4
3 years ago
Admissions Advice

is being an event coordinator for a mental health org considered a good enough EC?
Answered

hello,

I am a junior in high school and I wanted to ask if being an event coordinator for a mental health organization is good enough extracurricular to get a psychology major in a prestigious uni?

also, can someone suggest some more ECs, please?

thank you

i hope you have a nice day/night/evening wherever you are <3

11th
extracirriculars
advice
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Accepted Answer
3 years ago

Honestly, it doesn't sound very impressive. Yes, it's an EC but it not an example of a leadership position nor does it directly involve you giving service in the field you are interested in.

Some alternatives.

1.) How about volunteering on a "help" "suicide" hotline? I believe for these positions you will need some form of training so that will look good. Plus you will be applying that training to help change the lives of the community you are serving. That is more in line with applying your love of psychology. Now if you were interested in studying marketing and going to business school, the event coordinator is more in line with that.

2.) How about taking an online college course in Psychology and putting that down as an academic EC. I'm not going to major in Psych but last summer I took an outlier.org college course in Psychology. It was taught by 9 or 10 professors from Columbia, NYU, Yale etc. I got an A and 3 college credits for that. Plus an official transcript so I can transfer the credits toward my degree if I want to. It was a good use of $400.

3. How about asking the Mental Health Organization if there are other positions you can move to that have more to do with job shadowing someone actually helping patients or clients versus being in the background as a support function for fund-raising. Press them on that so your internship will look more impressive.

4. How about starting an activist group at school to bring awareness to mental health issues in your community. Maybe you can fund-raise so your school group can go to bigger regional events, or State or National conventions where you can network and meet other health professionals.

5. How about doing a deep dive into some prerecorded Ted Talks about mental health and finding a topic that no one has been doing a presentation on. Then do some research and put together a presentation or video. Maybe post that on your own youtube channel or create a venue at your school like having a mental health check-in day where you get different speakers and you can present your own work as well.

Anyway, I'm just trying to help you out. Good Luck

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