Ec Question

<p>I have decent grades and fairly good sats and aps but i just dont do anything special out of school like research or science projects or essay contests or clubs or anything. Is it possible to get into a decent school without any special awards, accomplisments, or extra curricular activities or is my future completely screwed? Im a senior btw</p>

<p>Depends on your definition of a decent school. You probably won't make it into MIT or Harvard, but places like U of Wisconsin and Lehigh could. </p>

<p>I'm in the same boat. Now I just try to make myself look unique in the essays.</p>

<p>You must have done something?
A soccer team?
A church youth group?
A lawn mowing business?
What about volunteer graduation requirements (if your school has them)?</p>

<p>well im in a youth group and i do run track and cross country but ive only just started those things and im not all that great at them. Im trying for cmu lehigh and rochester</p>

<p>Do you have any outstanding talents? If you like to draw, write, play an instrument, etc. in your free time (and are fairly decent at it) then you could include that as an EC. Did you ever have job? Are you forced to regularly babysit a younger sibling?</p>

<p>You're future is not completely screwed. Just show them that you've accomplished something outside the realm of grades and SATs during your 4 years in high school. If you weren't able to participate in many ECs, explain why on your application.</p>

<p>ive had ample opportunity to do whatever i just never wanted to. In my free time i just hang out with people or watch tv. so should i just aim lower or just apply as a super reach</p>

<p>I would recommend applying anyway. Even if you have no ECs (which is highly unusual) there is still a chance out there somewhere. Reaches are schools that you may not be accepted at, but that's why they are reaches...you have to reach for them. Have a good backing of matches and safeties, and you should be fine. Try to get more involved senior year, though. See if you can do some volunteer work in the month of summer you have left, or get a job.</p>

<p>What do you call a "decent school"?</p>

<p>In general, it's only the very top tier one universities --places like HPYS-- that count heavily ECs when making admission decisions. That's because such colleges have an overabundance of applicants with sky high stats, so the colleges end up selecting students based on creating a well rounded class.</p>

<p>Public universities, including top ones, make their admission decisions overwhelmingly on stats and whether a student is in-state.</p>

<p>You can find out how heavily universities count ECs in decisions by looking at the colleges' admission web pages, checking out the information in their common data sets (links to many are pinned to the top of one of CC's general admissisons info boards) or looking on U.S. News Site (it is well worth it to pay the $15 or so annual fee for complete access).</p>

<p>Unless you've literally been doing nothing in h.s. except studying, you probably have ECs. Activities outside of school count like ECs -- jobs (including working for your family business or farm), doing things with your house of worship, community service, athletic teams outside of school, playing musical instruments, and doing things like taking care of younger siblings while your parents work.</p>

<p>There's also lots of good EC info in a thread pinned to the top of this board.</p>