<p>I'm going to be a part of my school's first graduating class. ECs really only started developing at my school during my junior year. During sophomore and freshman years, all I really had was jiu jitsu and volunteering in India over the summer (I'm from there),. I'd attend about 4-5 jiu jitsu lessons a week, but I stopped after clubs developed my junior year and I was able to volunteer more actively. How do I convey this gap in ecs to colleges? I liked jiu jitsu and everything, but volunteering has really become my thing. Also, I'm not aiming for ivies, HYPSMC, etc. I'm going for NYU Stern, USC, Carnegie Mellon, etc.</p>
<p>bump !</p>
<p>With suburban sprawl adcoms are pretty familiar with new schools and the amount of time needed for clubs and ECs to get rolling. Call the schools you mentioned (or a couple to get an idea) and ask how they would suggest you approach this. The adcoms really will give you good advise on how to put this in ‘their language’.</p>
<p>You are allowed to change and develop interests in high school, assuming you can convey that these are genuine interests rather than, “Oh, crap, it’s almost time to apply to college,” interests.</p>
<p>That’s good. I really used ecs in high school to get a better idea of what I might want to do in college. I was an active participant in an engineering club and even went to competitions, but it helped me rule out engineering as a career choice. Volunteering is something I intend to stick with though, regardless of my school or major.</p>