EC’s for me include 4 yrs. of theatre, 3 yrs. as mascot, and 3 yrs as GSA President, is this enough or do i need to include community service?
No, you don’t need to include community service. Stop worrying about what’s enough. Do what you enjoy instead.
ok I really need some help here. My dream school is UC Davis… I would do anything to get in…my UC Gpa is about a 4.0(my unweighted is terrible …aprox. 3.43-3.46)…I have barely any EC’s… 3 years cross country and track(10-12)…and chem club in sophmore year. I was going to do it junior year but it was filled up. I will sign up early and do it in grade 12. I have about 100 hours community service volunteering at an office and a local animal shelter. I am extremely passionate about animals and dream of becoming a vetrenarian. My aunt has some position( not sure) in the UC system and she told me trasnscipts with pages of EC’s are not really as impressive as I would have thought. She told me they wasnt to see 2-3 things that you are passionate about. But the truth is, I only realy have track and cross country for 3 years and 1( will be 2… soph and senior year) years of chemistry club… I am scared that I will not be accepted beacuse I have barely any EC’s…and my gpa is fairly unimpressive while my SAT ( im guessing it will be around the same score as my psat) is not impressive at all. I have only taken 1 ap class but have taken 5 honors classes and 2 college prep( slightly under honors) I am a teachers assisstant this year so I’m not sure if that counts for anything…I will be getting a part time job at petsmart( to show them my love of animals) I need help …im freaking out and I thing its too late for any EC’s to take that dont look like im only taking them to pad my transcript…Im going to talk to my counselor this week…what else should I do…Do I have any hope of getting into Davis?..
(im a junior)
First, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get into UC Davis, so to relieve some of your stress, you might want to look for schools that you feel you have a better chance of getting into, but which you wouldn’t mind going there for college either. Apply to a few of these as backup schools so you have some choice if you don’t get into UC Davis. Next, you can go to [::</a> College Planning Made Easy | Inside Source for College Admissions Requirements](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5D::”>http://www.collegeboard.com) and use the CollegeSearch function to look up the statistics of those who get into UC Davis. There you can find the average SAT scores and percentage of students with a certain GPA, to see how you stack up among those who go to UC Davis. About extracurricular activities: Passion is something you either have or you don’t, and it’s really OK if you’re not passionate about 2 or 3 extracurricular activities. I think a better word is interests. It’s important to be interested in something, and to try to spend some of your time doing what you enjoy. That ultimately is more productive than thinking about what will look good, because it really isn’t that healthy to try to look good to colleges on purpose.
Whaaaat? Volunteer work isn’t an EC? Well there’s a club that I was involved with that heavily dealt with “community service”, mainly managing events. If I can’t use that, then… I feel like I wasted time on it. It was fun, but so are a lot of things that don’t pay off.
bxkxrxxx, I’m not sure if you were referring to my post, #662, or not. Either way, I wasn’t saying that volunteer work isn’t an EC. I said that volunteer work isn’t necesssary, in response to theatremascot’s asking whether volunteer work was needed. Volunteer work is certainly an EC, and I myself put it down in my college application.
Oh okay, thank you. Whew, there’s hope for me yet!
i had to reply because as of now there’s 666 replies to this and that’s just not a good thing
Has anyone used a private college consultant? I was thinking about looking into getting one but it is really hard to find someone reputable
I haven’t had a private college consultant, but I have heard they’re a waste of money and they don’t really help.
I’ve had a lot of friends go to private college consultants, and said they were useful, but when I ask what the consultant told them that was so helpful, its stuff I’ve learned from CC or doing my own research
P.S. on the subject of ECs, I play golf for the HS team, and I also play like 10-12 tournaments all over the region in the summer and am pretty good, but am not going to play in college. I also help assistant coach a grade school team. Is this a good EC to write an essay about, and is it impressive to adcoms??
Is being a peer mentor a leadership position?
I desperately need leadership positions. The theme of my extracurriculars is “politics & leadership” and I don’t have any leadership.
What kind of leadership can I initiate on my own, without having to be elected?
would you include some extra math class as a EC?
Its for ARML practice, and I might be State ARML Captain this year
Hey CC, I’m looking for your opinions on some great EC’s to demonstrate my interest in writing other than contests.Anyone have any reccomendations?
@ashencro: My school has a Writing Club, maybe you should start one. Join English Honors Society if your school has it. Be a tutor. Depending on what kind of writing you like, I guess you could do newspaper or yearbook or literary magazine. If your school doesn’t have any of those, start them!
Or you could just say “Creative writing” in the EC section of your app.
I’ve heard a lot about Michele Hernandez. She sounds reputable.
College consultants are ridiculously expensive though. You shouldn’t throw money away on them.
^ Maybe we should start a list but my friend was telling me about Jill Tipograph in New York. I also read a piece that quoted her in the NYT. I’m sure she is expensive too.
However, the bottom line is that paying for something isn’t necessarily a waste if they genuinely help you achieve your goals. Some are probably just less cost effective than others. The trick is filtering those out …
The cost can be the cost of a year of college at a private school.
I don’t think admissions to any college is worth that much…
Also, cheaper consultants probably couldn’t help you more than CC can. I’m not even sure if the best ones can.