<p>There are like 3600 kids in my school and 800 alone in my class, nearly 20% of my class is asian btw (-_-), and in my classes around 50~60%.<br>
I am around 15~20/800 and everyone seems so smart!! (people leading the class are like USAMO, 2400 SAT, Harvard material…) I am doing 4 AP Classes and they are insanely hard, but I think it pays off (40% of kids get 5s on AP Calc BC and Chem in the classes, which is around 70 in chem and maybe 150 in calc)… I try really hard but there are around 10 people who get As in Chem and and around 20% in Calc. I am trying to gain leadership through clubs but it is impossible… all of the popular clubs have around 50 people in them and everyone want to be a leader. I see people that are like president of 4 or 5 clubs, that is literally impossible in my school ( I am VP (junior) => President (senior) of one club and that pretty much the most I can do.) I feel that I am screwed compared to other applicants, but it just the environment, will colleges account for this?? Is this even normal I am so jealous of people who make it so easily with a class size of ~200, but its really fun to interact socially with so many people.</p>
<p>Hmmm my school was once the most crowded school in the whole NYC. It is still one of the most crowded. We have a lot of Asian students there as well, nearly 80% IMO. Some of them end up in very good colleges like Columbia, NYU, Harvard, MIT, etc.</p>
<p>Too much leadership isn’t always a good thing. Since you are already a president of one club, you should focus on that instead. If you are already a senior, there isn’t much left to do except doing well on your SAT, SAT II, or ACT.
If you are a junior ATM, you have the chance of making the club more fun and more productive.</p>
<p>I know there are people with insane EC stats, but I never figured out how they managed that to happen. There are kids staying in schools from 7:00 AM to 6:PM and they were never tired of the fun. OMG</p>
<p>If your scores are good, and your GPA is solid, then you are left with the essays and LORs (if they accept any, some colleges don’t).
Yes you are in the disadvantage when compare with the insane people with insane EC stats, but the reality is that not everyone can afford that kind of life, and certainly that is not wthat the top schools want at all.</p>
<p>Work hard and stay on track. If you are a junior, your priorities at the moment are your SAT, SAT II, and your school performances.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. You just have to make sure you have good grades and scores. On the national level, you will be way ahead of many, you are not competing against the kids at your school for college admintance.</p>
<p>
Can’t help you with advice on the academics, but for the ECs there is something you should know. As Stanford says in its admission FAQ
So what you need to do is make this club the best its ever been, so that 5 years from now teachers will be saying “remember when the X club did Y and Z, brought in A and B as speakers?”</p>
<p>actually now that I think about it I do have some general academic advice. First be sure you’re studying enough; a rule of thumb in college math/science classes is 6-9 hours per week outside the class doing homework, studying, labs, etc. </p>
<p>Not all approaches studying are equally good; student A spending 6 hours a week on a class may learn more than student B because they spend their time differently. Its a funny thing, they never tell you in school how to study effectively even though they grade you on the results of your studying. You can find guides on the web about how to study effectively (google “how to study calculus”, etc), and one book I recommend is called “What Smart Students Know”. It is written by one of the cofounders of the Princeton Review SAT prep service, and aims to do for school what the service did for people taking the SAT.</p>
<p>Im a Junior ATM, and for the club (Future Business Leaders or America [FBLA]) I am very confident I can make president next year (President is graduating and VP usually steps up). Right now I am really trying to focus on Community Service, GPA, SAT, and Clubs. @ current rate I will have around 600 or 700 hours of Community service (I love to volunteer), around a 3.9 GPA ( with 11 AP Classes), a 2200-2250 SAT, and I think I can compete nationally for FBLA, and then get some regional and state awards for another club.</p>
<p>Side question: when it says on your app. How many hours a week is the club, is that only school time, or is it like the time you spend for the club?? Because there is only a meeting once a month for FBLA and another club im in, but they require some work dedication, like around 3 or 4 hours a week.</p>
<p>^ Pretty much total time you spend, in the club and for the club. And dang…3600 students…that’s bigger than the college I want to go to ._.</p>
<p>But, on a side note, at least the top 10% would be 80…so although you probably won’t get a ranked position (top 5, etc.), you could get a good percentage. Also, even though you may not be in the top of your class, you’ll probably be high up compared to students nationwide. Perhaps your school overrepresents the smart people.</p>
<p>
That is laudable, and I’m sure the community will benefit from your work. However since this is a college admissions board, I suspect you’re doing this at least in part with an eye towards impressing adcoms. For that it isn’t going to work; you could just as easily write “spent 600 to 700 hours sharpening pencils at school”. Both show dedication, but neither shows the leadership or achievement the schools that care about these things want to see. </p>
<p>There is a thread with comments by NSM, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs for the most selective colleges. Merely amassing a bunch of hours isn’t on the list. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html</a></p>
<p>The same way you survive in any other school. Worry about what you do, not the competition, and you’ll be fine. My school is like that, too. I’m a senior and there 856 people in my graduating class, 16 of whom are ranked number one.</p>
<p>My community service has shaped me in many ways and I have gained some leadership experience as I am given more indepedence and I have contributed much into changing the organization. I seriously think I can write a good 5 page essay about this, I plan to write my college app on my cs.</p>
<p>For the record, most students with a huge number of extracurricular/leadership positions are probably doing some, if not all, of them for resume boosting. Focus on a few extracurriculars, be dedicated to those, and present those as your passions to college apps.</p>