I’m a senior and I’m homeschooled but I only have one traditional extracurricular (cooking club) from when I was in public school in 9th grade. I’m gonna try to do some volunteer work later in the year, but obviously, I haven’t done that yet. I’ve seen people say ECs can be things that you spend a significant amount of time doing outside of school, but the only things I really do are walk/take care of my dogs, read, and watch Netflix. Last year, I kinda tutored my younger sister in math and I’ve been consistently cooking dinner nearly every night for my family for 2 years. So my question is, does any of this count as an extracurricular and if so how would I phrase it? Thanks in advance!
Most large public universities do not focus on your ECs but just have GPA and test score standards so if you are planning on community colleges or public schools you should be ok as long as your GPA/ACT/SAT meets requirements. Private schools and the more selective/elite schools do consider ECs heavily as part of the application. However they also consider if a student worked full/part-time as well since not everyone has the luxury of using their ‘free time’ as a volunteer or the funds to take dance or voice or music lessons. If your main EC is being a helpful member of your family with specific responsibilities, you should be able to convey that to Admissions in your essay. Bottom line: Importance of ECs varies based on where you are applying.
IMO things like taking care of your pets, reading, and watching Netflix are hobbies, not ECs. There are many ECs that do not require parental funding (ex. volunteering). If you do have significant responsibility at home you can mention that.
I think that for Harvard or Stanford or anything at that level a lack of ECs will be a problem. For U.Mass Amherst or UVM or McGill they won’t care much if at all. I don’t think that my daughter who applied to McGill even had to list ECs on the application form.
If you live in a different part of the country you can adjust the names of the schools accordingly, but you should be able to get accepted to very good schools with very little in the way of ECs, assuming that the rest of your application is strong.
I also agree that if you have family responsibilities that is worth mentioning. Some students can’t do much in the way of ECs either because they are needed to help at home, or to help with a family business, or need to work and make some money.
OP hasn’t been back in 3 months.
The problem with assuming home resps are so significant to adcoms is: they have no bearing on college life, don’t show the ‘get up and go,’ nor the personal ability to try new things and commit, have some impact that many colleges look for. And, the more kids emphasize how vital this was/how the family can’t manage without the kid helping at home, the less it can seem he is ready and able to leave home.
Don’t know how anyone can predict acceptances with NO hint of stats, rigor, major, or the rest. Or even what colleges.