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What do Bschools look for in EC's ?

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What do Bschools look for in EC's ?

by bblast » Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:51 am
The answer to the question as per me would be leadership, team working and mangerial qualities.
What if I have a very basic level contribution such as participating and event managing in some initiates in an NGO ? Is it worth mentioning in the app and resume ? In truthfulness, I was pulled into 2 NGO's by my younger brother who does a lot of social work. My contributions were mostly as a particiapnt leading some small ecological drives and school visits. :roll:

I dont want to be grilled by the adcom as I am extremely unconfident about my outside work contributions and I think the contributions were really lbasic compared to some heavy profiles I have come across in my bschool journey. Nevertheless, I am confident of my abilities, work-ex and strong academics and I don't want lack of EC's to put me at a disadvantage,

Should I altogether skip the entire EC's from my resume and other places ? How to best present the minor contribution and still avoid being grilled in my interviews in case someone feels like its his lucky day to explore my outside job activities ? :oops:
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by essaysnark » Tue Oct 11, 2011 10:32 am
Hi bblast - great question!!

The importance of extracurriculars is often over-emphasized by applicants - they can be important, but it's not a critical factor for many schools. For the U.S. programs where community engagement is expected, it's weighted at possibly just 10% or so of the overall application. ECs can help show that a candidate is well rounded and that she gets involved in the world - or in some cases, like an applicant who is interested in social enterprise, it can provide "roots" to the profile to show longstanding interest in/commitment to a cause. It's good to have *some* ECs for any candidate, but it's not quite as important as sometimes it's made out to be - the complete absence of ECs is even often understandable, for example for finance types who are working 80-hour weeks, or consultants who are on the road every week, or maybe if there's a personal situation at home like a sick relative to care for. So, as with everything, it's the complete package that the school will be evaluating.

But you've probably heard all this before, right? ;-)

We definitely recommend that you list out the activities you've been involved with on the resume (and in the online dataset for the schools) - even if it's been just minor stuff, like you're saying. It's always better to have something than nothing at all. If it's not that significant or if you don't feel that you have much you could discuss in detail in, say, an interview, then don't feel the need to squeeze more out of it than that - you don't need to find a way to feature your volunteer work as a main story in an essay, for example. You can, of course, mention it in passing - something like "I look forward to getting involved in the XYC student club at this school, as a way to continue my volunteer work that I did with ABC Charity over the past few years." This is a nice way to tie in a brief mention.

So, keep it on the resume, in a small reference at the bottom somewhere, and include it in the online dataset, where they ask about ECs, but don't make it any bigger than it is (obviously!). And, be prepared for the question in the interview about "What do you do for fun?" This question can include your volunteer work as part of a list of stuff: "I do field hockey and salsa dancing, and I participated in this NGO last year..." That way, you're covering your bases by showing that yes, you have done a little stuff here and there, but you're not making it this main feature of the entire profile in a way that you'd be put on the spot later. The schools don't expect everyone to have devoted their lives to nonprofit work, so it's totally fine if you have not!

But of course this also might be a good time to get more involved, eh? (Like you're not busy enough with all this work on the apps, right??)

Hope this helps bblast - let us know if we can offer anything else!
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by bblast » Tue Oct 11, 2011 10:05 pm
I cannot stress how perfect ur response was to my query above. This is my second year with Bschool apps and I am almost mid way through R1 work.

I actually removed the mention of GLOBASE from my Kelley essay as its a social entrepreneurship program which I had to link with my EC'S and I did not want my EC's to poke up their heads on my precious essays. And ya I have already used a line very similar to the one-liner u used above reagrding clubs and EC's. :mrgreen:

Finally my schedule is tighter than that of a finance or marketing consultant. :(. I manage the entire operations for a manufacturing plant in two shifts and I have to squeeze in my application work from here itself in hardly a couple of hours a day- including Sundays.

BTW I have an association fwith "The Earth organization,India" and I also hold a hefty chair in the same, thanks to my brother. But I am gonna be truthful and stay away from making any stupid stories of these. I back my strong work ex to get me into my dream schools !!!

One final query. I saw that u mentioned that us bschools do weigh the EC's a bit more. What about ISB ? Is it in the same league regarding EC's ?
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by FutureWorks » Wed Oct 12, 2011 5:32 am
Hi bblast,

We would suggest if you keep your EC's in the resume. It's better to have few EC than having no EC'S at all. You mentioned you were leading some ecological drives and school visits. If your leadership can be highlighted here please do that.
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by essaysnark » Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:18 am
Hey bblast--

Wow, it sounds like you have a *lot* going on! Make sure that your heavy commitments are made evident to your adcom readers - the description you included above should also go in your essays somewhere, so that they understand what you're working on. You are most definitely not expected to be volunteering 10 hours/week on top of all that workload! The fact that you've done anything at all makes you look rather exceptional, we think. :-)
bblast wrote:One final query. I saw that u mentioned that us bschools do weigh the EC's a bit more. What about ISB ? Is it in the same league regarding EC's ?
Even though volunteering isn't as common in India as it is in America, and thus wouldn't be "expected" by ISB to the same degree, it can still help to have some ECs in your profile due to the intense competition at ISB. Based on what we said in that paragraph above about your current workload, the adcom would understand the constraints in your life and would not be looking for additional ECs - there would be no demerit or black mark if you don't have more to present. Many candidates to ISB do have some charitable stuff to discuss in their profile (more than the "average" Indian citizen might), but many others only have the standard activities during university years, and have not done a lot since they graduated. So your profile should be just fine in terms of the competitive landscape there.

Going through this whole process for a second year is grueling - we totally understand the pressure you're under! If there's anything more we can help with, feel free to ask!

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