<p>Hello everyone, I am finding myself having some difficulty in picking my ECs. I have already taken out a bunch of them but I have just over 5 that I care about very much. So here are my questions…</p>
<li><p>Should I put my religion, or scouts? As I already said, I am an eagle scout, and so I would like to put scouts as one of them. But my religion (at least in my area) is intertwined seamlessly with scouts. And I care much more about my religion. So, would it hurt my application if I put religion on, rather then scouting.</p></li>
<li><p>What type of art should I put? I feel very strongly for both music, and 3d CGI. Now, I plan on sending portfolios for both, but I only have room for one. I would just like to know which would be better to put. Or if I should just put ‘Art’, and then describe them.</p></li>
<li><p>What should I do about podcasting? I’ve found it fun to create talk audio. This come in the form of podcasting, and creating audiobooks (for disabled people, and also with librivox) primarily. I just want to know if podcasting would be a good title or would a better title be better?</p></li>
<li><p>What qualifies as a scholastic award? I’ve received several awards both inside and outside of school. I want to know if I’m only supposed to put the ones I got inside of a school structure, or should I also put the ones that I got away from school?</p></li>
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<li><p>What are your religious activities? If it’s between, say, “I go to Church every Sunday” and “I’m an Eagle Scout”, I’d go with the second. I don’t know what you mean by having religion as an EC.</p></li>
<li><p>Can you just put “art”? If not, I wouldn’t worry too much about either, especially if they’re getting your portfolio.</p></li>
<li><p>What’s the subject of your podcast? Again, I need to know more =).</p></li>
<li><p>What are the ones you got away from school?</p></li>
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<li><p>No, I meant more then just going to church. I mainly meant activities that usually could go with scouting. The main reason why I wanted to put church in their is because it is so intertwined with scouting, and it’s the main reason why I am an eagle scout. But it seems like scouting would be a better thing to put, thank you.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know if I can just put art, which is why I’m asking (I’m sorry for not making myself clear).</p></li>
<li><p>I have done podcasting on anything from Literature, to technology, to what could be said as a ‘beercast’. Actually, if I get some time (I have the SAT this weekend) I would like to begin a podcast on Blender. I had the idea a few months back, but it didn’t go anywhere.)</p></li>
<li><p>I was mainly thinking of piano festival. It isn’t connected with my public high school.</p></li>
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<p>You can certainly group your ECs together under sensible headings, if it makes sense to you to do that. You could put, for example, “Art: music, 3D CGI”.</p>
<p>It’s not going to hurt to talk about religion in your application, generally speaking. Again, if you want to group religion and Scouts, that’s fine, just come up with an appropriate heading that combines the two.</p>
<p>Being an Eagle Scout is a big deal. Find a way to get it in your app.</p>
<p>This does not mean that you shouldn’t put your religious activities as an EC - if they are intertwined with scouts, you could even find a way to mention both (e.g. if your Eagle Scout project was to organize religious instruction classes for the community or something like that).</p>
<p>Last year, my son used general categories to list his top EC’s, then submitted an online supplement (attachment) which explained his interests in more detail.</p>
<p>I actually will sum it all up with ‘Community activities’. And in that, include Scouts, my religion (at least the parts where we give service), and CAS (Creativity Action Service, for IB).</p>
<p>Also, maybe a way to restate question number 4 is, how does MIT define ‘scholastic’. Does it mean purely academic awards, or does it mean awards at school, or what else? Thank you.</p>
<p>GAK, I’m really learning the meaning of 40 words. Even in my most specific area, Chess, I can’t list both the background, and the awards I’ve gotten.</p>
<p>Alright, I have my average word length at ~50 words. So I want to know how strict the 40 word cut off limit is. The online app is not telling me to shorten it like it was.</p>
<p>^^Scholastic awards are those given for scholarly achievement, as opposed to awards given for character, persistence, or community service. You’ll have some wiggle room on the MIT online application; it won’t cut you off at 40 words precisely. Still, there’s an art to crafting a message that is clear and cogent, rather than rambling and verbose. Try to stay reasonably close to the word limit.</p>