<p>I am currently a sophomore in high-school and my goal is to go to a school like NYU. I think my academics are good enough to get in but I've heard NYU really likes to see a lot of extra circular activities. I'm in FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), I play volleyball, and also do MMA (I'm a black belt). I want to know other activities I could join in, weather its at school or outside, that would interest NYU. Any ideas?....</p>
<p>You should really go for leadership positions in various things. Like President of class, or Treasurer of a certain club. Maybe captain of Volleyball team. Thats the kinda stuff that sticks out.</p>
<p>Some of it depends on what school/major you’re applying for. I didn’t have a ton of extra curriculars and was really intimidated by most of the people on here, but the things I did were related to my major and meaningful to me. I think that helped a lot. Good luck :)</p>
<p>Actually the extra-curriculars that stand out the most are not even those as the above stated: captain, leader, etc…</p>
<p>But rather those activities which you have significantly invested time into like being intently involved in 2 or 3 clubs instead of overloading. I know that may sound good, but admissions officers say that then your app begins to look like a laundry list. Also, if possible try to relate your extra-curriculars to your interests (academic, social, whatever…) specifically because you will look more driven and committed in a certain area. </p>
<p>An example of this is let’s say someone wants to major in finance at Stern. If they had all these clubs like Mock Trial, Environmental Club, Key Club, etc… this would not look as good as say:
-Founded the Economics Club in my school
-Created my own stock portfolio
-FBLA
-Community service doing a budget proposal to my town</p>
<h2>So basically the idea is try to cater your extra-curriculars to your interests, academic or social, because this will show the admissions representative you took action towards something you really like. This will come off much better than joining a bunch of club your school offers. An extracurricular list could make or break your app, especially at NYU.</h2>
<p>@fireman144
thanks a lot after thinking of wat you wrote tht def looks like a much better idea. I am thinking of majoring in econ so any other ideas besides wat you said up there? Thanks again</p>
<p>I’m also probably going to major in Econ there also lol</p>
<p>Aside from doing things during the school year like with clubs/activities you do, try doing something unique with your summer like maybe find a program or some type of activity related to econ. These are all examples, you don’t have to do any of these, I didn’t do most of these, but here’s some examples:</p>
<ol>
<li>get a summer internship somewhere (again, try to specialize it towards that econ/business area, like go for companies relating to Finance or a position with your local political representative b/c government stuff helps with econ. If you do get any of these you’ll likely be relegated to secretarial duties since you’ll only be a rising high school senior, so it might be kind of boring/exhausting, but think about the pay-off on your app)<br></li>
<li>work with a local business and help manage budget or something like that (florist, bakery, anything that’s relatively small) </li>
<li>take a course at a college/university</li>
</ol>
<p>Any of those things could boost your app significantly b/c even though colleges look to see at what you did during the school year, almost always on either their application or the Common App, there’s a big section where you describe what you did over the summer/what the effect it had on you was.</p>
<p>Personally, of the things above, I only took an AP course at a college. I never had a job or internship, so you don’t need to go crazy and do all of them. </p>
<p>Like any big school like NYU, extracurriculars aren’t exactly the crux of your application. The key with extracurriculars is looking unique. Everyone applying has the same clubs and many people have similar outside activities. But, frankly, unless you Early Decision extracurriculars really aren’t looked that heavily upon unless you somehow relate them to your essay. Think about it: there’s around 2000 apps in the ED process and around 18,000+ in the Regular Decision pool. It’s pretty easy to tell which apps the admissions officers are really going to read more carefully. Is NYU your first choice?</p>
<p>hey fireman144 if you have a low GPA but “high” EC’s, does your chance decreases and how.</p>
<p>yeahh NYU will prolly will be my first choice. If I dont get in I’ll prolly end up going for Drexel. But I am only a sophmore right now so I have a lot of time I just want to make sure I make all the right decisions from here on out.</p>
<p>@NorCal25:</p>
<p>Well typically for any college that is holistic like NYU, GPA and difficulty of courses still ends up being the most important factor in the admission decision because they believe that how you do in your high school setting will be able to most accurately predict how you’ll do in college. Obviously, there’s some flaws in that. But to answer your question about having high EC’s and a low GPA, it would be better if you had a higher GPA and not as many EC’s, but I know a lot of people that have gotten in with GPA’s that you may consider “bad.” However, to keep yourself in the running, it’s best to try and do well on the SAT/ACT because that’s a pretty big factor as well, which could help compensate for your GPA. EC’s are only part of the package, so having a lot of EC’s won’t necessarily boost your chances if your GPA/SAT scores aren’t on par. </p>
<p>@hurshey03:</p>
<p>It’s good that you still have some time and know where you likely want to go. I didn’t even know what my first choice would be until the summer before my senior year.</p>
<p>@fireman144
where are you going?</p>
<p>I’m going to NYU in the fall, likely to major in Econ, but you don’t have to declare your major until after your sophomore year.</p>
<p>Thanks fireman144 and hurshey too</p>
<p>thanks to you guys too. thanks for all ur help fireman144 goodluck in New York</p>
<p>no problem happy to help</p>
<p>[no problem happy to help]</p>