This was very useful… It made me feel way better about my application
Excellent post … definitely some great tid-bits!
Thanks so much for the post
This is a really helpful post. Thanks!
Thank you so much for the post!
I made a common app college extracurricular paragraph on shopping. Is that bad? It wasn’t my idea. It was my english teachers idea (from bxscience) I have other extracurriculars like photography but that is kind of intertwined with my college essay so I didn’t want to include that in my paragraph. I’d post the whole thing but its confidential. I think its pretty well written. Be nice if someone could help me out. Need help asap
Thank you.
i posted this as a thread but noticed this thread so i put it in here as well.
Really helps.
Would you say EC’s are more or less important in transfer students?
goodbye jill.
haha! what a nice post. thank you for this!
I need advice. I’m interested in neuroscience and want to major in it in college. So far my related ECs are interning at a neuroscience lab this coming summer, hopefully earning a place in a high school neuroscience bee in February, and I was a runner-up in a neuroscience essay contest. What are other impressive ways I can showcase this area of interest EC-wise?
Great post. But the commonapp has been modified significantly since this post was made.
I agree with poetgrl.
Lorem, yup, I agree with poetgrl too.
Helped a lot! Great post! 
hi guys! this post was definitely helpful… im a freshman and i was wondering how i can start doing some more activities or show commitment to the ones i do?
so far ive been singing since i was 6
math team member
science team member
science olympiad
school newspaper member
cultural classes
volunteering activity
really helpful!!!
so can ec’s, voluteering and jobs balance low(2000-2100) SAT scores at top schools(princeton, Upenn, yale,cornell)??
Thanks so much for such great examples. My son is being reconsidered for Pitt’s main campus vs. one of their branch campuses and we really need him to stand out!
“Balance” is a strange word, and one that indicates a misunderstanding of the holistic admissions process. At colleges like Yale and Cornell, your grades and scores will be considered alongside your activities, recommendations, and essays. But no one part of your application is given a particular “weight” in the process, so no one part can balance out another.
What “holistic” does mean is that your scores won’t necessarily preclude the adcoms from looking at the rest of your application before reaching a decision. They will turn, for example, to your GPA and rank as evidence of your academic abilities. At the end of the day, however, colleges are academic institutions, and their goal is to admit not only interesting students but capable ones. For this reason, acceptance rates are much higher for students with higher GPA’s and SAT scores.
Long story short: There are people with 2000-2100’s who get into top schools because the other parts of their application are so strong. But there are admittedly many fewer such students admitted than their higher-scoring counterparts.
how many extracurriculars should I do?