Hi,
In the past few days I have been looking into the college application process, and I am wondering how do I present my extracurriculars in the format of ten “slots”. My main EC is competitive mathematics, while I have a handful of other minor ones. Do I arrange them in order of significance, or should I not indicate anything and arrange them alphabetically? Also, which ones should I probably leave out - I currently have 10 but I’m afraid putting too many insignificant ones may make me seem like I’m just desparately trying to fill out space?
I am a bit confused on the “hours per week”, especially since some of the activities I do whenever I wanted to do so (like my math training - I just do problems whenever I feel like them, and I don’t even keep track of time). Should I give an estimate if I have no idea?
Major EC:
Mathematics
- Awards: International Mathematical Olympiad 2016 Gold Medal, 2014-2015 Bronze. Other awards in smaller competitions.
- Positions held: None
- Info: Also led and formed my school’s math team in various local contests.
- Time: 60 hr / wk during training camp, 20 hr / wk otherwise (on average), from 9th grade onwards. Make is 25 hr / wk if you count sitting down idly, trying to solve a problem.
Minor ECs:
Programming
- Awards: International Olympiad in Informatics 2016 Participant (contest in 3 weeks)
- Positions held: None
- Info: Started learning around August-September 2015, mostly learned from asking people around.
- Time: 10 hr / wk on average, from 11th grade onwards. Make it 15 hr / wk if you count watching random programming videos as part.
Music (Piano / Violin)
- Awards: a lot of prizes in small local competitions
- Positions held: None
- Info: Been receiving piano and violin lessons since I was in preschool and still continues until now
- Time: 3 hr / wk on average, from 9th grade onwards
School Paper
- Awards: None
- Positions held: Writer (9th grade to 10th grade), Editor-in-chief (11th grade)
- Info: self-explanatory
- Time: 6 hr / wk on average (even when school is out of session) during 11th grade, 1 hr / wk from 9th grade to 10th grade
Essay Writing
- Awards: None
- Positions held: None
- Info: I join a bunch of essay contests, but I have not won any of them.
- Time: 1 hr / wk on average, 10th grade onwards
Job / Work-based ECs:
Tutoring
- Awards: None
- Positions held: None
- Info: I tutor students for math competitions - done on a personal basis and whenever I have free time
- Time: 2 hr / wk on average, 10th grade onwards
- Sidenote: If you count teaching my brother, it is an additional 15 hr / wk during summer, 2 hr / wk when school is in session. (actually one of my main time consumers)
Apprenticeship in Museum
- Awards: None
- Positions held: Apprentice
- Info: I assist one of the museum exhibitors in his weekly astronomy show
- Time: 1 hr / wk on average, 9th grade onwards
Community-based ECs:
(certain outreach organization)
- Awards: None for myself, but the organization has received quite a few accolades for its performance
- Positions held: Board Member
- Info: I assist in operations and attend meetings. I also help write the formal documentation of events (given to sponsors)
- Time: 1 hr / wk on average, 10th grade onwards
(another outreach organization)
- Awards: None for myself, few for the organization
- Positions held: Co-founder
- Info: This is not very active right now, but we have hosted a bunch of outreach programs to teach math to needy students. It is backed as one of the corporate social responsibility projects of a bank.
- Time: .25 hr / wk on average, 9th grade onwards
Climate Reality Leadership Corps
- Awards: None
- Positions held: Climate-reality leader
- Info: (too lazy to explain, but it’s easy to search this up) Basically my job is to present to other people the issue of climate change
- Time: 0.5 hr / wk on average, 11th grade onwards.