Am I doing enough in high school?

I am going to be a junior next year and I don’t necessarily want to go to a top school but I do want to keep my options open and have opportunities to earn merit scholarships. My freshman & sophomore year I have taken 4 honors each year (the most able at my school) and next year I am taking 1 honors and 2 APs. I also plan on potentially self studying for 2/3 AP tests. I also have had a 4.0 so far. For extracurricular activities I did pretty much only 1 club my freshman year + choir. Sophomore I did 5 + choir with leadership in one. Next year I am going to be in 5 clubs, dropping choir and potentially one other club that I am not as passionate about. I have potential to have leadership opportunities in 4 of them but am waiting back to hear back if I did but have secured VP in the same club I had leadership in last year. I don’t know if there is anything else I should be doing. My clubs aren’t very diverse they are mostly service oriented because that is what I am interested in. A lot of the clubs I’m in don’t meet very regularly so I feel like I am not super involved and should be doing more. I am also going to probably work full time during this summer and I will be getting a certification at a technical college in the fall.

I also want to mention I am applying out of state so I feel like my applications will need to stand out more & be strong to have a chance if that changes anything.

Academically it sounds like you are fine, but there is one way to check; ask your counselor if they are going to be able to check the “the most rigorous course load” on the Common App.

As for ECs, many HS students have the mistaken belief that “leadership” titles are what selective colleges look for. Adcoms are not dumb. They know that most “leadership” positions in clubs don’t mean much; many HS have a dozen or more clubs, every club had 5 officers last year and will next year and the year after that. They know that someone that has “leadership” positions in a bunch of clubs likely did not do much in any of them. Take a look at the video where former Stanford adcom reviews an app and says she doesn’t believe the kid really could have done that much in all the ECs listed – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96XL8vBBB7o

Since you ask what you should do, here is my suggestion. Service seems to be your interest, so do something that is real leadership in one of the clubs instead of holding the same bakesale and club day they do every year. I don’t know what types of service they are, but you need to make a mark. So perhaps it’s leading a group of fellow students to restore a garden in town, or setting up a series of concerts at a retirement home once this Covid thing is over, etc.

Two of the clubs weren’t very active clubs and I have either applied or have been asked by the teachers who overlook it if I wanted to be a part of it to help get certain activities put in place this year since the last councils did not. So especially with two I will be more involved than most other types of clubs since I am coming up with every activity as well as helping get them done but I don’t know how I would show that in a college application rather than just a leadership position. I won’t know exactly how involved they are until the fall but I am already a big part in planning and brainstorming every activity for next year.

Take a look at the Common App prompts at https://www.commonapp.org/blog/2019-2020-common-app-essay-prompts Several of them are directly applicable and allow you to discuss what you did. Additionally your GC can mention it in their letter; if you watch the video link posted previously you can see the adcom says she specifically looks for that to confirm the ECs