<p>I honestly don’t have any talents(music, sports)
apart from learning foreign languages…
and i have hard time finding ECs that are related to it.
Is learning a foreing language an EC on its own?
Thanks
and please suggest me any ideas for EC activities
related to languages
(this is my first thread yay!)</p>
<p>No, that’s an academic prerequisite.</p>
<p>Try joining your school’s foreign language clubs or starting one. You could also try starting one at a larger library near you, though this would probably only work if you’re near a city.</p>
<p>^^Including foreign languages learned outside of school? Purely interest-based (at least in my situation).</p>
<p>Most colleges --except for the top colleges that can pick and choose from an overabundance of high stat applicants – use as admission factors only students’ stats, and for public schools, students’ state of residence.</p>
<p>Consequently, ECs in general are useful only to help students develop social and other skills, hobbies, and to learn about career options. </p>
<p>Learning foreign languages on your own could be fun, and – if you’ve got the stats to apply to a place like Harvard – could be of interest to admissions officers particularly if, for instance, the languages you’ve learned are obscure and the college needs students interested in studying such languages.</p>
<p>If you enjoy foreign languages and presumably foreign cultures, you may enjoy studying abroad through something like Rotary Club or you may enjoy being in a language club or Model UN. You also may enjoy foreign films. Perhaps you even could start a club that views such movies.</p>
<p>You also could look for ECs related to other things that interest you. I imagine that you’re interested in more than foreign languages.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies! well i enjoy learning languages outside of school too ( I speak fluent japanese english and spansih and I am learning german and french)
oh and sorry for this dumb question Northstarmom, but what is included in a “stat” ?Are ECs included too?:P</p>
<p>By “stats”, I think NSM meant the strictly quantitative/academic aspects of your profile, such as test scores and GPA and the strength of your transcript beyond just the GPA. Many more applicants than H has room to accept have great stats, so H (and YPS and a few others, too) have the luxury of being able to look to extra-academic criteria to craft incredibly talented, diverse and interesting classes. In that context, linguistic talent might be a winner.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>^ not really. Stats mean GPA, rank, test scores etc.</p>
<p>oh thanks I am really not talented in any other areas and i am a rather shy person so I don’t really have any leadership postitions
but I do love learning languages! I hope that colleges will appreciate that;; Do you know of colleges that have strong language programs?</p>
<p>Middlebury has a strong language program. It’s a top liberal arts program.</p>
<p>ooops sorry i meant foreign thanks Northstarmom that was very helpful:P
and uhm rushandcrush thanks for your comment … do u speak any foreign language?</p>
<p>rushandcrush is just trying to point out that you shouldn’t worry about how colleges view foreign language study because their opinion isn’t everything. If you think it’s interesting and you love it, then do it!</p>
<p>I <em>love</em> foreign languages too (I’m taking Italian, Spanish, and next year French in my school!) and my school has a language club for the four languages it offers (Latin is the 4th) and every November we have an international dinner where everyone taking a language is invited to bring a cultural dish and the four clubs come up with entertainment. It’s loads of fun and the food is <em>amazing</em>. I recommend joining clubs like that. I also love Model UN, which doesn’t involve language per se but involves other cultures. I believe my school even has a culture club. </p>
<p>You should check out what your school offers, and if they don’t offer anything you would be interested in you should consider rounding up some friends who also care about it and start a club with your language teacher! I know for Italian we do a ton of other cool things to–like designing masks for Carnevale (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras) and we attend Italian cooking workshops. If you put your mind to it, you’ll be sure to come up with other activities that play to your strengths :)</p>
<p>oh haha i was asking because i wasn’t sure if i could list it in my list of activities in the common app… and i don’t really have any other activities apart from that :P</p>
<p>and thanks sarahsett!!</p>