I’m a member of deca and didn’t get the president position (instead, I only got director of roleplays)- the previous president chose her friend. While I know that many factors play into these decisions, I was the strongest competitor in my chapter of 250+ students (1st place in two events in regionals and states, 6th place in nationals in finance event), and I worked very hard as an officer, but I didn’t get the position. Despite the 6+ hour time commitment/week for directors next year, I feel like in this ultra-competitive atmosphere, only president looks impressive for an activity. Is there anything I can do to make it clear to colleges that I’m very serious about deca and work very hard for it?
I’m not familiar with DECA specifically, but you hold and officer position and have done extremely well in competitions. The common app asks much time you spend on the activity, too. I think you’re overly stressing this minor deficiency. AO’s will be able to tell you’re serious and invested.
That’s a very odd way of choosing future officers.
But for a competitive activity results are more important than office.
@VickiSoCal yeah, it actually surprised everyone in the club. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I’m still a bit confused on why I didn’t get the position. But glad to know competitive activities are more important- hopefully just having some officer position will be enough to show my commitment.
it wont be a deal breaker for colleges
First, the fact tha t you got 1st place in two events in regionals and states, 6th place in nationals in finance even is awesome.
As far as being a director, it is about the result you get. How did the roleplays go last year? What can you do to improve it this year?
@bopper In our chapter? Roleplays went well this year. We had 8 people qualify for ICDC and 2 place top 8 (me and one other kid). In terms of improving it, I think our principles and our finance cluster is a bit weak, so I’d focus on having content presentations and doing practice roleplays. However, I’m a junior, upcoming senior, and most of DECA is second semester (after college apps)- I still want to do well regardless however!
While presidency in a club such as DECA is distinctive, what matters more is the quality of the results the team earned and the substantiveness of the personal reflection by the team member. Don’t just describe the results, but reflect upon the struggles, challenges and surprises you and your team members encountered. Move beyond the obvious such as the need to collaborate, to plan ahead and to think “out of the box”. What non-obvious lessons can you draw from your experience? What faults, foibles and failures did you witness and how did they impact your view of yourself, your team and your college/career aspirations.
@PeaceOfMind what type of non-obvious lessons can you write about? I learned about taking risks, accepting mistakes, etc, but that is fairly obvious
@lovescookies Well how about should everyone on the team have an equal say in the decision making process? While we might reflexively say “yes, of course”, what if we thought about this issue more deeply. Under what circumstances might not having equal say for every team member serve the mission of the team better? And note that that which serves the entire team better might not please every team member equally. In fact, the right course of action to serve the mission of the team might cause unhappiness for every team member individually.
@PeaceOfMind I compete individually haha
Your acceptance or non-acceptance to college won’t hinge on what leadership position you held in DECA.
My kid lost out on the captain’s position of an academic team at her HS senior year. She shrugged it off and went on to finish in 3rd place in the state individually in the activity. She led her team to nationals as well. The other kid wasn’t a very good captain, and the coach figured out pretty quickly that the other kid wanted the position for resume/application building, not because she really cared about the team. My kid got a glowing extra rec from the coach for colleges, and ended up with better college admissions results than the captain. The captain was miffed – I think she figured that getting this captaincy was going to give her a big boost in admissions that didn’t materialize. It isn’t really the title that matters; leadership doesn’t always have a title associated with it.
Agreed with @intparent . It’s not the title that matters but what you do with it. When listing off your accomplishments, an empty title will mean nothing if you did not accomplish anything through the role. However even if you have a different position, and you really make the team and organization better, that shows. The same is true in life. People recognize and respect those that work hard and make the organization work. The position that you have received is not a meaningless position, and you can make a difference through it.