How to Choose the Right Extracurriculars for You

When it comes to your high school experience, academics and standardized testing are usually clearly mapped out for you. There are paths leading through course loads of varying difficulty; there are required standardized tests and well-known study tools to prepare for them; and your GPA is a clear indication of your success in your academic work. The academic side of things might be pretty clear, but the same can’t be said for extracurriculars. It’s hard to know exactly what role extracurricular activities should play in your high school experience, let alone on your college applications. Extracurriculars are a broad category to begin with — they seem to encompass everything from starting your own dog-walking business to participating in groundbreaking scientific research projects. So you might be wondering, what’s the deal? Are some extracurriculars more important than others? Which will be most heavily weighted on your college application? And how do you know which are worth pursuing? In this post, we’ll give an outline of how to choose extracurriculars that not only are personally fulfilling but also augment your profile as a college applicant. Read on for the five standards you should keep in mind when selecting an extracurricular activity. A little bit of insight can go a long way. Here at , we have a team of experts who have been in your shoes. Read through this guide on high school extracurriculars, and then check out our Near Peer Mentorship Program . You’ll have access to the insights of peer mentors who have been through this process and are ready to share with you all the ins and outs of choosing the right extracurricular activities. There is no simple answer to how important extracurriculars are on your college applications. There are definitely some schools to which you may apply that will admit you based off of your academic record and your essays and recommendations alone. Your extracurriculars might get little to no weight. More selective schools, though, tend to place a heavier weight on extracurriculars. Most of the students who apply to the most selective schools will be academically qualified. These students will have strong GPAs and great test scores. So what will set apart the elite 5-10% who ultimately get accepted to these schools? Many times extracurriculars mark the difference between a successful and unsuccessful application, so it’s worth knowing that they can play a big role in college admissions in some cases. The line between activities that you have participated in and activities that you can consider extracurriculars is somewhat blurry. In general, though, an extracurricular activity is one that you participate in regularly outside of your required academic work.

How can tax cuts help revive the economy Explain Essay

How can tax cuts help revive the economy Explain - Essay Example Pertaining to the reduction of the gap and to take the economy out of the crisis, the package of fiscal stimulus was observed as an effective way-out for the economy. The planning of the government within the economy was not held effective enough in mitigating the problem of economic crisis. According to the plan of the US government, the amount of public spending consisted in the policy towards enhancing multiplier effect through discretionary fiscal policy was merely about 480 billion Dollars. This amount has a multiplier of about 1.5 which means government spending of each Dollar would increase the GDP of the economy by 1.5 Dollar (Shostak, 2009). With regard to the less reliance on the natural forces in the economy, successful management of the government is essential in line with the inducement of individuals’ spending within the economy. Tax cuts act as an economic booster during the times of recession when generally people decrease their level of spending in order to fi ght with the economic crisis. Tax cuts can be termed as an important aspect of the expansionary fiscal policy of the government and it helps to a greater extent in strengthening the aggregate demand within the economy and thus eliminate the slump resulted due to the economic crisis.

Men, Friendship and Companionship in Moby Dick by Herman Melville Essay

Men, Friendship and Companionship in Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Essay Example It is difficult to sympathize with a man who is so engrossed in his own ego and is so taken by its irrational impulses. Moby Dick is the story of the mammoth ego of a relatively much smaller man! Its ending does not invoke tragedy, but only a sense of sheer futility of all ego-ridden endeavor undertaken by men. Ego and friendship are antitheses. We cannot imagine an Adolf Hitler having a bosom friend nor can we think of Ahab relaxing in the company of his near and dear ones. Such people are lone souls, which is not necessarily bad in itself, but often they happen to be lost souls too: they are not only cut off from their fellow human beings, they are also cut off from the vast natural world that sustains our existence. The ego as such, whether big or small, is a statement of our separation with the natural world. It is very useful, in the sense that it forms the basis on which we have built the great modern civilization and conquered nature, at least to a significant extent. Polynesians and other natives do not have much of an individuated ego, they live in exquisite harmony with nature and in harmony with each other; however, they do not have a civilization. Because the ego is needed for that: a crystallized sense of self against the world. Ego thrives on this opposition. But when this eg o gets totally caught up in the web of its own conceit and deceit, it is then that the road leads to perdition. We do need to assert ourselves, but not to the extent of positing ourselves at the very center of the world. Friendship and love happen only when we succeed in putting the others before ourselves, to whatever extent possible. But if we become all important to ourselves, then only death can release us from the big lie that we have become prisoners to. Friendship, love, and this feeling of oneness between ourselves and the greater whole - this is the truth. Ego is merely an illusion, albeit a very necessary one. We need to learn to lose our ego sometimes. At other times, we need to learn to use our ego, but still not be used and consumed by its megalomaniacal tendencies. Friendship is a beautiful experience, one of the most precious that is possible in human life. All that it needs is for us to put the weight of our egos aside and try to relate to the people and the world we see around ourselves in a more meaningful and deeper way - which is exactly the kind of thing that is impossible for colossal egos like Captain Ahab. Through all its rich narrative and storytelling, the one thing that Moby Dick conveys to us in the end is the meaninglessness and pointlessness of ego-obsessesed pursuits of man. But this is not to say that all ego is bad. For example, the central character of another nearly contemporary nineteenth-century epic, which too incidentally is set in the ocean and involves a giant sea-creature - Captain Nemo of Twenty Thousand Leagues is as gigantic an ego as is Captain Ahab. But there is a crucial distinction. Captain Nemo's ego is bent upon relentless construction, whereas Captain Ahab's ego is bent upon mindless destruction. Though both of them meet their deaths equally ingloriously at the sea, Nemo stands as a fallen hero, an inspiration