unhedged wrote:
One thing that I never really understood about ECs is that Adcoms "allegedly" put so much weight in them yet the people that attend bschool the most are ones that don't really have time to commit to something substantially (banking, consulting). I am in consulting, so my job requires a lot of travel, so I can't commit to substantial ECs because my schedule is so unpredictable. For example, I joined this board on my Alumni Association, but then the meeting schedule was set in such a way that I missed 70% of meetings due to being out of town.
I really do wish I could do more just for the sake of it
I was in a similar boat - I traveled nearly every week/two weekends of the month.
I think like refurb said, the adcom just want to know that you have a life outside work and have other interests/hobbies. If you don't have any leadership in them, that's fine - you can't get yourself a fancy title w/ responsibilities overnight! Just focus instead on what you did do, and how you grew from your experience.
In my case, I didn't have any "big" ECs or really, any leadership in any of them. I just had a few small things I'd done for fun along the way, and figured I'd mention them. I talked about one organization I had been involved with - where I first participated in a fundraising activity, then helped organize it (mostly through online work) the next year. I also had a slightly unique situation involving failure and ECs, so I worked that in to the essays as well.