TOP-NOTCH UNIVS (HARVARD, YALE, MIT AND THE LIKE)? ANYTHING I SHOULD PUT OUT OR FOCUS ON DOING FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR; SO AS TO IMPROVE MY CHANCES? LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR REPLIES! THANKS! =)