RESPONSE VIDEO!!! 5 Activities That Don't Help Your College Application

A video we made about activities on college applications elicited a maelstrom of comments, criticism, and controversy. This video is in response to that one!

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[SupertutorTV]

The original video (5 Activities That Don't Help Your College Application):

[bishallamichhane]

Students shouldn't do the activities just because it makes their college application look good, they should do it because they love to do it and believe that they are best at it.

[amylee]

You may save yourself some trouble by specifying right off the bat that you are only helping people get into IVY schools and therefore will not apply to most people.

[joannefu]

Everyone has their own point of views, and she is sharing her own experiences and perspectives, it might not apply to every single person. :) Thank you for these awesome videos!

[thekarinao]

Hi Brooke! I know it can get kind of annoying to answer these types of comments but I'm struggling a bit right now! I'm a freshman homeschooler who started the year in regular school but halfway through there was some drama that made me look internally on how these other kids were affecting me and what it was really bringing to my mental health and I decided to go to homeschooling. On that note I have struggled with anxiety and other mental illness for my whole life (my parents think since I was born) and that's developed a passion for psychology for me (I plan to get a phd in child psychology) because in my future I'd like to research and educate the public on mental illness and work on ending stigma and understand how mental illness differently affects children and teenagers. Additionally, I've been in the leadership council for the California state fair for the past two years and plan to continue to do so for the next 4 years- I love this activity because I'm truly passionate about bringing "fair joy" as we say around the office and making it the best it can be. Finally, in the next couple of years I want to see what internships or volunteering I can do in different psych clinics to hopefully get a jump start on my experience and in my junior year I'm going to be taking concurrent college courses in child development and next year I'll be taking ap psych. My question is which activity or experience do you think I could work on or add to bring the "cupcake" of my application, because I'm hoping to get into a top 10 undergrad, and I'm honestly passionate to the bottom of my heart about everything I'm doing and plan to do.

[ducis]

Honestly people who complained are simply triggered that their extracurriculars are weak and bear no weight when it comes to admissions. Ivies couldn't care less about you joining NHS or helping clean up a local road or sidewalk, but conducting research, placing high in the Siemens/Intel STS competitions, making state finals in mock trial? Yeah!!!

[AB-dmrc]

My question is:
I do/did a whole lot of those “mediocre activities” in high school. Well over the 10 that they allow you to put down. How do I decide what I should I put on my application since I didn’t really stand out in any of these? :(

[starscreen]

All of this went flying out the window for me when I saw that kid get accepted to Stanford for writing 'black lives matter" 100x on his essay.

[satanlucifer]

People are just pressed that they did the activities that they thought would help their application lol

[Majestic]

You said that one of the reasons colleges don’t care about mediocre volunteer work is because almost everyone does it. Does this imply that if you DON’T do mediocre volunteer work it could hurt your admission chances?

[leyenda]

This video is so helpful. Unfortunately, there was so much hate response to honest questions about strategies to navigate thru the realities, that i stopped commenting and posting questions altogether. Decided just to listen, learn, and silently take appropriate actions to prepare. SuperTutor really is the best, though!

[motherfootball]

THIS COMMENT ARE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH SUPERTUTORTV!
I really don't understand why you guys think by being on the swim team or volunteering for a camp would help you stand out with the crowd! THEIR ARE THOUSANDS of other STUDENTS who do the exact thing! High ranked colleges want students who is not like the average student who just do something basic they want a student who goes UP AND BEYOND!
That person who said "who are you" in the other video comment is most likely listening to their public school teachers who said "if you do these volunteer work and get over such and such hours you will get into Stanford"
THATS BULL
QUESTION: who will get in? Person 1: Someone who just played football for 4 years at their highschool was in 3 clubs and volunteer for a camp for 50 hours or
Person 2:Someone who was the best Oratory in the region, volunteer for an organization in which that person goes to Africa to help starving children and started a club at their school.
ANSWERS IS.

Person 2
Because their are different levels to volunteer work. And Person 2 did something that an average student wont do.
You are competing against other students and if you and someone else have the same score in ACT and GPA they then look at your essay and volunteer work.
My sister attends at one of the top ten colleges and the reason is she got a 33 on her ACT, a 4.9 GPA, and she started her own organization that help kids with Autism.
THAT IS WHAT YOU NEED TO GET INTO HIGH RANKED COLLEGES with a FULL RIDE!!!!
SUPERTUTORTV IS SPEAKING THE
And if you want to go to a state school then just do your basic volunteer work, but want to get in Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton
then you better do something GREAT!

[kaiyabou]

I;ve been doing MUN and volunteering/tutoring at my local mosque for the past 3+ years. I do MUN because I love debating and I love talking with other people about solutions and what this world is essentially going through. I do volunteering because I just adore the kids at my mosque and a lot of them don't speak arabic, so teaching them Arabic and how to read the quran and teaching them about the history behind our religion brings literal tears to my eyes (thought I don't do it in front of them). I'm doing an internship with a kindergarden teacher because I just love teaching children (though that isn't my future career option). I mean, do you guys know how amazing it feels to see young children learn and be passionate about something you taught them? I have A's and B's sprinkled through out my entire high school career (with one C in freshman year). Though I study sometimes I can never get the best grade I want and know I can (mainly because of years of mental abuse by someone who i trusted). And I have two younger brothers who essentially are the reason I couldn't do anything I wanted to outside my home and the fact w have no money. I had to take care of them and skip out on theatre, band, and events at school. We're too broke to afford me dancing or singing classes. I couldn't do cyber-security and FTC after 2 years because they fell on days I had to take care of my brothers while my parents worked. I want to go to Duke but I am scared because of my not so perfect grades and not being able to do things that I love because of family problems. I know i'm probably not going in, but imma just try and see how fancy the rejection letter is.

[dr.jamieadamspleasantph.d.]

You are simply awesome! My son is definitely applying to top 10 schools and your advice is very insightful. Keep sharing your pearls of wisdom with us.

[nnarcissminator]

I got accepted and enrolled; I am just curious to see how many extra stuff I did that I didnt have to do hehe.

[pokenattwist]

I have spent a lot of time volunteering at a living history museum. (at least 500 hours pretty sure its much more/I also received an award from my US state for volunteering). Its something I really enjoy and try to gain as much knowledge from as I can because I aspire to be an archeologist which is what the museum is centered around. Its also connected to a College so I know at least one option for a College that I have almost a free pass into.

[truthsjourney]

What about USC? I'm a sophomore and I want to know what I need to do in-order to get into USC.
PS- I want to get into KECK (medical). Do I have to show in my application that I want to be chosen for that department during my premier 4 years before pre-med?

[jessicaamoore]

Question: Is there anything that is actually better about the tops schools besides their prestigious reputations? What is better about these schools (I genuinely want to know)?

[savannagoldstein]

Question: would an activity that one spends a lot of time on (an hour or two every day) that they aren't necessarily the best at make them stand out?

The reason I ask is because I am a figure skater and I skate almost every day and compete at the national level, but I am certainly nowhere near the best.

[meowmelanie]

Wow, volunteer at a prison is so cool!!