What are the most common/unremarkable ECs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids should dive into ECs they love and that enriches their lives, not check boxes off to get into some school.

If the things they have chosen to immerse themselves in aren't "good enough" for a school then I'd argue the child isn't a fit in the first place.

Expecting kids to just do random things they have zero interest in for the purposes of getting into one of these schools is entirely stupid, let them enjoy their ECs and go from there. Anyone who does otherwise is setting their kids up for a lifetime of stress having been micromanaged to death to the point they can't even follow their own interests

you are assuming that there is always a stark line between activities students are passionate about, on one hand, and activities required to get into a selective college, on the other.

but this is not the case. a lot of kids are not particularly passionate about any of their activities, even ones they excel at. meanwhile, it's not quite clear what colleges are looking for, either. it makes sense that people are trying to figure that out..

if they aren't passionate about it, they probably aren't defined by those ECs. In which, sadly, they aren't important enough to make or break your candidacy.
Or its good enough for a T50-100....

It's a bit young to be defined by something at 17 don't you think?

I mean how many recruited athletes are defined by their sport once classes start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids should dive into ECs they love and that enriches their lives, not check boxes off to get into some school.

If the things they have chosen to immerse themselves in aren't "good enough" for a school then I'd argue the child isn't a fit in the first place.

Expecting kids to just do random things they have zero interest in for the purposes of getting into one of these schools is entirely stupid, let them enjoy their ECs and go from there. Anyone who does otherwise is setting their kids up for a lifetime of stress having been micromanaged to death to the point they can't even follow their own interests

you are assuming that there is always a stark line between activities students are passionate about, on one hand, and activities required to get into a selective college, on the other.

but this is not the case. a lot of kids are not particularly passionate about any of their activities, even ones they excel at. meanwhile, it's not quite clear what colleges are looking for, either. it makes sense that people are trying to figure that out..

if they aren't passionate about it, they probably aren't defined by those ECs. In which, sadly, they aren't important enough to make or break your candidacy.
Or its good enough for a T50-100....

It's a bit young to be defined by something at 17 don't you think?

I mean how many recruited athletes are defined by their sport once classes start?

they don't need to be defined for it forever!!!but yes, they need SOMETHING to build a narrative off of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the most common/unremarkable ECs, unremarkable meaning that an admissions officer would not give much weight to them due to how widespread it is, even if there is leadership involved, and that would only catch an AOs eye if you won a national-level award for the EC?

IMO, the most common, especially in this area, would be student government, debate/model un, academic team/math/science/etc Olympiad, NHS, odyssey, Scouts, rec sports, and maybe theater

Someone published a tier list of ECs and it seemed to get general agreement from a lot of people.

What it basically boils down to is that anything that is merely an extracurricular activities are mundane and doesn't really count for much other than give you something to put on the application
You are looking for extracurricular accomplishments.

Getting elected to student government or being the editor of your school newspaper is competitive and will be seen as a minor accomplishment
Eagle Scout/Black Belt is seen as a common but minor accomplishment
Being a starter for a championship team is seen as a minor accomplishment
Local awards are seen as a minor accomplishment.

Once you start getting regional or state level recognition (you not your team or your school, you), your accomplishments get more recognition.

Eagle Scout is a national recognition - FYI.

It's a middle of the road activity for conformists who want to go to mediocre colleges.

You again? Once more, I'd encourage you to appreciate what it takes for kids to do this before you go belittling it. And I'd also encourage you to consider how many Eagle Scouts are out there in the professional world ready to at least talk to their fellow Eagles when they come looking for jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the most common/unremarkable ECs, unremarkable meaning that an admissions officer would not give much weight to them due to how widespread it is, even if there is leadership involved, and that would only catch an AOs eye if you won a national-level award for the EC?

IMO, the most common, especially in this area, would be student government, debate/model un, academic team/math/science/etc Olympiad, NHS, odyssey, Scouts, rec sports, and maybe theater

Someone published a tier list of ECs and it seemed to get general agreement from a lot of people.

What it basically boils down to is that anything that is merely an extracurricular activities are mundane and doesn't really count for much other than give you something to put on the application
You are looking for extracurricular accomplishments.

Getting elected to student government or being the editor of your school newspaper is competitive and will be seen as a minor accomplishment
Eagle Scout/Black Belt is seen as a common but minor accomplishment
Being a starter for a championship team is seen as a minor accomplishment
Local awards are seen as a minor accomplishment.

Once you start getting regional or state level recognition (you not your team or your school, you), your accomplishments get more recognition.

Eagle Scout is a national recognition - FYI.

It's a middle of the road activity for conformists who want to go to mediocre colleges.

You again? Once more, I'd encourage you to appreciate what it takes for kids to do this before you go belittling it. And I'd also encourage you to consider how many Eagle Scouts are out there in the professional world ready to at least talk to their fellow Eagles when they come looking for jobs.

Genuinely, I hope I never, ever meet one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the most common/unremarkable ECs, unremarkable meaning that an admissions officer would not give much weight to them due to how widespread it is, even if there is leadership involved, and that would only catch an AOs eye if you won a national-level award for the EC?

IMO, the most common, especially in this area, would be student government, debate/model un, academic team/math/science/etc Olympiad, NHS, odyssey, Scouts, rec sports, and maybe theater

Someone published a tier list of ECs and it seemed to get general agreement from a lot of people.

What it basically boils down to is that anything that is merely an extracurricular activities are mundane and doesn't really count for much other than give you something to put on the application
You are looking for extracurricular accomplishments.

Getting elected to student government or being the editor of your school newspaper is competitive and will be seen as a minor accomplishment
Eagle Scout/Black Belt is seen as a common but minor accomplishment
Being a starter for a championship team is seen as a minor accomplishment
Local awards are seen as a minor accomplishment.

Once you start getting regional or state level recognition (you not your team or your school, you), your accomplishments get more recognition.

Eagle Scout is a national recognition - FYI.

It's a middle of the road activity for conformists who want to go to mediocre colleges.

You again? Once more, I'd encourage you to appreciate what it takes for kids to do this before you go belittling it. And I'd also encourage you to consider how many Eagle Scouts are out there in the professional world ready to at least talk to their fellow Eagles when they come looking for jobs.

Genuinely, I hope I never, ever meet one.

Im not the PP, but this comment is just juvenile. Do you seriously not have anything more constructive to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the most common/unremarkable ECs, unremarkable meaning that an admissions officer would not give much weight to them due to how widespread it is, even if there is leadership involved, and that would only catch an AOs eye if you won a national-level award for the EC?

IMO, the most common, especially in this area, would be student government, debate/model un, academic team/math/science/etc Olympiad, NHS, odyssey, Scouts, rec sports, and maybe theater

Someone published a tier list of ECs and it seemed to get general agreement from a lot of people.

What it basically boils down to is that anything that is merely an extracurricular activities are mundane and doesn't really count for much other than give you something to put on the application
You are looking for extracurricular accomplishments.

Getting elected to student government or being the editor of your school newspaper is competitive and will be seen as a minor accomplishment
Eagle Scout/Black Belt is seen as a common but minor accomplishment
Being a starter for a championship team is seen as a minor accomplishment
Local awards are seen as a minor accomplishment.

Once you start getting regional or state level recognition (you not your team or your school, you), your accomplishments get more recognition.

Eagle Scout is a national recognition - FYI.

It's a middle of the road activity for conformists who want to go to mediocre colleges.

You again? Once more, I'd encourage you to appreciate what it takes for kids to do this before you go belittling it. And I'd also encourage you to consider how many Eagle Scouts are out there in the professional world ready to at least talk to their fellow Eagles when they come looking for jobs.

Genuinely, I hope I never, ever meet one.

Im not the PP, but this comment is just juvenile. Do you seriously not have anything more constructive to do?

No. Like you I'm reading / writing on a thread which is basically a waste of time itself, about "unremarkable EC's" why someone has to laud Eagle Scouts as remarkable is baffling and fascinating at the same time. It is like entering some strange 1950s time warp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eagle Scouts, sports (other than those being recruited to play at college level), student government, NHS, any kind of peer counseling or tutoring

You clearly have no understanding of the effort required to make Eagle Scout —it’s an extremely elite rank — maybe you mean generally involved in Scouting USA?

[Anonymous]

Np. Eagle Scouts used to be more well regarded (5+ years ago)

Not so much today.

[Anonymous]

Saw this in a great Reddit post on A2C:

You weren't rejected because you had low stats or bad extracurriculars. You were rejected because you were.....boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the most common/unremarkable ECs, unremarkable meaning that an admissions officer would not give much weight to them due to how widespread it is, even if there is leadership involved, and that would only catch an AOs eye if you won a national-level award for the EC?

IMO, the most common, especially in this area, would be student government, debate/model un, academic team/math/science/etc Olympiad, NHS, odyssey, Scouts, rec sports, and maybe theater

Someone published a tier list of ECs and it seemed to get general agreement from a lot of people.

What it basically boils down to is that anything that is merely an extracurricular activities are mundane and doesn't really count for much other than give you something to put on the application
You are looking for extracurricular accomplishments.

Getting elected to student government or being the editor of your school newspaper is competitive and will be seen as a minor accomplishment
Eagle Scout/Black Belt is seen as a common but minor accomplishment
Being a starter for a championship team is seen as a minor accomplishment
Local awards are seen as a minor accomplishment.

Once you start getting regional or state level recognition (you not your team or your school, you), your accomplishments get more recognition.

Eagle Scout is a national recognition - FYI.

It's a middle of the road activity for conformists who want to go to mediocre colleges.

You again? Once more, I'd encourage you to appreciate what it takes for kids to do this before you go belittling it. And I'd also encourage you to consider how many Eagle Scouts are out there in the professional world ready to at least talk to their fellow Eagles when they come looking for jobs.

Genuinely, I hope I never, ever meet one.

Im not the PP, but this comment is just juvenile. Do you seriously not have anything more constructive to do?

No. Like you I'm reading / writing on a thread which is basically a waste of time itself, about "unremarkable EC's" why someone has to laud Eagle Scouts as remarkable is baffling and fascinating at the same time. It is like entering some strange 1950s time warp.

Because it's a difficult credential to earn and i know how valuable it is for my kid's own growth. That's enough for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The three Eagle Scouts from my son's HS did not fare well in admissions last year. They're all at targets/safeties; none were accepted at their reaches. Not that this is hard data, but interesting to me.

(Kid applied to Ivies: Villanova. Kid who ED1 to BC: Bates. Kid who applied to a ton of schools, including ED to Lehigh: UVM.)

This post tells us nothing. It’s one data point. Was scouting their only EC? Did they take the most rigorous courses? GPA? SAT/ACT?

Exactly. The lack of logic in the post is concerning.

This. My DD is a younger Scout on track for Eagle. Her troop members applying to colleges this year have a range of stats and other EC commitments. Since we're sharing anecdata, one is in at Penn.

No the whole eagle scout thing is very minor. Very old school, like 1970s. It's not impressive to be part of a larger organization, it is impressive to create changes within one. If your kid is doing that, they should shout about it in their essays. If they're not, well ok.

You clearly know nothing about the kind of leadership, teamwork, service, and years of hard work Eagle entails.

I think you're missing the bigger argument. The Scouts is an organisation you join. They have rules and uniforms which is pseudo-militaristic, but also they have systems in place for their outreach programs.

Kids are not coming up with new outreach or innovations on the existing outreach, it is just a wheel that is going around and around in the same way, ad nauseam and the kids jump on and off that wheel.

Do you not see how this shows zero initiative, zero original thought, zero genuine change / impact?

Actually, the scout has to come up with an idea themselves and spearhead every aspect of it. I used to think the same thing until I actually looked into scouts. It’s an impressive organization, and I’m impressed by the Eagle Scouts I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The three Eagle Scouts from my son's HS did not fare well in admissions last year. They're all at targets/safeties; none were accepted at their reaches. Not that this is hard data, but interesting to me.

(Kid applied to Ivies: Villanova. Kid who ED1 to BC: Bates. Kid who applied to a ton of schools, including ED to Lehigh: UVM.)

This post tells us nothing. It’s one data point. Was scouting their only EC? Did they take the most rigorous courses? GPA? SAT/ACT?

Exactly. The lack of logic in the post is concerning.

This. My DD is a younger Scout on track for Eagle. Her troop members applying to colleges this year have a range of stats and other EC commitments. Since we're sharing anecdata, one is in at Penn.

No the whole eagle scout thing is very minor. Very old school, like 1970s. It's not impressive to be part of a larger organization, it is impressive to create changes within one. If your kid is doing that, they should shout about it in their essays. If they're not, well ok.

You clearly know nothing about the kind of leadership, teamwork, service, and years of hard work Eagle entails.

I think you're missing the bigger argument. The Scouts is an organisation you join. They have rules and uniforms which is pseudo-militaristic, but also they have systems in place for their outreach programs.

Kids are not coming up with new outreach or innovations on the existing outreach, it is just a wheel that is going around and around in the same way, ad nauseam and the kids jump on and off that wheel.

Do you not see how this shows zero initiative, zero original thought, zero genuine change / impact?

Actually, the scout has to come up with an idea themselves and spearhead every aspect of it. I used to think the same thing until I actually looked into scouts. It’s an impressive organization, and I’m impressed by the Eagle Scouts I know.

I should mention that this is my first post on this thread. I’m not the only pro-scout parent.

[Anonymous]

My kid robbed a bank as a 13 yr old with a couple of friends. Days later confessed. Got lucky with an incredible judge. 2 years of community service working with victims of gun robberies. Changed his life around. Became an advocate for gun control and parental responsibility. Straight A HS student, got into an Ivy last year with a 1420 SAT and an incredible life story to tell….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid robbed a bank as a 13 yr old with a couple of friends. Days later confessed. Got lucky with an incredible judge. 2 years of community service working with victims of gun robberies. Changed his life around. Became an advocate for gun control and parental responsibility. Straight A HS student, got into an Ivy last year with a 1420 SAT and an incredible life story to tell….

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid robbed a bank as a 13 yr old with a couple of friends. Days later confessed. Got lucky with an incredible judge. 2 years of community service working with victims of gun robberies. Changed his life around. Became an advocate for gun control and parental responsibility. Straight A HS student, got into an Ivy last year with a 1420 SAT and an incredible life story to tell….

This has to be post of the year!

College counselors should take note. Start advising your 7th/8th graders which crime to commit in order to craft a “remarkable” EC!