Will weird gaps in my extensive EC's ruin me?

College Admissions
#1

<p>My notes/issues with these are at the bottom, so feel free to read those first! But, here are my EC's:</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
- JV Volleyball
- Club Volleyball
- Rec League Volleyball coach (team won regional championships)
- Varsity Public Forum Debate
- School newspaper Staff Reporter
- Cliffhanger Media Project (unique club at my school that conceptualizes, scripts, casts, shoots, edits and releases one feature length film per year) scriptwriter, cast member, and producer
- Designed shirt for Freshman Lock-In
- Head alto/soloist of my church youth choir
- Regular (every meeting) participant in sandwich-making/distributing program at my church</p>

<p>Summer before Sophomore Year:
- Computer Science summer school (not a previously attempted course)</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
- Varsity Volleyball
- Club Volleyball
- Volleyball Referee (but only for the two months that the season lasted)
- School newspaper Spread Editor
- State finalist for newspaper design competition
- Cliffhanger Media Project Vice-President, scriptwriter, cast member, and producer
- Poetry Out Loud class winner, school winner, regional winner, state finalist
- Designed shirt for homecoming
- Head alto/soloist of my church youth choir
- Regular (every meeting) participant in sandwich-making/distributing program at my church</p>

<p>Summer before Junior Year:
- World History 1 summer school (not a previously attempted course)
- Volleyball camp coach</p>

<p>Junior Year
- Varsity Volleyball
- Club Volleyball
- Volleyball Referee (but only for the two months that the season lasted)
- School newspaper Layout Editor
- Won a national feature on the National Student Press Association website for a newspaper page design
- Varsity Public Forum Debate
- Cliffhanger Media Project President, director, head script editor, and producer
- Big Sib (freshmen are assigned Big Sib volunteers chosen from an applicant pool who then help them acclimate to my rather unique high school environment)
- Poetry Out Loud class winner, school finalist
- Designed shirt for homecoming
- Designed spirit pack for volleyball (warm-up shirt, Varsity shirt)
- Designed shirt for Public Forum Debate
- Designed shirt for Policy Debate
- Head alto/soloist of my church youth choir
- Regular (every meeting) participant in sandwich-making/distributing program at my church</p>

<p>Summer before Senior Year:
- Attended pre-college at the Maryland Institute College of Art for one month, earning three credits for graphic design</p>

<p>Senior Year:
- Varsity Volleyball
- School newspaper Layout Editor
- Varsity Public Forum Debate
- Cliffhanger Media Project President, director, head script editor, and producer
- Big Sib
- Co-Founder/Web Designer for TeenActivist.org (designed banner and buttons for site)
- Web Designer for NextGENHome.org (designed banner) / Newsletter Editor for NextGEN Policy club at school
- Designed full spirit pack for volleyball (warm-up shirt, Varsity shirt, senior shirt, sweatpants, sweatshirt)
- Designed shirt for NextGEN Policy club
- Head alto/soloist of my church youth choir
- Regular (every meeting) participant in sandwich-making/distributing program at my church
- Hopefully something with Poetry Out Loud
- Hopefully designing more shirts for clubs and homecoming
- Hopefully National Merit Semifinalist or above (I'm past the cut-off for my state from last year, but who knows)</p>

<p>Okay, so I know it's good that I at least have multiple EC's on my resume, but there are a few key gaps, and I'm wondering if those will kill me for college admissions. The gaps are (1) no job experience except two-month seasonal volleyball reffing (and I decided to leave that out of my CommonApp for lack of room and lack of importance in my life), (2) the sophomore year gap in debate and lack of awards and/or leadership positions in debate (I kind of only did it for fun and never really excelled...would it be better to leave it off the apps?), (3) not doing club volleyball my senior year, (4) the validity of my shirt-designing credits (I know it can be very simple to make a t-shirt design, but I want to be a graphic designer and all of my designs are a little more complicated and well-executed than just typing a team name and slapping clip art onto a digital shirt at Custom Ink... but is there any way college admissions could know that?), and (5) the inferior performance in the Poetry Out Loud competition my junior year as compared to my sophomore year (should I leave junior year participation out entirely?).</p>

<p>Anyway, if anyone could help me out with making calls for those, I would very much appreciate it!</p>

#2

<p>Sorry... designing a tshirt is not going to impress anyone.
If I were you I'd leave that off apps.
The other questions are not even of your concern. You don't seem to have any serious issues with your EC's (like having to leave school for a month because of health issue, etc), and it makes sense why there's some gaps. No one is perfect after all.
Anyway, don't worry about "gaps", your EC's are great.</p>

#3

<p>Darn, I was thinking the t-shirt thing would probably mean nothing but hoping it would because I've spent such a significant amount of time working on that sort of thing, and they're some of the only graphic design-type credits I have.
Thanks for the advice!</p>

#4

<p>Does anyone else have any thoughts?</p>

#5

<p>If you're interested in graphic design, then I think designing tshirts is a great EC. You just need to word it differently...was it a contest? Did the whole student body wear it? Did you sell them? To just say "designed tshirt" is rather boring.</p>

<p>You have lots of ECs...good luck!</p>

#6

<p>The homecoming shirts were contests, but after a while people from lots of different places just started coming to me and asking me to design shirts. They ranged from clubs of 20 to the volleyball program of 40 to a class of 460. All of them were sold.
Do you have any suggestions for wording? I was trying to think of another way to say it but I wasn't sure how :(</p>

#7

<p>Ok. As I read line by line by line, I said, gawd, hope this kid is an arts major- and then, 80-some (on cc) lines down, we get to that. Any chance you are not seeing the forest for the trees? Don't know if you are applying to an art school or other, but if you'll apply as an art major, what's missing is something that shows you can design outside the school context- something that shows another audience values your skills (art and personal) and that you have that get-up-and-go. You can vol with an arts program, teach to kids or seniors, go assist a web guy with graphics, etc. Just think about it.</p>

<p>We x-posted. If you mean you did design and sell, good. But I think you'd benefit from the idea of both word-of-mouth (where it comes to you) and some sense that you were active in looking for opps. And, that your skill set extends beyond designing shirts. So, what else did you design? (Website design is tricky- so many kids- and their grandparents- can design anything. Can you show that what you did is high level, reached a broad audience, was done with professionals, part of a campaign, etc?)</p>

#8

<p>Thanks for the input! Getting across both of those aspects does sound like it would be beneficial. The art programs I will be applying to all require portfolios so letting them know I designed things other than shirts won't be something I need to cross in the ECs section specifically.</p>

<p>So should I leave the shirt designing out for applications to non-art schools?</p>

#9

<p>^Nope. But you need the right spin (in the good sense of that word.) It's something interesting about you. In general, one has to watch not to describe things in ways that make them seem too easy to attain or lucky. Show your motivation/energy in some way. (Clearly you love it- so find the right words.) But, when I said other designs, I mean outside class, too. And, it wouldn't hurt to vol with your art (esp for the regular colleges.) The sandwich-making is within your comfort zone. You don't really have much outside that CZ.</p>

#10

<p>Those gaps will indeed ruin you. The world will frown upon your sub-par Poetry Out Loud performance. In fact, if this information gets out, you won't get into college--forget about getting a job. You should be ashamed of yourself.</p>

#11

<p>
[quote]
^Nope. But you need the right spin (in the good sense of that word.) It's something interesting about you. In general, one has to watch not to describe things in ways that make them seem too easy to attain or lucky. Show your motivation/energy in some way. (Clearly you love it- so find the right words.) But, when I said other designs, I mean outside class, too. And, it wouldn't hurt to vol with your art (esp for the regular colleges.) The sandwich-making is within your comfort zone. You don't really have much outside that CZ.

[/quote]

I'd never even thought of that - I will definitely look into that, it seems fun! And I will definitely work on the wording.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Those gaps will indeed ruin you. The world will frown upon your sub-par Poetry Out Loud performance. In fact, if this information gets out, you won't get into college--forget about getting a job. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[/quote]

I like you.</p>