What does it mean when someone’s ECs are “random”. What if an applicant is interested in many things and have clubs/passions in many disparate fields… will that student’s ECs appear “random”. Also, does this make it harder for admission officers to identify the personality of an applicant through his/her ECs?
<p>It’s kind of like that say, “Quality over quantity.”</p>
<p>If an applicant had ECs in completely different areas, but he/she dedicated a lot of time to each one, then that wouldn’t be a bad thing; like you said, they’re just interested in different things. However, if someone has lots of ECs, but spend very little time on each one, then it would look like they are just doing the ECs for the sake of making a more “impressive” list (read:laundry list).</p>
<p>A good example of a laundry list is this (someone posted this a long time ago, hope he/she doesn’t take offense): </p>
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<p>That’s not a random list of activities demonstrating little real interest. The person actually demonstrates a very strong, longstanding interest in music. The list, though, would have been better constructed if it pulled all of the music-related things under one heading. This includes the extensive music-related volunteer work.</p>
<p>Honor roll and excellence award for 4 years could have been left off since the colleges will already know the student’s gpa, grades and class rank, and those are what really count when it comes to grades.</p>
<p>Duties of volunteer counselor could have been left off since in general, the duties are basically the same at all camps. Those were space fillers and wastes of time for the adcoms to read.</p>
<p>What should have been included is how many years the student has played the cello.</p>
<p>The “laundry list” posted is actually not a random list. The thing is that the person didn’t highlight their commitment to music activities…they listed every little thing they had done. In my opinion, this list was great…but it needed to be “consolidated” so that the areas of true commitment didn’t get lost in a LONG list. My sense when I read that the first time was that the poster felt that longer was better…I’m not sure I agree with that. Plus an adcom would be left with having to sift through that list…IMHO not the best idea.</p>
<p>Ok thanks… I saw ‘chances’ post a few days ago where some replies said that the person’s ECs were bad because it doesnt portray a theme or the person’s personalities and interests.</p>
<p>Glucose101…
What about quality and quantity? … or are they mutually exclusive?</p>
<p>I sometimes think there is confusion when people (including myself) say that you need to have “passion” and long-term commitment in one/two EC’s. It would be better to say “one/two interests”. You can be in many clubs and so forth, but all of them are ideally under a common theme. If your interest is music, then the more clubs and activities that have to do with music the better.</p>
<p>Also, I would not leave anything off just because it doesn’t fall under the common theme. Just highlight the theme and put the rest at the bottom. They ask you to list your EC’s in order of importance to you. </p>
<p>People usually do things this way even if they don’t know it, and a seemingly random list of activities can be pulled into a common theme just by the proper use of marketing. This was already mentioned.</p>
<p>You can show you EC’s in a resume or activity list. Michele Hernandez in “Acing the College Application” is very strongly against attaching a resume. She recommends using an attached activity-list which is in the same format as the chart on the application.</p>
<p>Who has time for ec’s like that? I read some other stat’s from people on here and I just think to myself…
“Do these people work and/or go to school full time? Are they majoring in something extremely easy so they don’t have to spend much time studying? Do any of these people have a significant other that they see regularly? Do any of these people have friends that aren’t going to their school/aren’t involved in these ec’s? Do these people sleep? Do these people ever kick back and relax?”</p>
<p>GEEZ…I’d be embarassed to have a superlong list of ec’s.</p>
<p>A lot of the activities in long lists may be one-time events. Saying that you attended the lecture series at (blank) may have only taken one day, but it takes up the same amount of space as being on the football team for four years. That is one of the reasons for organizing the long lists into areas of interest. It isn’t easy to read the long lists and automatically see what they mean or what the applicant really cares about in the EC’s.</p>