pbodine wrote:
Blayze,
Schools will cut you *some* slack given your long hours, but it's good that you do have some involvement. I like the extracurricular you mentioned. It's relatively distinctive and you've been doing it for a long time. Schools like long-term extracurricular commitments. So you may be fine with just this one involvement. I recommend that you make the most of it in one essay for each school -- radiate enthusiasm for this organization. Finally, if it's possible, I recommend that you ramp up your involvement in this organization for the next few months. This will show deepening involvement and may give you some more impact stories to use in your application. If there are any leadership opportunities in this role, you could transition into soon, I might recommend that as well.
Good luck to you,
Hey Paul,
Just to follow up on your recommendation, I am pleased to say that I was recently elected president of the board of directors for the non-profit described above. The election was based on my long-term commitment to the organization and my plans for its future.
The only concern I have is that given the timing of this, it may appear to adcoms as though I'm simply "leadership role grabbing" for the sake of my application given how close it is to the date I'm going to apply to the top 5 (early Jan). How would you recommend I play this so that I don't give that impression?
Thanks for your time.