Participation vs. achievement?

spaceandscience
Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:15:30 +0000

I’m not asking if it’s better to be well rounded or if it’s better to be focused (breadth vs. depth), I’m asking if colleges appreciate participation which sometimes results in success as much as they appreciate more limited participation which often results in success.

New example:
Kid A goes to the big Science Fair and wins a gold.
Kid B participates in many science-related extracurriculars, wins in about 3/10 of them, attends the big Science Fair but doesn’t win.

Is kid B in a much worse scenario? Are they both at about the same level?