<p>Well, obviously they are really important components when you're applying to highly-selective schools. I didn't really have an amibition to apply to Ivy League schools until early on in my junior year. The problem is that I didn't do many extracirricular activities and I was wondering what the best solution would be. The most common advice I'm hearing is that I stick to one EC and show a lot of commitment and dedication to. The only EC I have really put effort has been soccer, which I started in 8th grade and am still playing, improving at an exponential rate. I was thinking if maybe I should get involved in more soccer-related EC to show my love for the sport.</p>
<p>Is it too late, or can I still do something about it to give me a solid chance at Harvard? I am willing to work a LOT during summer if there are any opportunities. Please list any suggestions.</p>
<p>This is a really tough question to answer, without knowing a lot more about you. Are you a good enough soccer player to hope to play in college? To be recruited? Do you really have no other ECs?
That being said, it may make sense to do more soccer-related ECs if they are available–coach kids’ teams, referee, etc.–because you have the knowledge and ability to step into those at a higher level. It probably won’t help you much to run out now and join the film club, Rubiks Cube club, etc. But if there are more substantive activities you could do, I think it’s better late than never.</p>
<p>Kids tend to have a very narrow definition of ECs-they see the boxes in the Common Application and feel like that’s what they were supposed to be doing. But there’s so much more to it than school clubs and organized sports. Do you make and sell anything? Do you a have a passion for Gregorian chants? Is your hub cap collection the envy of the neighborhood? Do the little kids in the neighborhood follow you around like the Pied Piper because you build the best tree houses and forts? Does your family have any hobbies you engage in without thinking about-like visiting every civil war battle field? Can you survive for a week in the wilderness with nothing but a plastic tarp and a cigarette lighter? Have you memorized every line of Star Trek dialogue? Read everything that Terry Pratchett every wrote? Think more broadly about what excites you and then find others who share the interest-on-line communities are springing up all over.</p>
<p>And do it because it makes life (and you) more fun and interesting, not because it will get you into a better school.</p>