<p>Basically, I'm pretty much worried about my extra-curriculars as they stand. In terms of the most selective schools, most applicants have several "passions" that they achieved greatly in all 4 years (or at least 3). Freshman and sophomore year, I've had a pretty generic list (band, tutoring, sports). These (especially sports) were still a decent time commitment; it's not like I was just sitting around after school everyday. </p>
<p>Is it bad if I'm just finding my "passions" junior year? I mean, I've found that I really like chemistry. If I say, did some quality research or got involved in a local company (filing papers/shadowing), would that be respected by selective admissions? My school doesn't really offer many clubs besides your standard math team, newspaper, band, etc. and I guess I wasn't outgoing enough as a freshman to found any (nor did I have any idea of what I was interested in).</p>
<p>No it’s not bad. Colleges want to see you were doing something because they want their campuses full of kids who do things and don’t just sit in dark corners studying.</p>
<p>I’m not so worried about being active. Not trying to be cocky, but I like to consider that I am. What I’m worried about is that when applying to schools with ≤20% acceptance rates, my time won’t look as well spent as the majority of other applicants.</p>
<p>How? As long as you were doing something and you stuck with it/worked hard, your time was well spent.
This site is a horrible place to be if your feeling bad about your chances. Kids on here blow stuff way out of proportion. Talk with your guidance counselor, they’ll tell it how it is, and things will seem a ton better. It looks like you have been doing a good job. Sports take up a lot of time. Band/tutoring vary a lot place to place but you seem like you did it a lot. Contrary to what people on this site seem to think you don’t have to be a national champ in something to have a good activity.</p>
<p>I’m going to make up my ECs and spend time doing the stuff I want to do.</p>
<p>anyone else have any thoughts? companies i’ve been emailing haven’t gotten back to me :/</p>
<p>Alright, just relax. You are doing a great job.
I have a friend at Princeton this year who wants to major in Economics. His ECs in high school were Speech and Debate, OotM (mainly theatrical than did Vehicle his senior year), and Mock Trial and Scholastic Scrimmage (I grouped them because they weren’t big). He also worked at a camp over the summer. He didn’t really show a trend other than a passion for excellence and pushing himself to his max. That is far more important than figuring out your passion as in future major/career.</p>