<p>-Class Pres
-Debate LD
-Cross Country Cpt.</p>
<p>Should I make a charity and volunteer more?</p>
<p>Try studying ECs won’t get you in </p>
<p>Here are other things that may help more than starting a charity</p>
<p>Win a National award in your field of interest.
Publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal.
Write an award winning off Broadway play (Broadway will be better, but off Broadway may due).
Discover either a new element or species and have it named after you.
Become the best trombone player in the country - appear on the Tonight Show and have a famous actor or actress favorably comment about your mad trombone skills.</p>
<p>Of course, none of these things will guarantee admittance, but it probably would help.</p>
<p>tl;dr: do something amazing that you LIKE. Don’t do things just because you think a college will like it, that will be obvious to them.</p>
<p>I will, I am thinking already! Thanks</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This, this, this.</p>
<p>Here is the interesting thing about this topic. In the olden days, each candidate got at least two people to read their application…today, only one.</p>
<p>I always wondered how impactful and EC can be and how much luck plays a role in who reads your application.</p>
<p>So let’s say you are a nationally ranked trombone player and Fred Savage (a Stanford alum!) lauded your performance since he was on the same episode of the Tonight Show as your were.</p>
<p>But the person reading your app had a terrible trombone accident when they were a kid and has an inherent, hard to shake, bias against the trombone and all it represents. I know the reader is a professional, but some things are hard to shake. Does that hurt your chances? </p>
<p>LIkewise if the reader has a deep love for the trombone and was serenaded by their fiance by a sensuously performed trombone performance, does that help overcome that you only have a 2380 on your SATs and got an A-in gym freshman year?</p>
<p>I think 2380 is a very, very good SAT score even for Stanford, or I hope so 
Anyways, I agree that that scenario may happen a lot, but all we can do is hope :C</p>
<p>That was a joke. 2380 and A- are only bad grades for super overachievers. </p>
<p>Oh phew, sorry, I was scared for a second XD
Thanks for you insight, I think one of the only ways to avoid this is to have a lot of different backgrounds</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry. I thought since I said the A- was in gym that people would have realized it was an over-the-top exaggeration.</p>
<p>What is your intended major? Can you get involved with something that demonstrates a passion for the field as an intern, volunteer, part time job, assistant, trainee? That might help.</p>