Comments on: Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind?

By: neomeo

neomeo — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:04:56 +0000

@claire so u did all list A activities but still got in? care to list some of them please?

By: Claire

Claire — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:16:08 +0000

well, never actually got a response from cal, but i guess at that point it wasn’t necessary. i was admitted to stanford university, my dream school, despite being overly “well-rounded.” i do plan to cut back in college, though, because the level of stress i’m under now is simply unsustainable

By: Sophie

Sophie — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:01:01 +0000

(really!? the French club?)

I see you mock the French Club, but you consider founding and running a club a List B feat. Well, during my sophomore year I founded a French Club, the first and only club at my tiny boarding school, and I plan on running it my remaining three years. I'm really passionate about the language. What do you think?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:00:05 +0000

I am in the same boat as these Lindsey and Claire, just dound this site and it all makes sense, I wish I had known about all of these philosophies a couple of years ago, I am in a dozen clubs/activities and play 4 varsity sports, I went to nationals in one of my clubs, would that be a B list achievement? and what can I do my senior year to impress colleges?

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:23:24 +0000

@claire, I’m in the same position as you are. I feel as though I’ve involved myself so deeply in List A activities that I cant figure out if I have a single List B one. I do XC, Squash and Track but am not recruitable. For squash I’m starting a fall season club, hoping that counts as something, also thinking that it really could be a lot of fun. That is really last minute though. It is especially nerve-wracking because I see how much doing ED benefits in college admissions and that deadline is only a couple months away.
I’m debating whether Editor in Chief counts for List B as well as a study abroad trip in Spain and a leadership/hiking/environmental service trip to montana.
@cal, what can we do to in the last bit of time we have before applications are due to make them shine?

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:27:03 +0000

I wish I had found this site sooner. It’s the summer before my senior year, and I’m one of those overachieving, hyper-involved students that’s probably not going to get into the schools she wants to go to because my ECs are utterly unimpressive. Honestly, I don’t even know how I can change it now. I’ve always involved myself in things that interest me– it just so happens that the things that interest me are what adcoms apparently consider “boring”– school plays, student government, NHS, service projects, dance team. I don’t know what I should do, or how I can possibly make myself more “impressive”, with so little time.

By: Allie

Allie — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:50:21 +0000

I’m a high school senior in the UK. This summer I ended up on the worst end of deep procrastination. My school offers very limited courses; I have 5 subjects, 3 of which I detest (phy, eco and chem), but I don’t have the liberty of dropping them because it’d lump me with the very worst of students. This summer I ended up with a terrible form of deep procrastination; I sat around 12 A level papers, some on a single night’s preparation… Obviously, I’m pretty terrified about my upcoming results.

I was losing interest with some of my ECAs too. I’m student co-ordinator of the Duke of Edinburgh award club (which none of the students really care about), vice president of the debate club and had tried founding & running a school magazine + writing club with my friends. However, since my school is really tiny, I wasn’t getting a very good response with any of these.

Even before I stumbled onto Study Hacks a few weeks ago, I decided to evaluate my schedule. I’m thinking about dropping bio and taking further maths instead. And despite having reservations on quitting the debate, writing and Duke of EB clubs because of feelings of responsibility, I think I’ll go ahead. They take up a lot of my time and don’t really bring any results (the people I work so hard for don’t care!). Instead I’m thinking about working on a book of poetry that I’m trying to publish and spending more time volunteering at a charity that mentors disadvantaged children. I’d like to focus more on web-designing and searching for some research or volunteering opportunities. However, I’m wondering — do these new activities fall under the B-list?

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:01:19 +0000

But in college I’m overly busy. I am involved with in a leadership capacity the College Democrats, Model UN, Debate Society, Literary Society, Academic Integrity Council, Student Government, and I am a member in a few others. But it seems like a lot of my activities fall under List B. Maybe I can’t tell the difference.

They almost all fall under the “List B” category. Choose one or, at most, two things, and put all your attention on those. Drop the rest. Seriously, no one will care how many college activities you did.

By: Raj

Raj — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:40:51 +0000

Hi I just stopped by your website and this is the first thing I read and boy do I have say that I am exactly the type of person that is like this! I am a college student now. The funny thing is that I didn’t do anything like that during high school, I just focused on a couple things. But in college I’m overly busy. I am involved with in a leadership capacity the College Democrats, Model UN, Debate Society, Literary Society, Academic Integrity Council, Student Government, and I am a member in a few others. But it seems like a lot of my activities fall under List B. Maybe I can’t tell the difference.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:16:41 +0000

I completely agree.

All these people I know are filling their lives with List A items (clubs, unimportant officer positions, etc)… And these students, valedictorians and 2300+ SAT scorers included, are now being rejected by all the Ivy League schools.

I have some List A items (I’m a high school senior.) but focus mainly on List B–what I’m really passionate about. No doubt these other kids have more officer positions than I have. I got into Yale early, and I’m sure my clear focus had an impact.