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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I read this and thought I'd share it here. It was really interesting and helpful to see how certain ECs are viewed. There are a few AOs who respond to this thread that I follow on Reddit generally (bigjoyandsmalljoy) who always have thoughtful responses.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1h2pirc/aos_thoughts_on_the_ecs_youre_seeing_these_days/[/quote]

Reading through these, this caught my eye:

- the best ECs from the AO perspective are "very niche and showed life experiences/perspectives that are different from most students"

- "Essays on their own don’t “offset” anything, but the impression we can gather about a student can drive them to a conversation at a committee level (where students get admitted). We want to learn something real about you—what gets you up in the morning, why you are who you are, what kind of person you want to be. It requires self-reflection that can be challenging. When it really feels like a student is just checking the boxes to get accepted to a top college, it just all falls a little flat. You can still keep your activities list in mind, but try to do things that do actually matter to you and excite you. You’d be surprised how much that genuineness can come through in an application."

- " there are ECs that require real talent for something in a way that can't be checked off with minimal effort, nor indeed by any sufficiently smart kid who devotes a lot of effort to it. So that is one way to distinguish yourself from the smart, hard-working kids just following a formula, to actually have a real talent for something the college is looking for in light of the valued activities at that college (sometimes known as "buckets", in that the college is trying to fill various buckets in each enrolled class)."

- "Second, there are ECs that are actually unusual for kids to do. So that is another way to distinguish yourself from the formula kids. There may be no particular "bucket" for these kids, other than the "this seems like a truly interesting, mature, and self-motivated kid that other kids would really enjoy getting to know" bucket. But that is a potentially very powerful bucket!"

- "To sum up, the[b] kids here who are sharing ideas about "good ECs" are basically encouraging each other to all compete for the same few buckets, and that means it cannot possibly be an optimal strategy to follow their advice, because you are stacking the numbers against you.[/b]

What you instead would want to do is[b] figure out what would not even occur to these kids to do, and then do it with dedication, and as relevant talent, in a way that would truly make you more interesting than the formula kids.[/b]"

This advice is often overlooked here and reddit and other places, with everyone clamoring to the same summer programs, same awards, same competitions. Its really good food for thought.[/quote]

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