Marathon running as an EC?

DreamSchlDropout
Wed, 23 Oct 2013 13:37:28 +0000

I’ll take the contrary pov: long distance running is an individual pursuit, and while an accomplishment, I’m not sure adcoms much care. They’d rather see accomplishments resulting from teamwork



I’ll take the contrary-to-your-contrary POV: If there is one skill any student needs to excel in college, it is the ability to pursue personal goals independently with passion and diligence.

Teamwork is great, and demonstrates the ability to collaborate effectively and mesh with the social fabric of an established institution. Adcoms do pay attention to it, and rightly so. No one attends college in a vacuum, and they are building a community that requires students to live, work, and play together.

However, that does not make individual independent achievement irrelevant to their concerns. Far from it.

Anyone who can keep mind and body focused through 26.2 miles of pain is someone who can and will summon the strength to deal with the inevitable adversities of college.

Admissions committees absolutely WILL care, for the same reason they give weight to graduate school applicants who have completed a senior thesis: Nothing is a better predictor of success in higher education than the ability to take on lengthy, difficult, independent projects.