College Application QuestionAnswered
One of my college questions asks to briefly elaborate on one of our extracurricular activities. Does the main focus of the activity have to be on me? If yes, how do I focus it on myself if the extracurricular activity was a group effort?
Last year, my school's business club and I consulted a business owner in Panama. We all collectively came up with ideas to expand on the entrepreneur's business plan and presented our ideas to them months later. I do not want to change my subject since this EC relates most to my major and recognizes my experience in international business.
Earn karma by helping others:
2 answers
Hi @izeah!
I think it would be helpful to go back to the purpose of college essays. They're meant to help admissions officers understand you: your background, how you've changed, how you see the world. They don't want you to elaborate on an extracurricular experience just so they can measure your accomplishments; they want to know how you felt about that experience.
It doesn't matter whether or not you were the focus of the activity. Instead, think about questions like: what motivated you to join this activity? What challenges did you face? How did you overcome these challenges?
If it was a group activity, then talk about your role within the group. You could even write about the process of seeing yourself as a part of a larger whole, and any challenges/adjustments that went along with it. Your goal is for admissions officers to get a better understanding of you as a person through the narrative you write in your essay.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
ECs are meant for holistic development, which means they help you develop new skills and thought processes or strengthen those learned from studies. Either way, they make you a better candidate for college applications and jobs. Thus, you should focus on mentioning what you learned(hard and soft skills) from the experience. Very briefly state your contributions.
Hope this helps.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!