momofmusician17

Good to hear,

tennisplayer07

this is fdafafdasf

liliana16

Anyone have any idea what good LACs and Ivies think of serious dance, not leading to a career or major? By senior year, I'll be dancing about 15 hours a week - serious classical dance at a good studio. However, I don't picture myself majoring or even minoring in dance in college, though I definitely plan to continue dancing by taking classes and participating in any sort of dance team my college has. Do you think this will be viewed negatively?

TheNextBuffett

Awesome!!!!

dustypig

Liliana, I would like to know the answer to that too, as my oldest daughter (HS sophomore) is also a dancer. She's studied ballet since age 5, performed in a professional company's Nutcracker three times, been to an intensive summer dance program twice, currently has a job "demonstrating" for a class of younger kids at her ballet studio, and also is currently both taking 5 hours/week of ballet and another 5 hours/week of contemporary and hiphop (through her school's dance program).

My gut feeling is that while such a lifelong commitment to one activity is good, it's not going to impress anyone as being really amazing unless she shows initiative or leadership in some way. However, I think it probably looks better than jumping from one sport to another, since at least it shows commitment.

fchris13

Here are some examples I though of
Here are some examples of outstanding ECs:

RSI
TASP
State or nationally- ranked athlete
Professional musician who plays solo concerts at places like Carnegie Hall
National president of a student organization
Member of the local school board (such as being the only student on the school board)
The top individual scorer in the nation in an activity like Junior Classical League or Mu Alpha Theta
Research has been published in a professional journal

Has gotten paid for articles written for major publications such as national magazines or major newspapers (This doesn't include columns unless one was the winner of teen columnist scholarship that is awarded by something like Newsweek or Time)

Has created and organized a major service project such as getting a Habitat house built ,raising at least $10,000 or starting a nonprofit that clearly was started by the student, not their parents
Professional actor who has appeared in movies, big city theater or TV
Has done an out of state paid internship with a corporation
Spent a semester or year abroad in a select program like Rotary's program (The travel abroad programs that are based on ability to pay do not count as "excellent" ECs."

Created and runs their own business that makes thousands of dollars a year. (N.B. The business can't be really run by or created by their parents or other adults)

Excellent ECs (e.g. ECs that are of the caliber that many accepted students to HPY have) include having 2 of the following, preferably from very different
fields:

Eagle Scout or comparable Girl Scout
SGA president
Varsity team captain
Regional or national ranking in an activity like Mu Alpha Theta
First place citywide award for something like leadership, service, public speaking, arts
President of a major citywide or regional organization (such as being president of a regional religious youth organization)
Spent the summer working abroad or doing community service abroad in a program that the student found themselves and funded themselves or was paid for participating in

Works a job doing work that normally an adult would do. This could range from being the night manager at a fast food place to designing web pages for neighborhood organizations.

Created any type of local community service program that had impact such as getting one's school or church involved in serving monthly meals to the homeless; starting a once a week tutoring program for low income kids; raising a couple of hundred dollars to give to a charity....


Anyway, those are just some examples.

Keep in mind that most colleges accept the majority of students who apply whether or not those students have any ECs. Most colleges make admission decisions overwhelmingly on grades, scores and possibly class rank. This also is true of even top flagship universities when it comes to in-state applicants.

It's only the very top universities --places like HPYS -- that heavily weigh ECs when they are making admission decisions. That's because such universities have an overabundance of applicants with stellar stats.
Northstarmom is offline

TechBound2014

Basically if you're world-class or nationally high-ranked at anything (piano, debate, Starcraft (within reasonable limits), squash, etc.), that's a good HYPS-level EC.

illuminescent

But you need to have good ECs AND good grades at the same time. I have one by Northstarmom's definition "Outstanding ECs" as in "Has created and organized a major service project such as getting a Habitat house built ,raising at least $10,000 or starting a nonprofit that clearly was started by the student, not their parents." However, my GPA is relatively low and my SAT is kinda average. Still rules me out of the top schools :-(

illuminescent

liliana16, i think dancing, and any other art form, is a wonderful EC. To any school or anyone, someone good at an art is talented, see things from a unique perspective, persistent, and expressive.

garciac

My EC's go as follows
- delivering meals to elderly people 50 hours
- internship in nyc in august 3-4 days a week at a SONY
- contractors assistant since freshman year every summer for my dad (my main summer job)
- Altar server since 5th grade
-1 week tenessee service trip
-2 seasons of track
-1 season of rugby plan to do again in 12th grade.


My question is how do you think my EC's are? I know i dont have any leadership or long term commitments so im really nervous now. Im applying to top 50-30 universities such as BC and Holy cross. What do you think my chances are with these ec's? Any advice would be appreciated. I also left out that i was a navy sea cadet and that i did italian club for two years because i wasnt incredibly serious about either. Both have about 40 hours each. I already sent in my common app so its probably too late anyway but cant hurt asking. Thanks!

illuminescent

garciac, i think there's no point discussing the strengths of your ECs. I think its a matter of perspective, as long as u gained a lot from them, they're more important than the ppl who just did 200 hrs and gained superficiliaty from it. Your ECs may be weak relatively to other ppl, but u can't change that. So focus on the impact they had on you.

garciac

So youre saying theyre weak?

illuminescent

They're not outstanding

garciac

Obviously or i wouldnt be posting here nervously. I wanted to know how bad if at all they are

anavic

exactly. passion and initiative= key to college