If you are talking about tippy tops, then the value of garden-variety ECs is probably overrated by students and parents who are new to the process. Quality is definitely more important than quantity, and ECs are not going to make up for stats that are on the low side, with some exceptions athletes, legacy, URM, etc….
Was it because of her ECs? I doubt it was just that, because her grades, while very good, were actually a tad on the low side for the top schools she applied to. Maybe a combination? Who knows. She ended up being accepted to three very selective LACs in all, and I suspect it was in large part because she had good grades and excellent test scores. But I think she must have also had very good LORs, and she wrote a good essay and supplements.
So I guess if you look at the whole package, then yes, perhaps ECs are overrated. For holistic admissions, you need to send a puzzle with all the pieces. Overall, I think other things are more important than ECs, but for students applying to colleges that practice holistic admissions, they should be striving to participate in things that are almost an extension of who they are.
And for the student that HAS to have an EC that is a job or looking after siblings, family members, or similar, that student should ask their guidance counselor to note the circumstances in the letter of rec. Not all strong students have the luxury of doing things they enjoy outside of school.
However, as a college gets less selective, ED can definitely be a boost. Not that everyone needs to start keeping bees of course, and plenty of students who do sport, student gov and Model UN are accepted to Harvard and the like every year.
But I would put my money on the beekeeper. ECs can get you noticed or remembered by an admissions officer, or give you a talking point in an interview. You taught horseback riding to city kids? I definitely agree with quality over quantity. Our son had one varsity sport and two very deep ECs making for very compact-looking applications. For instance, because debate is such a popular activity, your child will be competing against thousands of other bright students across the country.
If they end up as the best debater in the country, they will stand out on college applications. Not necessarily. However, your child should be thoughtful about how they pursue debate. For example, if your child enjoys making videos, they can start and grow what eventually becomes the most accessed debate tutorial YouTube channel.
Or, your child can organize a series of debates in her local community where experts in various fields discuss current events.
These debates can be broadcasted live and the series can spread to other cities, college campuses, and so on. Note: Some students misinterpret this advice and pursue the most obscure uncommon activities in hopes of standing out. Admissions committees can see through this from a mile away. Many parents, students, and guidance counselors mistakenly believe that some activities—or types of activities—are inherently better than others when it comes impressing admissions committees.
For example, varsity sports, model UN, yearbook, robotics club, and summer programs are assumed to be more impressive than nature photography, coding at home, or blogging. Most times when I ask parents what their child does extracurricularly, they stop at listing school clubs and community service activities.
Your child has devoted a lot of time to certain activities and has developed a passion for them. Why not leverage this passion for extracurricular success rather than wait for some other activity to pique their interest?
The previous debate example was meant to demonstrate that your art-loving child need not be the next Picasso to stand out through art. A high school mentor can provide your child with the guidance and support needed to form a unique extracurricular experience. This section is intended to build on how your child should ideally pursue extracurriculars. Everyone gets 24 hours a day. Yet, some people accomplish much more than others with the same time allotment. The most accomplished people I know—whether in their personal or professional life—are the ones who protect their time at all costs, devoting it only to the people and activities they enjoy most.
That would be amazing! For overcommitted high schoolers surrounded by overcommitted peers, this is especially difficult.
I advise my students to schedule free time in their calendars to allow for meaningful exploration. The biggest obstacle to freeing up time tends to be parent and student anxiety.
Resist this anxiety and encourage your child to protect their time at all costs if they want to deeply devote themselves to impressive activities. However, they will help your child protect their time and develop a powerful extracurricular profile to stand out and get into the best schools.
Reducing time spent on homework. You can share the following strategies with your child to help them study smarter—in less time:. Work in isolation and in a quiet space, such as in a library or at a desk in your house that is away from the computer. Avoid using the internet unless it is required. If the internet is required for a certain assignment, use website blockers to avoid spending time perusing social media. Otherwise, you may get caught up in email, social media, and text messages from friends.
Eat well. Nutritious meals and snacks will help you be more efficient while completing school work. Eliminating unnecessary courses and reducing workload.
Many students think that taking the most difficult course load possible will guarantee them admission to the best universities. If your child is already enrolled in AP Biology and they are not terribly passionate about science, they probably should not add AP Physics or AP Chemistry to their schedule.
It is perfectly acceptable—and recommended—to take fewer time-consuming courses, especially if it allows time to achieve at an incredibly high level with extracurriculars. If your child is choosing between two different courses to satisfy a requirement that they are not excited about e.
Cutting unnecessary electives can also save time. If your child has enrolled in band, choir, art, or theater and has lost interest, it may be a good time for them to cut that class. By eliminating unnecessary electives and replacing overly difficult courses with more manageable options, your child can down on class time and gain time to study at school or even leave campus early. More importantly, your child will eliminate hours of unnecessary homework, freeing themselves up to explore their own interests during their evenings and weekends.
Striving for academic success, not perfection. What surprises many parents is that perfection is no longer the key to acceptance. This is not to say that students should ignore courses and test scores, but rather to convey that, at a certain point, good enough actually is good enough. Yet, they routinely reject many of these students in favor of applicants with slightly more modest stats but who have innovatively pursued extracurricular activities. Earlier in this guide I discussed how your child should take incremental small steps in their area of interest so that they can reach the top of the proverbial mountain over time.
Someimes when taking small steps, your child will create or be presented with an exciting opportunity that they are itching to pursue. When the rare, truly exciting opportunity presents itself, your child should go all in and fully devote their time, attention, and emotion.
For example, if your child has been conducting biology research for two years at your local university and comes across a promising finding that he can write up for a first-author submission to a major journal, he should commit most, if not all, of his extracurricular time to doing so, even if it means taking a break from other activities.
Rare opportunities reflect months or years of hard work. Pursuing them effortfully will lead to outsized achievements and impressiveness when it comes to college applications. After spending some time exploring extracurricular activities and developing new skills, your child will have more clarity about their passions and be ready to take their activities to the next level.
While your child can go it alone, I strongly recommend they connect with a mentor. Mentors are like rocket fuel; they can help your child accelerate their extracurricular progress and achieve greater things during their high school career. Mentors come in all forms. If your child is interested in pursuing scientific research, a local university professor could be a great mentor.
On the other hand, if your child is excited about leading a fundraising project for infants with fetal alcohol syndrome, a philanthropist or nonprofit organization president could be the right person to guide them. Reaching out to new organizations and possible mentors can be a daunting task.
A good place to start with finding a mentor is through a personal connection, whether teachers, school staff, parents, family members, or family friends. If a personal contact through these networks does not pan out, your child should consider sending emails to possible mentors with whom they might want to work.
Because so many professionals are inundated with emails, this process takes care and patience. I am a high school student at Lakes Community High School resume attached with a longstanding interest in bird evolution and migration patterns. I came across your work on the Calliope Hummingbird about a year ago and have been fascinated by how their patterns differ from other birds in their genus.
What types of duties could I take on as an entry-level research assistant? Are there undergraduate or graduate students who might serve as mentors? If you do not have space for a student, do you recommend any reading related to hummingbird evolution or know anyone else who might need a research assistant?
Please let me know if I can provide any additional information. I look forward to hearing from you. If a potential mentor does not respond, your child should wait a week or two before checking in. I hope this message finds you well. Some professionals are either super busy or skeptical of mentoring high school students, so your child should move on and find someone who is excited to guide them.
No matter what your child does, they should dive deeper into a specialized interest, rather than pursue multiple activities superficially. The former often culminates in a project, but it may also result in a series of different activities that constellate around a central interest. Project-based approach: Exciting and impressive extracurricular accomplishments can take many forms.
It might culminate in writing a book, maintaining a blog, creating a small business, starting an activist movement, or conducting and publishing original research, to name a few. A project-based approach does not preclude your child from also pursuing other activities, but could consume substantial time. If you started an after-school movie club where you and other members watched and then analyzed movies, or decided to develop video games on your own time, then you could list those as extracurriculars.
While most schools are interested in extracurricular activities to some extent, they are especially important to the top colleges and universities. These schools get too many students who are academically-qualified, so extracurriculars help you stand out.
The less competitive schools, like large public schools or state universities, receive so many applications that they narrow their focus. Typically, extracurriculars fall to the wayside here as more emphasis is placed on quantitative data, like GPA and test scores, because these require less time on the part of the admissions committee. That being said, having extracurriculars on your resume, no matter where you apply to, helps you present a robust application that helps the admissions officers gain an overall deeper understanding of the type of person you are.
This can make or break their decision to accept you into their university. A well-rounded profile demonstrates that you are passionate and dedicated to the things you care about, both of which are qualities that would make you a valuable addition to their student body.
There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. As you will see from that link, at the most selective colleges they are looking for depth more than just participation.
Stanford, for example, says. As to what you listed: traveling, all that will show is that your parents can afford to send you on trips. If you enjoy piano, stick with it! But on the flip side dabbling in this and that playing some piano, making a YouTube channel are not the type of ECs that stand out. Spend the next year or two finding something that really captivates you, then brainstorm ways to stand out in it. Northstarmom was an alum interviewer and has not actively posted in years.
Read and keep reading what Stanford and other top schools look for. Real leadership comes from having drives and pursuing them in legit, challenging ways. Give yourself a chance to explore. And treat comm service responsibly. I am not looking for ECs to fill in my academic record.
I am an alum interviewer for a top LAC. While yes, leadership is a positive, as it suggests you will follow that path in college, a commitment to what you love, what makes your heart sing and your feet tap is compelling. That will become apparent to seasoned readers. So, rather than our suggesting to you what EC you should pursue, ask yourself- what do you love? If you love to walk dogs and set up a dog walking service, great! If you had a talent for computers and end up as the neighborhood kid who fixes everyones PCs, great.
If you love to play the piccolo and join a Revolutionary war re-enactment group, great. While sure, being an intel winner for perfecting cold fusion is impressive, be open to new things and think about what you offer the school, not the other way around.
There is a great youtube made by the admissions director from Stanford who talks about this. I am on my ipad at the moment and cant link it. But watch it. It will help you.
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