Besides award-winning certificates and hobbies, extracurricular activities (EC) are the most worthy of the attention of the American Admissions Office. So what kind of activities are favored by American universities? What kind of extracurricular activities will play a decisive role in my admission? This is a concern of most applicants, but it is also the place where most applicants are most likely to fall into misunderstanding. Many people think that the American Admissions Office must like students with international backgrounds, so they try their best to go to the United States to attend a summer camp or summer course. I have no objection to students taking part in such activities. If you have the opportunity to participate, it will definitely help you and your application. However, some activities have certain restrictions on students, such as whether students have time to participate in these activities, whether they can get visas smoothly, whether they can afford related expenses and so on. Applicants who usually start preparing materials in the application season (that is, senior two students) often have to prepare standardized exams at the same time, so they can't relax their school courses and exams in order to maintain GPA, so they have little time and energy to go abroad to participate in these activities. But isn't it that without these international activities, the applicant's background will have no competitive advantage? Here, everyone has misunderstood EC, thinking that "returnees" who go abroad to participate in activities must have an advantage over "terrapin". In fact, for American admissions offices, they are very aware of the significance of attending an American summer camp. To put it bluntly, many activities can be bought with money, so meaningful activities cannot be defined by the size of the activities, nor can they be defined by "local" or "overseas". First of all, there are many large-scale activities in China, such as the Harvard Leaders Summit (HSYLC) and the Model United Nations General Assembly. Secondly, it's not how much your background has improved by participating in large-scale activities. Because there is no distinction between high and low in the activity itself, the American Admissions Office is not looking at its beautiful aura, but what role do you play in this activity? The activity just gives you a platform to show 18 kinds of martial arts. What do you want to show yourself from beginning to end in this activity? Have you worked hard? Did you sweat or cry all the time? Have you ever had a disagreement with others? How did you get to know each other through your own efforts? How does this matter affect you? Does this mean anything to your life? Have you seriously considered all these problems? If you think carefully, you can dig them out and show them with ESSAY instead of simply polishing CV. One student is not confident in himself. He always feels that he has no special activity experience and his background is average. He doesn't know how to face all kinds of articles in the application. In fact, this student still has many advantages, but he just doesn't know how to use them. For example, he likes playing basketball very much, but in his view, one basketball game after another is so unremarkable. In fact, basketball matches can reflect many personality characteristics of people. We all know that American universities like to recruit applicants with leadership and organizational and coordination skills. So how are these characteristics reflected in the basketball game? Since it is a competition, it is impossible to win every time. There is no suspense. What's your mentality if you're going through a game where you're behind by a big score and you're about to lose? As a leader, how can you help your teammates regain their confidence and rebuild their morale? How to turn the next game from defeat to victory? Can you do it? If you do it, or even just think about it, isn't this a very good example of your leadership? Of course, this is only a simple example, but I still want to advise you not to idolize those so-called international events. Time is limited, which is extremely precious to every applicant. If you spend time going abroad to participate in activities, the SAT is likely to be greatly discounted. But if you can calm down and first recall and analyze the activities you have participated in or the things you have experienced in the past, then it is obviously much better to dig deep into the highlights of this matter than to waste time aimlessly! Even if you have time and energy to attend an activity, you must understand what this activity means to you. What do you want from it? Not just attending a summit to make up the numbers. Know yourself, show yourself, and success is just around the corner!