<p>this is fdafafdasf</p>
<p>Anyone have any idea what good LACs and Ivies think of serious dance, not leading to a career or major? By senior year, I’ll be dancing about 15 hours a week - serious classical dance at a good studio. However, I don’t picture myself majoring or even minoring in dance in college, though I definitely plan to continue dancing by taking classes and participating in any sort of dance team my college has. Do you think this will be viewed negatively?</p>
<p>Awesome!!!</p>
<p>Liliana, I would like to know the answer to that too, as my oldest daughter (HS sophomore) is also a dancer. She’s studied ballet since age 5, performed in a professional company’s Nutcracker three times, been to an intensive summer dance program twice, currently has a job “demonstrating” for a class of younger kids at her ballet studio, and also is currently both taking 5 hours/week of ballet and another 5 hours/week of contemporary and hiphop (through her school’s dance program). </p>
<p>My gut feeling is that while such a lifelong commitment to one activity is good, it’s not going to impress anyone as being really amazing unless she shows initiative or leadership in some way. However, I think it probably looks better than jumping from one sport to another, since at least it shows commitment.</p>
<p>Here are some examples I though of
Here are some examples of outstanding ECs:</p>
<p>RSI
TASP
State or nationally- ranked athlete
Professional musician who plays solo concerts at places like Carnegie Hall
National president of a student organization
Member of the local school board (such as being the only student on the school board)
The top individual scorer in the nation in an activity like Junior Classical League or Mu Alpha Theta
Research has been published in a professional journal</p>
<p>Has gotten paid for articles written for major publications such as national magazines or major newspapers (This doesn’t include columns unless one was the winner of teen columnist scholarship that is awarded by something like Newsweek or Time)</p>
<p>Has created and organized a major service project such as getting a Habitat house built ,raising at least $10,000 or starting a nonprofit that clearly was started by the student, not their parents
Professional actor who has appeared in movies, big city theater or TV
Has done an out of state paid internship with a corporation
Spent a semester or year abroad in a select program like Rotary’s program (The travel abroad programs that are based on ability to pay do not count as “excellent” ECs."</p>
<p>Created and runs their own business that makes thousands of dollars a year. (N.B. The business can’t be really run by or created by their parents or other adults)</p>
<p>Excellent ECs (e.g. ECs that are of the caliber that many accepted students to HPY have) include having 2 of the following, preferably from very different
fields:</p>
<p>Eagle Scout or comparable Girl Scout
SGA president
Varsity team captain
Regional or national ranking in an activity like Mu Alpha Theta
First place citywide award for something like leadership, service, public speaking, arts
President of a major citywide or regional organization (such as being president of a regional religious youth organization)
Spent the summer working abroad or doing community service abroad in a program that the student found themselves and funded themselves or was paid for participating in</p>
<p>Works a job doing work that normally an adult would do. This could range from being the night manager at a fast food place to designing web pages for neighborhood organizations.</p>
<p>Created any type of local community service program that had impact such as getting one’s school or church involved in serving monthly meals to the homeless; starting a once a week tutoring program for low income kids; raising a couple of hundred dollars to give to a charity…</p>
<p>Anyway, those are just some examples.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that most colleges accept the majority of students who apply whether or not those students have any ECs. Most colleges make admission decisions overwhelmingly on grades, scores and possibly class rank. This also is true of even top flagship universities when it comes to in-state applicants.</p>
<p>It’s only the very top universities --places like HPYS – that heavily weigh ECs when they are making admission decisions. That’s because such universities have an overabundance of applicants with stellar stats.
Northstarmom is offline</p>
<p>Basically if you’re world-class or nationally high-ranked at anything (piano, debate, Starcraft (within reasonable limits), squash, etc.), that’s a good HYPS-level EC.</p>
<p>But you need to have good ECs AND good grades at the same time. I have one by Northstarmom’s definition “Outstanding ECs” as in “Has created and organized a major service project such as getting a Habitat house built ,raising at least $10,000 or starting a nonprofit that clearly was started by the student, not their parents.” However, my GPA is relatively low and my SAT is kinda average. Still rules me out of the top schools :-(</p>
<p>liliana16, i think dancing, and any other art form, is a wonderful EC. To any school or anyone, someone good at an art is talented, see things from a unique perspective, persistent, and expressive.</p>
<p>My EC’s go as follows
- delivering meals to elderly people 50 hours
- internship in nyc in august 3-4 days a week at a SONY
- contractors assistant since freshman year every summer for my dad (my main summer job)
- Altar server since 5th grade
-1 week tenessee service trip
-2 seasons of track
-1 season of rugby plan to do again in 12th grade. </p>
<p>My question is how do you think my EC’s are? I know i dont have any leadership or long term commitments so im really nervous now. Im applying to top 50-30 universities such as BC and Holy cross. What do you think my chances are with these ec’s? Any advice would be appreciated. I also left out that i was a navy sea cadet and that i did italian club for two years because i wasnt incredibly serious about either. Both have about 40 hours each. I already sent in my common app so its probably too late anyway but cant hurt asking. Thanks!</p>
<p>garciac, i think there’s no point discussing the strengths of your ECs. I think its a matter of perspective, as long as u gained a lot from them, they’re more important than the ppl who just did 200 hrs and gained superficiliaty from it. Your ECs may be weak relatively to other ppl, but u can’t change that. So focus on the impact they had on you.</p>
<p>So youre saying theyre weak?</p>
<p>They’re not outstanding</p>
<p>Obviously or i wouldnt be posting here nervously. I wanted to know how bad if at all they are</p>
<p>exactly. passion and initiative= key to college</p>
<p>I think the good ECs are the ones the student wants to be involved. The ones he show interest and is passionate about.</p>
<p>Is it bad if a student doesn’t have any extracurricular activities outside of school? What if they never had a job or never volunteered before?</p>
<p>iieatcookies, I think some kind of community involvement can really boost an application.</p>
<p>So in terms of ECs:
would these be considered adequate and not negative to higher end colleges? top 25
Several volunteer awards (>500 hours)
Several positions within these volunteer organizations
Chess Accolades: several state placings, top 5 in regions mulitple times, one national tournament.
NHS
Started HOSA at school.
Science Olympiad
Research with bio majors at UNC.
Placed 2nd in state in research eCYBERMISSION contest</p>
<p>Where would this fall under?</p>
<p>The only community involvement I’ve had are all over the place, and I’ve only done them once. For example, I’ve gone to a tree society once to help plant trees, went to a book-doctoring service, and helped at a soup kitchen. Should I list all of these as ECs, even though they were one-off things?</p>
<p>My grades aren’t the best, but like you I have some “hooks” that will be my best hope at getting into Yale.
My passions are history, polisci, and economics. My life revolves around them, and combining economics, business, and government. I am a junior in HS</p>
<p>Played Clarinet with HS Symphonic band since 8th grade, been to several regional bands
Cofounder and Vice President of Model UN: have been recognized/awarded in each conference, other high school politicians are no match for real political strategy.
Invited to Academy of Political Science, a think tank where membership is normally for graduate students and professors
Invited to Commonwealth Club of California, nation’s oldest public forum
Offered internship to Wall Street Journal by its CEO (I got interviewed, at this time they are “still looking for a place for me”)
Work closely with Mayor of my town, advising on economic and political strategy
Have relationship with local libertarian think-tank and economics publisher- Independent Institute
Have a relationship with the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Submitting project to ISEF-affiliatied fair: Using Differential Calculus to Predict World Petroleum production; with economist mentors from the Federal Reserve
Business manager of school newspaper
Columnist for school newspaper
Experienced in generating profits with stock market (maybe I can increase Yale’s endowment? 
)
And if it means anything, i am a book collector, with 300 books dedicated to my passion.</p>
<p>I have a 3.88 WGPA at the moment. If I get disregarded for that, then, f- them.</p>