Proving EC's

Colleges & Universities Brown University
1

<p>This was posted in the Yale forum (I know, let the hating begin) but I wanted to expand my response pool. Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to give me.
I would like to get a jump start on financial aid and any other things that may come up down the road. I didn’t even think about it until a few minutes ago but, when I read the Common App from head to toe, it states that colleges have a right to force us to provide proof of our extracurricular accomplishments. Current Bulldogs or anyone else who goes/went to an ivy league school: Must I start gathering documentation to prive I participated in every activity “x” amount of hours? Did they ever send you an email telling you to send in records of your community service?</p>

<p>This is from Yale’s Supplement
“The Admissions Committee may confirm information provided in your application, and may withdraw an offer of admission if you are found to have violated the terms to which you agreed when you signed the Common Application or if there are omissions or errors in your information that the Admissions Committee regards as serious or substantial. Understand that by signing the honesty statement at the end of the Common Application and submitting your application to Yale, you also are giving your consent to Yale’s Admissions Committee to obtain directly those documents needed to make an accurate confirmation if necessary.”</p>

<p>Here is my list of accomplishments so everyone knows what I will be submitting; it isn’t phenomenal but I’d still like to start asking the leaders for records if it seems I might need to. </p>

<p>A+ Mentor; 11th-12th Grade; 3 hours per week; 26 weeks per year; I assist teachers by independently working with students on problems they may be having with schoolwork; My greatest achievement was leading the fifth-grade Gifted Education class in a research project involving supplies for special needs children. I compiled a purchase order during Junior year for the middle school’s Special Education classroom with the information they presented.</p>

<p>Belton Vision Team; 11th-12th Grade; 2.5 hours per week; 20 weeks per year; The Belton Vision Team is a local community service organization that is dedicated to the enhancing of life for Belton’s neediest people; I am the Videographer (and am currently creating a documentary about the program for the All-American City Award application) and I was selected from the Belton High School student body to become a Student Leader during Junior and Senior year.</p>

<p>Service Learning; 9th-12th Grade; 2.5 hours per week; 26 weeks per year; Service Learning ties the school’s curriculum into community service; I am the Videographer and have been a Student Leader since Junior Year.</p>

<p>Service Learning Student Advisory Board; 12th Grade; 8 hours per week; 4 weeks per year; Student Advisory Board Members travel to (capital of state) and determine which applications for grants for service learning projects will be approved</p>

<p>Scholar Bowl; 11th-12th Grade; 5 hours per week; 10 weeks per year; Scholar Bowl is a school v. school Trivial Pursuit competition; I am “The Filler” of our team; my greatest contribution to the team is during a timed fill-in-the-blank round.</p>

<p>National Honor Society; 11th-12th Grade; 2 hours per week; 8 weeks per year; National Honor Society is an organization devoted to recognizing academic and leadership achievement by high school; I have attended multiple highway clean-ups, house clean-ups, and other community service projects.</p>

<p>Debate/Speech; 9th-10th; 8 hours per week; 15 weeks per year; I was a Lincoln-Douglas debater; I placed 5th in districts my freshman year.</p>

2

<p>Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not just trying to show off your list of EC’s:</p>

<p>Stop worrying. Just be honest, and it will all be okay. Do you really think every college applicant in the country gathers records of all of their accomplishments to be ready at a moment’s notice?</p>

3

<p>I stated in the message itself, I don’t believe my EC’s are stellar in any way. If anything, I hope this post makes other people feel better about theirs and I apologize if I rubbed people the wrong way (or the right way, if you’re into that kind of thing.)</p>

<p>Thank you for the response. I was just wondering if, since it was explicitly stated that they had the right to demand it, I needed to start gathering supporting evidence.</p>

4

<p>There’s no need to gather “supporting evidence” unless they ask for it down the line; it’d be a waste of your time. It’s very rare that they check stuff like that - only if something looks suspicious.</p>

5

<p>Nothing suspicious. I just told them I’m an undercover narcotics agent for the FBI Junior Division and in my spare time I invented the internet.</p>

<p>Seriously though, thanks for the responses. Not having to start gather all of my hour logs (supposing I didn’t toss them) gives me time to focus on more important things, like not failing senior year.</p>

6

<p>There’s a lesson for everyone to take from this: The admissions process follows the rules of common sense. A lot of questions asked on this board are easily answered if you step back and think “hey, what makes sense in this situation?” There’s nothing special about the applying, having an interview, etc. – all of this exists in the context of the real world and is subject to the rules governing logic therein :-)</p>

7

<p>“The admissions process follows the rules of common sense.” But what is amazing is some of the queries that come up on CC.</p>

<p>A recent poster was worried that his upside down postage stamps on submitted rec letters was going to negatively affect him. And he was serious.</p>

<p>Given the above average book smarts of most HS students on CC, it’s still amazing the lack of common sense of some posters (present company excluded).</p>

8

<p>Didn’t Voltaire say common sense is not so common? </p>

<p>I was just covering my bases. This entire application process has been very long and I am worried that overlooking one small thing can spell disaster in the months to come. This topic was me just trying to cover my bases.</p>

9

<p>You’re gonna do great :-)</p>