I have my own healthy lifestyle blog and was interested in seeing if it can assist me in being accepted in any way. If anybody also has/had a blog while in high school, please include if you feel it helped you be accepted to some colleges.
Only if it’s successful. If nobody reads it (or if only your mom and your best friend read it) then it’s not a very impressive EC, and priority should definitely go to whatever else you have to put on the app.
However, I think if you are really proud of it or have put a lot of work into it, that could be used too. But if you only have like 3 posts over 4 months, maybe not
Of course it can.
Yes, it can. However, the essential question is, will the several admissions departments provide any meaningful “acceptance credit” as a result. Therefore, what – and where on the Common App – will you convey that compels admissions to believe that this is a “noteworthy accomplishment,” and not simply another teenager’s meh blog? OP, that is what you must work hard to achieve.
Yes, your blog can be put down on a college application. It counts as an EC for which you are investing your time and passion. If it’s an active blog with a relatively good amount of followers/subscribers, then I think it might be considered a good EC by adcoms. Of course, really, the quality of the EC is based on how much you put into it–if you’re putting a lot of effort into the blog, then it will show out. However, if you don’t post that often and it sits there collecting dust for weeks, it’s not really worth it to mention.
I don’t really know what a healthy lifestyle blog is (Sorry but that just seems like a broad term to me). Is it about like nutrition or more like about exercise? This may be obvious but just ensure that no inappropriate content is on the blog at all. If you’re going to be telling colleges about the blog, you don’t want them to see or read something that might throw up a red flag!
Yes. Especially if you have a lot of subscribers and make frequent posts. My D had a lifestyle/photography blog in HS with ~1,000 followers that she updated at least weekly. She listed it as an EC. I’m a graphic designer and artist and I personally thought it was worth putting down. She spent a lot of time and energy and creative talent on it.
Edit: if it’s a tumblr where you’re mainly reblogging stuff, then no.
Agreed about the Tumblr part! That’s more of a social media outlet–not really an ACTUAL blog where you are posting your own material. (Sorry to anyone who uses Tumblr that might think opposite…)
@bodangles Does it really not matter? If it’s something they enjoy doing, of course it’s a good thing to put on your app. Colleges want to know who you are. I would even go to the point where even if no one is reading it, yet they are posting on the blog, that shows commitment regardless of the circumstances. Kudos to them.
@StanfordSwag I enjoy posting on College Confidential. With over a thousand posts, you might say that’s at least a bit of commitment. Is that something that would help in college admissions? Of course not.
Sure, you can put anything you want on your app. Whether it’s meaningful or impressive is, in my opinion, a different matter.
Blogging is more of an artsy thing that, depending on the passion/topic, can expand. Say she was a fashion blogger or a journalist-esque blogger…or blogged her art. You get the idea–the world is turning to technology and, if the topic of the blog is relevant and the following is a nice amount, blogging can be a meaningful EC. There are people in even the professional world that base their career around blogs.
@bodangles Posting on CC is a bit different from writing posts on your own healthy lifestyle blog, don’t you think?
@StanfordSwag You said that if it’s something you enjoy doing, “of course” it should be put on an app. Don’t colleges want to know who I am?
If nobody reads either one, they’re not that different. It’s something you do to occupy your time.
I mean, it’s definitely something worth putting somewhere on your app, and it does give insight into another aspect of your ‘story’ but as others have said, there has to be some measure to legitimize it because otherwise it’s just a hobbies/interest kind of activity. If you feel confident about it, it’s something worth putting a link to in your application.