<p>Yea i kinda goofed on that part. I was afraid joining clubs was gonna mess up my grades, but now I kinda feel confident in joining one or two for my senior year. Academic decathlon and a club that does volunteer work. Also, I'm planning to do community work at a hospitals or senior resident this summer.
Will this look like I'm trying really hard to get the bare minimum on EC portion?</p>
<p>I don't think it looks bad, just not "good". The apps generally ask for number of years and hours of involvement. For some schools, below, a certain threshold doesn't count.</p>
<p>Doing so won't hurt you. It's only the most competitive colleges -- places like HPYS, for instance -- that factor nonathletic ECs into admissions decisions anyway. At most, the other colleges use the ECs for merit aid consideration.</p>
<p>If you're interested in ECs, do them for yourself as ways to explore your interests and develop some more skills that will help you for a lifetime.</p>
<p>A bit. If you haven't joined/participated in any EC-related activity and then suddenly in your senior year you're in tons of clubs, volunteering, etc. it will raise an eyebrow to admission officers. However, it seems like that is not your intentional goal since you said you feel free now to join some clubs. If you explain this in a small letter (supplementary material) attached to your college application, I think you're fine. Just be clear, straight-forward and not whiny (or anything of the like).</p>
<p>It'll depend what colleges. EC-heavy colleges (really anywhere where admission are under 40 or 30 percent) will look down on it. They look for ECs as a way to gauge the type of person you are and will become. And if they need an academic decathalon member for their college team, you obviously won't be the one to call or anything.</p>
<p>Other colleges, however, will look primarily to your grades and scores. If those are solid, I wouldn't say your chances are diminished for a good state school or a mid-range (by the arbitrary USNWR, crazy thing that it is) private or OOS. Also, you may have collected some small, non-club-based ECs, like volunteering, a job, church work, school awards. Those count, though not to the same level as the Carnegie Hall pianist.</p>
<p>If your grades can handle it, you might want to try qualifying for a regional or state academic decathalon tournament. It'll prove that you have had the ability to be great in clubs all along but simple haven't had the time. Don't worry too much, though; you had a good reason for laying off the clubs.</p>
<p>If you really want to pick up ECs now that you have the time, but are afraid admissions will look at it as an attempt to buff up your resume without adding substance, then just participate in the ECs that interest you and leave them off your applications.</p>