Hi, I’m a freshman in high school right now. I have a 4.0 GPA (not that it matters, 1st semester hasn’t finished yet), and have been trying out many clubs and sports to get a feel for what is offered/out there. My current EC’s are:
Classical Piano (my most serious EC, been taking lessons for 9 years)
Jazz Saxophone
D.I.A. Club
Environmental Club
Model UN
Swim Team
Fastpitch softball
Am I taking too many Extracurriculars? Should I narrow them down to just a couple? If so, when? And how?
Hey @pipinlk, I maintain an over 4 point GPA, and I am involved in much more than those. (11… I think, including a state 4-H ambassador) Sometimes, this can be difficult to maintain these especially depending on what you want to do. Do you want to be admitted to a D1 school as a swimmer on a scholarship, or do you want to go to an Ivy League for political science/public policy? If you want to be amazing at what you do, you need to dedicate yourself to it. So, if you want to go a selective, private music college to study piano, I would cut some of your extracurriculars especially as you may start to take more advanced classes in high school and step up into more dominant leadership roles. It really depends on how good/involved you want to be in each activity.
There really isn’t any “set” amount of EC’s that is too much. There are a lot of factors that play into this: how much work is it, how involved are you, do you do it for fun or a friend does it or because you are genuinely passionate about it, how hard are you willing to work, what classes do you plan on taking later in high school (AP/IB/Honors/DC)? If they start affecting your academic performance in the least, cut it immediately… I have seen this happen before, and it always ends with them quitting the EC after their grades slip. If you have any more specific questions or have an idea of a general plan for what you want to do, I would be more than happy to help you!
Ones to cut out would be those where the value to you in terms of your enjoyment, commitment, and achievement is lacking compared to the time involved, especially if the time involved impacts:
Your academic performance.
Your other more-important-to-you extracurriculars.
Your rest and sleep time.
You do not have to cut any out if none of them are too low value to you or where their time commitment has negative impacts described above.
There’s no reason to narrow things down just to meet a number. If you enjoy/are passionate about all of them and can commit the time needed while keeping up grades/school work, then it’s fine.
ECs only become too much when it impacts school work or you start spreading your time thinly so you just kind of show up and go through the motions without making a real impact/getting real fulfillment out of an activity.
