Hey guys, like many of you I’m applying to a few top colleges and also wondering if my ECs seem inadequate. I feel like I have some decent accomplishments, but at the most it’s kind of on the state level. For example, I am an All-State Orchestra musician, I’ve done Girls State in the summer (is this considered prestigious), and won a few writing awards (one or two on the national level though not very well known, but many on the regional level). Are these decent ECs? I’m very passionate about music and writing.
@wtidad Thanks for pointing out the life lesson that should do what you like and that you are motivated about and not just try to fit a bunch of ECs in. I worry about so many kids who are risking their health to do it all. My daughter’s friend got in to Northwestern, ED, but she had to play tennis, soccer, do other ECs and keep up her grades the whole time. In the end, she was literally losing too much sleep and her hair started to fall out-- hairline was noticeably receding. Thankfully, it’s starting to come back in, but I can’t imagine wanting that outcome for my D. Now this girl will just have to keep that up at the next school. Fine for some; not for others.
For one of my USC essays that asks you to describe an activity you’re involved in, I talked about the LGBTQ Alliance club I founded and am president of and how it’s really important for me to be able to provide others with a safe place and support network, especially in southern Virginia. In my other essay I also talk about wanting to study communications because I was bullied a lot for being gay and my school newspaper became an outlet for me to advocate for myself and others and ultimately led me to work with the school board to adress gender identity and sexual orientation in its bullying policies, and form my LGBTQ Alliance club… I’m also making it very clear in the EC essay that I want to continue working with campus LGBTQ groups in college. Is this overkill? It’s obviously a super important club to me but I don’t want my app to just read “gay gay gay”.
UGH! I signed on for so many commitments! I’m so indecisive of what I what to be when I grow up! I signed up for UNESCO (for those interested in international relations, but I have to stay after school at 6 on Tuesdays because I’m part of the leadership team), starting HOSA, VP of French National Honor Society, VP of Service for FCCLA (meet on Monday and Thursday)! I’m also training to do several 14ers! It’s so much! I know colleges won’t like it because it’s all over the place but I’m still trying to find my passions (although I joined FCCLA because my friends begged me and just happened to get a leadership position last year. Next semester on Tuesdays, I have to take TOK for IB as a night class for three hours because I can’t fit it into my schedule! I don’t know how I’m going to get my homework done on Tuesday with my night class and UNESCO!
@pterosprite Hmmm, this is tricky, as you know. My first thought was: Overkill. BUT on second thought, you sound like a person who is writing about some serious work that you have done that is very meaningful to you. You should go to a school that is glad to accept you for who you are as a leader and human being. I can imagine that being in Virginia, you have had to break new ground in some ways to create a safer environment for yourself and others. Good for you! That’s your real journey, but do you have space to write about other activities that you care about?
@athenav13 I think your post says you feel overwhelmed. Please selectively reduce your commitments so you can get proper rest and so you can give your all to the activities that draw your passion out the most. Sounds like FCCLA might be one to give up–you did it for your friends, not so much for you. Consider this option: Help find a replacement for your position and Apologize to the group for making the mistake of taking on too much; bow out now before you and your grades suffer.
How do my EC’s look? Do they display passion, and more importantly, do they seem genuine? I really am deeply invested in what I do.
I am a rising high school senior.
Singer in high-regarded choral group (have traveled internationally, performed for the president, etc.) – Section leader 9-10 (7-12)
Varsity Tennis (9-12), Captain since 10th grade
Tutoring Program (10-12)
Student representative (9)
Co-Leader of one of 4 school “houses” (11)
Ping Pong Club (Co-founder, 11-12)
History Teaching Assistant (11)
Summer work:
Worked at a tennis club teaching tennis and lifeguarding (9-12)
Volunteered at an inner-city tennis program (11)
Completed a independent research project investigating the power of music in bringing people together in areas of conflict. I interviewed several prominent leaders and conducted historical and current research. Presented a PowerPoint presentation in a university lecture hall and plan to write a paper. My passion for this topic was sparked by the chorus I participate in today. (Summer 10+11)
Disability work:
Assistant leader of a group at school that works with disabled youth (10-12, assist. leader 11-12)
Work with a disabled child in a one-on-one relationship at my church (10-12)
Volunteer for one week each summer at a camp that helps families with disabilities through recreation and education (9-12)
More important for me that ever is that my EC’s don’t look superficial. A lot of the posters on this website try to craft their resume directly to the application. That’s not what I did and I hope it doesn’t come across that way.
Hey guys! Rising junior looking to get some feedback on my ECs.
So, this year marks my sixth year in band playing the oboe - shows dedication right? However, despite my experience, I feel I have not gotten to the level of playing I want to be at (never placed higher than alternate in district) and growing detached from my fellow bandmates. Although I do still enjoy making music (I also play three other instruments outside of school) at this point, I have come to realize that I’m only taking that class again next year to demonstrate long term commitment in something. However, there are certain activities that I began in my sophomore year that I actually find much more fulfilling, such as interning for a nonprofit (I also have a form of leadership in this position). In addition, there are other classes I would LOVE to take instead of band, but if I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk.
I do have other long-term commitments that I’m genuinely interested in, but music being a major theme in my overall application, I keep having conflicting thoughts on band.
In the context of my situation, is the amount of years spent doing an activity more indicative of depth and dedication than genuinely committing to a more recent activity that is more stimulating for me? I know this seems like an obvious question, or one that could simply be answered with “follow your passion”, but this issue has been lingering in my mind for a quite a while now.
Thanks in advance for any insight, advice, or thoughts!
How do these ECs llook? Any feedback appreciated 
(Please tag me if you comment about me)
Sports:
– Have been playing tennis for the past 8 years. Have reached top 150 of country, have played for my state once, city twice.
– Soccer,Basketball, Cricket at inter and intra school level.
Public Speaking:
– Have taken part and won several inter and intra school debate competitions in both Hindi and English, including a prestigious debate in Bangalore with participants from all around Southern India (First place)
– Taken part and won intra school extempore events
– Founded a debate club in my present school
– MUNning Career: Will have completed around 15 MUNs by the time I apply. Till now i have won 3 out of 4. I have also worked for the biggest MUN in my city,**** Model United Nations as an Assistant Director
– Started my own private MUN conference, which generated a revenue of roughly 2500 USD. (Completely independently organised which makes it one of its kind)
– Have won prizes for best debater in English and best debater in Hindi in my previous school
Social Work:
– Founder of President of an NPO ‘**********’, which aims at tackling problems society faces. This was founded almost a year ago and has completed several projects on cleanliness, recycling paper, saving petrol, road safety etc. We will be doing several more projects in time to come. Probably the biggest youth driven organisation in the city, featured in several newspapers
Others:
–Founded my own company which sells art services such as design, craft items, etc
–Co-Owner at a web design company ‘’ founded by my friend (Clients and Accounts Management)
–Current Head Boy of School
–Served as House Prefect in 10th grade and led my house to a victory
–Have gone for a 20 day exchange project to Sweden where we will be working on a module to tackle superstitions and environmental problems
–Interned at a software company '’ where I worked on Open ERP development
Hobbies and Skills:
– Adept at English, Hindi, Marathi
– Skillful at playing the ‘Harmonium’ an Indian Musical Instrument(Have been playing it since 9 years, just as a hobby)
Hmm. This is quite interesting! The post originally by northstarmom, listing the special extras, poses a very “tantalizing” but important question. Why is the threshold for a successful charity “only” 10,000 dollars?
In my experience, a charity that only raised 10k will ultimately fail and is, usually not always, mismanaged and the founder’s level – usually due to improper planning, sourcing, recruiting, and executing.
In my personal experience, having started a charity, who’s name I will leave out for the sake of ambiguity, more and more of these " college acceptance" organizations are popping up all over the nation; whether it’s a family organization where the applicant did not actively execute his or her ideas or a failed attempt caused by grandiose aspirations. I find it hard to believe that a simple, yes I said simple, 10k charity can be compared to the other stunning extras such has national ranked athlete or published and successful author. I think In order to show success, and show it effectively if you will, you need to develop proper infrastructure and move past the simple " raise money and give it to unicef" mentality. This may mean, for example, forming formal partnerships with organizations, launching successful online “hype up” campaigns, soliciting donations from notable foundations/donors, and/or, and more importantly, ACTUALLY participating in the end goal. For example, if you are raising money to stop human trafficking, in my case, do not simply raise money and send it abroad. Travel abroad, speak at colleges and schools, work hands on with the people who your donations are effecting. A number around 70k seems more reasonable.
Also, in recent talks, although painfully superficial, with an ex adcom at the prestigious Vanderbilt university, some very important information was shared with me. They want to see growth, not only in your academics but also in your activities! She gave me this example ( excuse my paraphrasing )
9th grade: started a business. Didn’t di much and the business wasn’t really substantially profitable.
10th grade: took it more seriously, began working on it and took its success and failure personally
11th grade: business finally started to become self sufficient through hours and hours of tickering with the system to find what clicks and what doesn’t.
12th: fully profitable, successful, has a nice infrascture in place, has market presence (if only).
As you can see, a upward trend that correlates with marturity is present. The company slowly climbed the ladder and eventually reached relative success as opposed to day one it starting to be great due to influx of capital from daddy’s buddies.
Hope I helped and good luck to my fellow 2016ers!
As a freshly graduated student in college now, I’m just going to throw in my 2 cents after reading some of these posts…
If you are worried about impressing colleges with your EC’s, I personally believe you’re approaching the situation wrong. Yes, you don’t want to be doing nothing with your free time, but don’t think about colleges when picking EC’s; pick them for yourselves. That sounds cheesy and fanciful, but I think it’s really true in retrospect. Here was my case: I participated in AcDec, but never got a single medal. I skied and biked, but never competitively or even in a formal club. As an applicant to math/engineering fields, I didn’t have any science awards or research experience. If I listed my awards and extracurriculars, they probably wouldn’t seem extremely interesting nor impressive. But with every single one I can justify the exact reason why I participated in it, and every time the answer will be for myself. And, in the end, it all turned out well (you can stalk me if you want to know where I went but this isn’t the place to put it). Being interesting doesn’t mean curing cancer and starting a multi-million dollar business and winning international awards left and right. It means being unique through your extracurriculars in a way such that each inkling together–piano, charity, sports, whatever it is–makes you YOU (I’m sure you guys have heard that one a million times). You want to show commitment and fluidity in your extracurriculars, but most importantly genuine interest and a reflection of self. Don’t worry about awards or the “prestige” of your extracurriculars, because as long as they matter to you they will matter to the colleges. Whether you have won national awards or just participate for fun, the extracurriculars aren’t a quantitative measure but rather one to get to know the person on the piece of paper in 5 minutes; think of your stats as the outline and extracurriculars/essays as the coloring and shading. So please, please, please never say “my EC’s are weak” or question whether your EC’s are good enough, because I promise they are! The worst things you can do is a) do nothing, or b) be superficial and contrived in your EC’s and lose yourself while striving to be this image of “greatness.” Believe me, I read through these posts on this site, and all of you are excellent already. Your EC’s should be the thing you are LEAST worried about because as long as you are doing what is natural to you it should all work out in the end!
That’s the best advice I can give. PM me or tag me with more specific questions if you want because I’m glad to help. Good luck class of 2016 and beyond!
@bsb4389: You know, I am more than a little inclined to agree with you, from a parenting experiential standpoint. I just don’t know how easy or comfortable my child’s path toward college acceptance(s) would have been had the world class accomplishments of the posters here at CC been in our heads.
When an interviewer stops and marvels at the diverse and sustained range of interests of his interviewee, none of which are linked, nor any of which relate to the field of study the student wishes to undertake at the university level, it is a wonderful thing.
When all the quirks of the path taken to ‘now’ are little bits of what pepper the personality and energy of the student, and that ‘flavor’ is then met with the evidenced academic muscle of a high school curriculum, students are at their best in terms of confidence and presentation.
This list is one reason my child refused to apply to HPY. She did her EC’s not to impress but because she enjoyed them. She wanted her down time to distress like in her swimming career. After an injury she decided to work as we were very financially strapped and she loved working although not a glamorous job she was one of their best employees. Many of the prestigious schools in my opinion place too much emphasis on volunteering or being a club president but I’ll tell you she learned work ethic and how to manage money. It has served her well at college thus far but she wasn’t going to do any activity for the sake of college admissions. For those students who don’t have the amazing EC’s that I read in cc I promise you there are other great schools out there where u can get a first class education and be highly successful in life.
To be frank, a lot of top schools don’t mind all that much if the odds are stacked against those who either don’t know the value of curating an EC portfolio from age 2, or don’t have the time and money to devote their free time to founding clubs (What clubs? Any club, as long as someone else hasn’t founded it already. Better yet, a nonprofit), volunteering, and attending expensive enrichment programs/trips abroad/conferences.
A little more than a year ago, I attended a selective summer program that cost a pile of money. It was a program I really enjoyed, and worth every hour of tutoring and gardening it took to pay for it myself, but I also got a glimpse at the way many families plan ECs years in advance. There were middle school students talking openly about the fact that their parents were sending them to cycling/climbing/sailing programs so that they could make that activity a centerpiece of their applications, and others who casually name-dropped their state’s senators - and family friends - who had given them internships, and would write recommendations for when they applied. A few of them had been attending the summer program - and Baby(summer program) - since elementary school, to the extent that they’d spent 1/2 a year’s worth of college tuition on program fees. Most of them were extremely nice, and they certainly weren’t dumb, but pretending that they were “doing what they loved” rather than what colleges look for is a charade.
It’s no accident that students from the top 5% outnumber students from the bottom 50% by a margin of two to one at Ivy League colleges. These schools know that they’re valuing the sort of ECs that the top 5% (and especially the top 1-2%) is aware of and can afford, while the bottom 50% generally is not.
While the schools in question claim that working is considered a demanding EC, I’d challenge anyone here on CC to find an applicant who was accepted to HYP because, instead of starting a nonprofit with some help from their parents, they held down a regular job and worked summers throughout high school.
To be frank, a lot of top schools don’t mind all that much if the odds are stacked against those who either don’t know the value of curating an EC portfolio from age 2, or don’t have the time and money to devote their free time to founding clubs (What clubs? Any club, as long as someone else hasn’t founded it already. Better yet, a nonprofit), volunteering, and attending expensive enrichment programs/trips abroad/conferences.
A little more than a year ago, I attended a selective summer program that cost a pile of money. It was a program I really enjoyed, and worth every hour of tutoring and gardening it took to pay for it myself, but I also got a glimpse at the way many families plan ECs years in advance. There were middle school students talking openly about the fact that their parents were sending them to cycling/climbing/sailing programs so that they could make that activity a centerpiece of their applications, and others who casually name-dropped their state’s senators - and family friends - who had given them internships, and would write recommendations for when they applied. A few of them had been attending the summer program - and Baby(summer program) - since elementary school, to the extent that they’d spent 1/2 a year’s worth of college tuition on program fees. Most of them were extremely nice, and they certainly weren’t dumb, but pretending that they were “doing what they loved” rather than what colleges look for is a charade.
It’s no accident that students from the top 5% outnumber students from the bottom 50% by a margin of two to one at Ivy League colleges. These schools know that they’re valuing the sort of ECs that the top 5% (and especially the top 1-2%) is aware of and can afford, while the bottom 50% generally is not.
While the schools in question claim that working is considered a demanding EC, I’d challenge anyone here on CC to find an applicant who was accepted to HYP because, instead of starting a nonprofit with some help from their parents, they held down a regular job and worked summers throughout high school.
I feel like on CC specifically, what EC’s you do and how many hours of sleep you get a night are often bragged about and it feels more like a popularity contest. EC’s allow you to make friends, I know, but I feel like some people don’t even contribute to clubs at school, and lie about them so they have a better chance of getting into a university. And besides, I know of a student in HS who was stellar, had a 4.7 GPA and was all over the local news that got into Harvard and every top university but FLAT OUT REJECTED from Stanford. It stresses me out and several other people out because society tells us that we won’t be successful if we don’t contribute in HS and/or get into a top university. Have you even heard of the suicide stories about how stressed these people are?
^^ I totally agree. Even at my (public) school, the “hottest topic” each morning is how little sleep you got the night before. It gets so old. Especially since being on social media till 10 and then finishing up homework at 1 is nothing to be proud of. And with the extracurriculars, half of the clubs at my school exist for people that want to pad their resume (the giveaway- they never have meetings and yet thirty people show up for the yearbook picture).
For those freaking out read the post about : i got a c+ and it changed my life. It will give you pespective. Its a great story.
Hey guys, I have a question.
What type of ECs are:
- Creating and managing a Website where I write scientific articles and critical essays. I get 500 views a day and have ~100 subscribers.
- Literally starting my own literary magazine from scratch. I researched about the magazine creation process and compiled the issues by hand. I also wrote every piece in it with some art from other people. I marketed it myself and have a chain of children hospitals who give it to their patients. Currently I have 4 hospitals and I printed 600 copies so far this year. (A lot of I's in there lol)
Btw my prospective major is Biology but I want to be a writer as well, like many other PhDs. In my essays I will convey that writing is my major artistic passion.
Any ideas of what level these are??
Ok so my 2 cents on ECs are:
- Colleges know that not every kid's parents plan their resume from birth and definitely know who's mom engineered their app and whose didn't.
- Colleges know that not everyone has time for ECs. If you have to work to pay for school or help your family out, make sure you put that in your application!
- Anything that costs money does not count. period. I don't care if you went to Uruguay to work in an orphanage, those flights cost a ton of money and colleges know that not everyone can afford them. Same goes with prestigious summer camps. Also, colleges that get rec letters from elite family friends are not moved unless said recommender is an alumnus/donor.
- Colleges want to see commitment. Whatever you do, do it for all 4 years. Colleges like passionate people. Colleges would rather have someone who only played an instrument and was in Spanish Club and was super dedicated to those things than someone who participated in 10 ECs but wasn't very committed to any.
- Academic ECs and Arts ECs matter more than sports UNLESS you were a varsity captain or ranked. Just varsity is not enough. Do that and volunteer a lot and then you are good, but make sure you have something else. Colleges want students to bring their passions to campus, and so if you don't plan on playing sports in college, it doesn't look like you have much to bring compared to someone who plays the trumpet and was in student gov.
- Also on the subject of sports, if you are a bench warmer, make sure your grades are superb and you have other ECs because I know a lot of kids who sat on the bench and got home too late to have much time to study and ended up screwed both ways.
- Any leadership position is a nice addition, whether its Treasurer of student gov, president of french club, head delegate in Model UN, captain of the basketball team, anything like that.
- Community service is very important, especially if your family is well off.