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@ashley
31 answers, 56 votes
 • 3 years ago •
Admissions Advice

Why are my extracurriculars not good enough?
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I do quite a lot for the average person in my school (most don't do any extracurriculars). However, when I use the chancing simulator it says that my extracurriculars aren't that great. I am in several leadership positions and it's just genuinely confusing. I am, according to college vine, on tier E for mock trial as I am the president of my mock trial team. I am on tier F for aevidum as I am the club's secretary. I'm on tier I for a community service club which means that I led a community service project. And I'm on Tier J for two different clubs which indicates that I'm just a regular member. I need advice I am not sure if my extracurriculars are actually that good. If you guys don't think they're that great can you please give me any tips as to what I could do to make them better?

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extracurriculars
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@IvyLeagueGirl
31 answers, 29 votes
 • 3 years ago

One piece of advice I can give is to focus on becoming involved in your community rather than just your school. Maybe take on some volunteer or leadership positions at local nonprofit organizations, or maybe you should work a job outside of school. Hundreds of students are in numerous leadership positions in their clubs, so it is important to distinguish yourself.

Also, it is important to show colleges that you are passionate in one or two areas rather than being well-rounded. From your extracurricular list, I can't tell if you are interested in law, community service, or are interested in mental health. Does that make sense?

0
[🎤 AUTHOR]@ashley3 years ago

Yeah, I actually consider myself pretty involved in the community. One of the community service clubs is directly connected to our mayor's office. And so I received direct funding from our local government office to perform my volunteering projects. I'm actually interested in medicine but my school doesn't have any clubs regarding medicine. My school doesn't have a lot of clubs in general as most of the student body isn't involved in any extracurricular.

[🎤 AUTHOR]@ashley3 years ago

I actually had the idea of creating a medical club at my school but the process has been quite difficult. I'm assuming that's why there aren't that many extracurriculars.

1
@DebaterMAX
905 answers, 735 votes
 • 3 years ago

For elite schools (sub 25% admit rate) you’d typically need at least 1 preferably 2 things greater than F tier and then 4-5 F tier things to have somewhere between good ECs for that school and excellent. Though I have to note that academics are always more important than ECs so it does cover some slack so to speak but ECs at top tier schools should be around F tier. For example I have strong ECs at Columbia and I have 6 F 1 E 1 G.

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[🎤 AUTHOR]@ashley3 years ago

Yeah I totally understand that, but the issue for me is that even schools that have an acceptance rate of around 40% are telling me at least according to the college vine admissions chancing calculator that my extracurriculars are not strong enough. I am unfortunately very aware that my extracurriculars should be a lot better for Ivy League and prestigious schools.

@DebaterMAX3 years ago [edited]

For 40% schools you only have 5 ECs and 3 of them aren’t super notable (Is and Js). So that means you have 2 notable clubs. Either try getting the I to F and add an F tier or you can “divest” a section from another ECs. For example a club I’m part of has a city section and a national regional section. I could split them up.

@DebaterMAX3 years ago

However also note that you don’t select tiers on CommonApp so you can phrase activities in a way to make it more impressive. I managed to do this and it’s not something a lot of people think about

[🎤 AUTHOR]@ashley3 years ago

Thank you!

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