I’ve always performed very well in school, but I’ve never been involved in any extracurricular activities. I currently have a 3.89/4.0 GPA unweighted, 5.60/6.0 weighted. I got an 1830 on my SATs the first time without studying, and I plan on taking them again after receiving tutoring in my weak areas. Im enrolled in all honors and AP courses (with the exception of math, not my strong suit) and receive all A’s, with the exception of a B+ in one AP. As far as ECs go I’m involved in the Ski club at my school and I recently started volunteering at a soup kitchen, but my hours are not at all impressive at this point. I plan on getting a job or finding an internship (or maybe both) this summer. I love creating art and writing on my own, but I don’t know if colleges would be interested in that. I’m just very stressed out because every other source I read tells me something different about the importance of extracurriculars in undergraduate admissions and I just want some personalized advice.
Thank you to anyone who comments!
Without strong EC’s? Yes, it’s possible. However, you won’t be competitive. Good luck though.
What grade are you in? I would recommend taking some time to beef up on ECs. Having a vast number or wide variety isn’t necessary; it seems that for you it might be better to focus on a few things that interest you, and take the time to really pursue them. Also, what kind of schools are you planning on looking at? Depending on how competitive/selective they are, you might not have to worry too much about it.
It depends on what’s offered at your school. You will not be negatively affected in any way because of your school’s lack of those programs.
– School Honor Rolls are largely useless, even for not very selective colleges.
– Class Rank is something colleges do like to have, but if your GPA is buttressed by good test scores, you won’t have a problem here.
– NHS is simply an indicator that you have been involved outside of schools. In itself, NHS is not incredibly useful because (a) many applicants have it, and (b) it does not say much about your character / where your interests lie. In particular, NHS tends to favor students who hold superfluous “leadership” positions and those who have many volunteering hours, whether or not the student cared about what he or she was actually doing.
– With regards to Honors Courses, you’re expected to challenge yourself in high school and take the most rigorous classes whether or not they are given any distinction. Regarding what you said about APs:
- You should not be neglecting APs in math or science unless you know you cannot handle or extremely dislike the material.
- You said that you are interested in humanity-based APs, but your school does not offer them. You should take up the material on your own. Not only will this help your college application, but it will also help you ascertain which subject areas you do find interesting. You can also try to complete independent “projects” related to these subjects and don’t necessarily have to take the AP Exam. The “proof” that you learned the material is demonstrated through what you’ve completed outside of school (ECs). For example, my school doesn’t offer AP Music Theory, but I wanted to learn how to compose music. I taught myself Theory and now compose in my spare time. In other words, your ECs need to reflect your interests, and you should go “in-depth” into your ECs. You have probably seen lists like this:
Major Awards: National Merit Semifinals, Recognized in debate team
ECs
Quiz Bowl (3 years)
NHS (Vice President)
Red Cross Aid Club (President, 4 years)
Chess Club (3 years)
Robotics (2 years)
200+ Volunteer Hours
Went on humanitarian mission in Africa last summer
Lists like these, albeit long and seemingly impressive, tell little about one’s real interests that he or she might want to pursue in college. Rather, the list, which contains some STEM, humanitarian, and leadership endeavors, is often interpreted as being more cursory, and it “blends in” with other applicants.
my school does have humanities-based APs. I currently take AP Psychology and AP US History, and next year I plan on taking AP US Gov, AP Spanish, and AP Economics. I don’t take APs in math or science because I have no desire to enter those fields, I plan on majoring in political science in college. Im very interested in politics but my school has no Young Democrats or overall politics club. So what do you suggest I do outside of school to display my interests to colleges? I’m currently looking at schools such as George Washington, American University, Penn State University Park, SUNY Binghamtom, UNC Chapel Hill, and possibly University of Virginia (kind of a stretch I know)
Those are all reaches for you at the moment
Define “good”. Your GPA and a better SAT (2000+) will be nearly guaranteed admission for most schools in the country.
However, if your “good” is Ivy good, or top 20 good, then extracurriculars and the intangibles start to matter a lot more as the top schools are generally much more selective and can look past the good grades and test scores as they have so many academically qualified applicants applying to their school.
@patriot420 I didn’t think they were all reaches… especially Penn State which doesn’t really consider ECs at all, and SUNY Binghamton is largely grades-based as well. American University, I wasn’t sure how much they consider ECs but my grades fit well into their range of accepted applicants. I can see GW and UVA being reaches but I thought the rest were pretty solid…
@rdeng2614 “good” schools are like the ones I listed in my previous reply. I’m not aiming for top 20 but still a well respected university
You’re within PSU’s middle 50% of SATs and GPA. Chances are even better if you can get your SAT score up a bit. I agree, wouldn’t say it’s a reach.
You say you like writing – have you tried the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?
@bodangles PSU’s not exactly my first choice… would you say the other options are kind of “out there.” Also I’ve heard of those awards but I’ve never really looked into them… I’ll get to that.
Also @1golfer1 you had some really good advice. I’m interested in politics but my school doesn’t offer anything political for me to join, and I figure it’s too late to create any type of club now. I was thinking something along the lines of an internship, but I cannot find one at all. Could you think of any independent thing I can do relating to my interest?
@darbyrj It wasn’t mine either, and yet I’m here. 
I’m not too familiar with the other schools, so that’s why I only addressed Penn State.
Definitely submit something if you have time. They’re great. I got to go to NYC my sophomore year for the awards ceremony and it was a lot of fun!
@darbyrj If your school doesn’t have any elected positions, I would suggest talking to your counselor or school board members to see if they can find a position for you.
@darbyrj
So sorry, didn’t see your post.
I would get your SAT up a little higher to around 2000+. Your GPA is fine, and the schools you listed, I would think you can get in most of them, excluding UNC and University of Virginia.
Those largely depend on if you’re in state or out of state as out of state admissions is noticeably harder than in state admissions.
For political EC’s, maybe you could find a way to help with this oncoming presidential election? It might be way too early and I don’t follow politics that much, but maybe support your candidate during primaries?
If not presidential election, this oncoming November 4th will surely have a lot of political activity going on, at least where I live, there are a lot of propositions going to be passed. If you have those, you can advocate/go against those Try to get involved and support a candidate that you like (Maybe it’s state senate, district attorney, more local stuff like that) by joining their call center or just spreading news about the candidate around the neighborhood, anything along those lines.
Like I said, I’m far from an expert on politics, just some basic suggestions to hopefully get you started.
@rdeng2614 I’m retaking the SAT’s again this Saturday after weekly tutoring and a lot of practice (my 1830 was kind of a dry score), so I’ll see where that takes me. You actually have a really good idea! I will look more into my community and see what elections are taking place/if I can get involved!