"Those ECs are weak...."- So what's good?

Chance Me / Match Me
1261

<p>Are my EC’s pretty strong?
-mock trial, 2 years (and president of)
-coached middle school robotics team 2 years
-DECA sate qualifier 2 years
-FIRST robotics organization for 7 years
-school store
-Officer of fundraising for hs robotics team
-French club
-60+ hours of STEM related volunteer work and outreach
-working on independent project on improving survival suits
-flew up to Alaska for the last 2 years to work on fishing tender during salmon season to earn money for college, I am the youngest and only girl on the boat</p>

<p>Theres a few smaller things but thats the gist</p>

1262

<p>Hey guys, I’m hoping to get some helpful advice from this site. I’ll start Junior year in a few weeks, I’ll be taking AP US History, AP Physics, AP Eng. Lang. Comp, AP Art History, AP Spanish Lang and Integraded Math 3. My dream school is UC Berkeley. Last year (sophomore) I only took 1 AP (world history) and 1 Honors (chem). I got straight A’s both semester, but I know I need to step it up if I want to have a chance at Cal. I feel like I can improve academic wise but my main problem is extracurricular activities. I’ve been volunteering at a nursing home for about 3 months now, should have about 150 by the time I apply. I found this local organization, it helps get people back on their feet. People with substance abuse problems go there, people get tutoring to get their GED, and there’s therapy for people with anger issues. I’m really interested in joining, I would be tutoring people interested in obtaining their GED and also help out with the anger therapy. But should I volunteer here or at a more well-known place (hospital)? I really want to help at this place but reading the profiles of Berkeley students, most of them volunteered at a hospital. I can only choose one between these 2 since I also plan on staying at the nursing home. I’m also planning on joining greenpeace, but my local group is not very active so the commitment wouldn’t be too serious. Also, I started a club at my school last year and our goal was to raise money for Charity but our school is very strict on fundraising and we haven’t had much success…I’m thinking of starting a model UN club since it’s something that I find more appealing. Should I just forget about the Charity and make a model UN? Or should I continue with Charity so that it shows consistency (10th, 11th, and 12th) as opposed to UN only in 11th and 12th? I don’t want to give colleges the impression that I only made a club to impress them, model UN is something that I’m really interested in, it’s just that I’ve been reading about people that make a club freshman year and carry on until they leave. Anyways hope you guys can help!</p>

1263

<p>@randomxxx Do the volunteering thing for helping people over the hospital, you seem to have more passion for it.</p>

1264

<p>"So my question for everyone is: What is a good list of ECs? "
-Saving humanity from AIDs and malaria (and ocuple others) could be good to have on the ECs list. Not sure if one needs to go to any colllege afer that, but it is totally different topic. My guess, NO college will measure up to such a person.
Aside from this. it all depends on what is pursued. If one pursues Ivy’s then list would be different from the one who is going for the combined bs/md program (as one example). If planning to go to any UG for CS or engineering (as another example), you will not need any EC’s, but you will have a job after college graduation.</p>

1265

<p>How strong are my ECs please?</p>

<p>Extra-curricular activities (I’m from West Africa)</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Head of Journalism team (We started our school’s first student blog and first newspaper, which I am the chief editor for)</p></li>
<li><p>Columnist for school magazine (I’ve been a columnist since I was a freshman. I wrote one column for 2 years, and currently I write another column)</p></li>
<li><p>Creative Director for a popular collaborative literary blog for the youth in Africa (The blog is the first of its kind in my country, and I am a founding member)</p></li>
<li><p>Head of Photography unit for my school’s Yearbook committee (We published the school’s first yearbook in 8 years)</p></li>
<li><p>Professional writer for 2 magazines published across Africa and read internationally. ( I am the youngest hired writer at both magazines)</p></li>
<li><p>Stage director for school play and I acted a minor role (one of the cast members couldn’t make it so I had to fill in for her).</p></li>
<li><p>Co-head of Spoken word poetry club (first in my school, I am a founding member)</p></li>
<li><p>Director of International relations of the Interact club/Junior Rotary club (the club raised money to roof an underdeveloped school and bought musical instruments for a school for the blind)</p></li>
<li><p>Vice President Interact club/Junior Rotary club (the club raised money to buy a water reservoir for a local hospital)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>-Chief Director for a charity organization. We organize regular clothing drives and soup kitchens. And we offer free practical lessons for homeless people to learn tailoring/shop management/catering/ hair styling. And when they complete a full course we provide them with capital money to set up a small shop based on the trade they learnt.
Professionals in the various areas volunteer to teach the students. I initiated this charity with 9 of my friends.</p>

1266

<p>What are my chances of getting into Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, and Yale? Also, would it be safe to assume that I can definitely get into UVA? Any feed back is much appreciated! </p>

<p>What are my chances of getting into top schools like Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and UPenn? Also, would it be safe to assume that I can get into UVA? Keep in mind that I’m an Asian female, which pretty much puts me near the bottom of the food chain haha. Any feedback is much appreciated :)</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2290 (will take a second time) (800 R, 780 W, 710 M)
SAT II: Math 2- 760, Biology E- 710
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): not sure, weighted is 4.31
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): no ranking, but definitely top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World (4), AP Biology (5), AP Lit (5), AP Latin (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP BC Calc, AP Chem, AP Gov’t, AP Environmental Science, Latin 5, English 12 HN, Adv. Band
Major Awards

  • Fairfax Regional Science and Engineering Fair 1st in category and Grand Prize Winner
  • Intel ISEF Finalist
  • 2012 TSA Fashion Design Competition: States - 2nd place, Nationals – 4th place
  • 2014 TSA Fashion Design Competition: States – 1st place, Nationals – 3rd place
  • National Merit Finalist (will be)
    Minor Awards
  • Meritorious Achievement Award by the US Public Health Service for research in improving cancer therapy
  • 1st Place Award by the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • State Science Award and cash by the VA Dental Association’s Science Talent Awards Program
  • National Latin Exam Gold/Silver Medalist
  • National Etymology Exam Gold Medalist
  • Cavalier Athletic Achievement Award (given to one person on the Varsity Tennis team)</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:

  • Toastmaster’s International Gavel I Club (President, Vice President)
  • NWBI Presidential Dragon Dance Team (Co-captain)
  • Science Olympiad (founder, competitor, and team leader)
  • Varsity Tennis (4 years, Team Captain)
  • Woodson Class Council (2 years)
  • Woodson Marching Band (Flute Section Leader)</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:

  • intern at a biomedical research lab at a top biopharmaceutical company (MedImmune)
  • English tutor for an institute at a nearby university</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community service

  • volunteer at the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR)
  • Dragon dancing (performed at local festivals–as well as Barack Obama’s 2009 Inauguration–to raise funds for third
    countries,>$7,000)
  • team leader in the Lead2Feed Global Charity Competition
  • bilingual teaching assistant for a Chinese foreign exchange program at a local university</p>

<p>Summer Activities: VA Governor’s School for Life Sciences and Agriculture, intern at a cancer research lab in MD
(during school year as well)</p>

<ul>
<li>Essays: not bad at writing, probably will include my twin sister, fashion design, or something completely out of the blue</li>
<li>Teacher Recommendations: one awesome, one good</li>
<li>Counselor Rec: pretty good I think</li>
<li>Additional Rec: researcher I interned for</li>
</ul>

1267

<p>make seprate threads for these.</p>

1268

<p>Is being a distance runner who trained for and ran a half marathon at 17 of any significance or is it irrelevant or weak? That’s not even close to my only EC but I’m wondering if it has any weight in itself.</p>

1269

<p>@PhysicisPhun15 I think that’s awesome how you ran a half marathon, but to be honest I don’t think it really counts as an EC. Although I don’t run half marathons, I run 5ks and other races for charity events a lot but I don’t really consider it as an EC. Unless someone else disagrees with me? </p>

1270

<p>@PhysicsisPhun‌15@jumpinstar
does count as a EC, worth mentioning from what I can tell, colleges want to know everything you do. but i could be wrong. </p>

1271

<p>

This could be interesting. The rest of the ECs are garden-variety and meh.</p>

1272

<p>Does housework count as EC’s? </p>

1273

<p>-Director of marketing for small business
-Co-founder and president of the ping pong club
-Programmed a website for debate team
-PR director of NHS
-President of Philosophy club</p>

1274

<p>is conducting your own research an EC?</p>

1275

<p>

Yes</p>

1276

<p>I know a guy who once founded a half-million dollar charity and, dissatisfied with this minor achievement, went on to complete around a dozen publications and found a biotech start-up while training (and later running) a marathon. So I’d say that was good.</p>

1277

<p>I have yet to meet a teen who actually started a charity on their own merit (not using family connections or money, etc.). I am not saying that those kind of people do not exist (I am sure there are a few of the rare breed), but I have yet to meet them.</p>

1278

<p>Is being editor in chief of an award winning yearbook a good EC or is it “meh”? I have a variety of EC’s (personally I think it’s better to have a few big ones and some smaller ones than one big one that consumes your life) but most of them are pretty average - varsity and club sports, volunteering, etc. EIC seems like my best one</p>

1279

<p>Why are you writing like you’re texting?</p>

1280

<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with how (s)he is writing, it’s fine to short-hand some things.</p>