sak09

This summer, I'm going to be doing genetics research in a lab at URI. Also, I will be in Cali for a couple of weeks interning at a biomedical research company.

Now, obviously these aren't my only ECs. However, since I am interested in biology, they probably will be emphasized the most. Anyway, my question is...how will this look on my application? Will it set me apart from the thousands of others that apply to top schools?

m0baik01

okay, right now i only have three real dedicated subjects: violin, guitar, and tennis. I know I need more and some say i should join soccer again next year. Ive stuck with it for awhile but i absolutely hate it and im terrible at it. I also have the option of starting up math olympiad and chess next year but i haven't been as dedicated with it through my high school years so i don't know if colleges will accept it. If possible i want to avoid doing soccer but still get a good amount of ECs. Can anyone help me?

_Silence

Yes Quantity's always better than Quality, and joining a EC you dislike will definitely help you with College Admissions.

If you are really dedicated to your three ECs that's fine. If not, and you WANT to: take another EC but something you like, Not something you thing the adcoms will like.
If you'd rather start up math olympiad and chess, do so and forget about joining a sport, that is neither something special nor something you enjoy.

soulstealer07

As a hint from someone who was once in your shoes...

Your ECs (as long as you have them), only help build your voice. If you can show the admissions committee what significance your activity has on your life, you have a good EC. The difference b/t a good applicant and a bad one is not the amount of activities he/she joins, but the value each individual one has on one's life.


Just some words of wisdom...

glassesarechic

Every year, my newspaper includes the senior "stars" of each high school in the region. Under each person's name, they list things like community activities, extracurriculars, college expected to attend.... Most of the kids are obviously very bright--AP scholars, National Merit, athletes--but the profiles for the most part were boring.

The kids with interesting EC's planned to attend a diverse range of schools, from Harvard and Princeton to Chapel Hill to Swarthmore. But the ones who got accepted to those schools weren't always the ones the school had picked as their "Number One Star." They didn't have the typical sport/honor society/instrument/French club (or whatever) arrangement. Some kids were musicians through-and-through. Others showed passion for art and community service. They were involved in things I'd never heard of and didn't have basic things like volunteering at the homeless shelter. They were stars in one thing and decent in another, or else EXTREMELY well-rounded.

What's a good EC is pretty hard to define, but what's a bad EC is pretty easy. Don't be basic, effortless, stereotypical, or fake. Don't make a laundry list--chances are, even if you have only two or three main EC's, you'll be thrown into a few things inadvertently (feel free to join your friend on Thursday afternoons for Art Club, even if you've never picked up a paintbrush). Just please, don't be the kid whose profile bores me on next year's senior stars!

zfox001

Im just going to throw in my opinion here.
I think that if you show that you are dedicated to something and you aren't doing it just for the sake of your application, it will be considered a good EC. While yes there are students who have already composed symphonies played at carnegie hall, others who have more or less cured a disease, or others who are already published authors, the majority of us aren't these people. Someone who has 1000 hours of volunteer work at one specific place definitely give insight into the character of the person. Even if it is a run of the mill EC, they have taken it to the next level and made it a LOT more than normal.

swoop

I hope I don't get a lot of criticism for this but i have a different philosophy, which somewhat makes this forum obsolete.

You shouldn't be worrying about these petty things such as extracurriculars or even college. I promise you, no matter how passionate you think you are, if your goal or your dream is to go Princeton for college, you will not get there. If your dream is to build and manage a school for impoverished families and Panama, then yes, your genuine efforts will most likely lead you into one of these colleges; but if you set the bar that high, it won't matter where you.

I am not saying that you need to know right now what you want to do; I am a junior and don't have that much of an idea myself, but you should definitely aim higher than just getting into the most prestigious schools. Don't do something because someone else will like it, do something because you love it.

For example, I am learning Chinese and Arabic but my parents are Indian (I was born in the U.S.)... okay so maybe this will look good on apps, maybe not.. I don't care. I picked up these languages because I like drawing and I specifically love the writing styles of these languages. My interest in learning about other cultures, as well as my love for drawing, has led me to aspire to be in the United Nations, so this year I joined the Model UN club at my school. I worked hard all year to get into as many tournaments as I could and learn whatever I could about the actual UN.

So maybe I will go to a community college, maybe I will go London School of Economics, but as long as I enjoy the ride to my goal, it's not going to matter what path i take.

I hope I was able to get my point across.

Just remember, you won't think differently about a guy who went to a third-rate school if he is the one to cure cancer..