6
3 years ago
Admissions Advice
[edited]

ec's help

Sophomore here. I feel like I'm all over the place in my extracurriculars. I guess I kinda have 3ish spikes so would it impact my chances of a decent college?

1. Art: I do ceramics and pottery, run an art account, and have been featured in art magazines.

2. I am in the MUN Secertariat and Newspaper Cabby and have took a few humanities college class (Pol Sci, Business, Econ)

3. I am in cabby for a science nonprofit (i've won a few community service awards through this) and do research with a professor @ UCLA. I also competed and won 2nd place in STEM Olympiad.

I am soooo confused on if i should further any of these ec's because what of space restrictions on the common app (what if i dont have enough space telling all of 'em, even w/the extra info section?)

thechaoticlifeofaconfusedhighschoolstudent
6
3

Earn karma by helping others:

1 karma for each ⬆️ upvote on your answer, and 20 karma if your answer is marked accepted.

3 answers

1
3 years ago

Having disorganized extracurriculars might NEGATIVELY affect your application. I have seen a girl on youtube who was an excellent student, (1500+ sat, 4.0 gpa, 15 ap classes) but got rejected from all schools except her safeties. Her college decisions reaction video was devastating to watch.

But towards the end of the video her father (who happened to have connections with some top colleges) was furious and asked the admission readers themselves why his daughter was not admitted. They simply stated that the biggest mistake she made was having disorganized extracurriculars (ex: spanish club president, swim coach, bio club president, model un).

Her activities didn't allow the councilors to understand why she chose her major, or show what type of niche she would belong to on campus.

My advice to you is to narrow your activities down to two major topics, and in your supplement essays state how these two intertwined. (ex: science and art)

Your activities so far sound amazing, I wish you the best of luck! :-)

1
1
3 years ago

The Common App requires you to only fill out your highest ec achievements in the space given, so there's no problem with furthering your ec's . When you're filling it out, just try to mention the most important ones. You can also mention some in the essay. As for colleges, this is basically the type of ec profile they look for (in your words, "3ish spikes"), so you're good to go.

1
0
3 years ago

Hi,

There is enough space for you to showcase your abilities in the commonapp. Having many ecs will give you more freedom to choose from a pool of activities in accordance with the university culture, focus and relevance to the program you are interested in.

That is the mechanical approach.

Then the more in-depth approach will support the idea that it is wise to highlight the most prominent and influential ones and mention others in a periphery.

In the end, commonapp is a tool which will give the output according to the input you provide it.

0
What are your chances of acceptance?
Your chance of acceptance
Duke University
Loading…
UCLA
Loading…
+ add school
Your chancing factors
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
200
800

Extracurriculars

Low accuracy (4 of 18 factors)

Community Guidelines

To keep this community safe and supportive:

  1. Be kind and respectful!
  2. Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
  3. Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!

How karma works