<p>My daughter is a HS sophomore with good grades but absolutely no extra-curricular activities. How important are extra-curriculars with regard to getting into decent schools and how do I get her to be more motivated to participate in them?</p>
<p>EC’s are very important unless she is applying to schools that only look at test scores adn GPA (most state schools). Lack of EC’s will also hinder her for scholarships.</p>
<p>No outside interests whatsoever? Does she come home from school, do homework and then sit in front of the TV only?</p>
<p>How about a job? Or volunteering occasionally? Ask her what types of colleges she can see herself attending.</p>
<p>Is she old enough for a part-time job? That counts as an extracurricular, and it can be a good choice for people who don’t like sports or school activities.</p>
<p>Does she have any independent hobbies? For example, one of my kids collects insects. She listed entomology as an EC, and even wrote about it in a couple of essay. It is certainly not her only EC, but she did list it.</p>
<p>Would she have any interest in more academic focused ECs? Say, Quiz Bowl or Academic Bowl? Or studying for something like the National History Bee? Or science olympiad studying? My D self-studied for the USA Biology Olympiad for two years, and we paid the fee for her school (not a lot, maybe $50?). Her bio teacher proctored for her.</p>
<p>Volunteering is also good. My D2 is pretty introverted, but we started volunteering together at a food bank. She really liked it, and we ended up doing a lot of it in the past year. So she doesn’t have to go by herself, you can go along if she is easily intimidated.</p>
<p>OP, I have a daughter in the same boat, although she’s only a HS freshman. She has Asperger’s and is not interested in participating in any clubs or other ECs, although I’m trying to find out if there’s a math club for her, since math is her obsession :). And, although she is academically strong, the amount of homework she has in HS is sometimes overwhelming and can take her several hours, leaving her little time for ECs. Intparent, the idea of volunteering together is a great one–something I should definitely consider, especially on the weekends.</p>
<p>Mom2jl, my D2 is also borderline Aspergers. Quiz Bowl has been great for her, and they always need math kids (if her school has a team). 
She also likes Robotics league – math is also very useful there. And then the kids from Robotics convinced her to join a programming club they started, too.</p>
<p>There are plenty of good schools that don’t care about ECs.</p>
<p>What DOES your daughter do in her spare time? I would be more concerned that she is doing nothing. I had one kid with no ECs that were school based but did plenty of things outside of school.</p>
<p>Hmmm…there are many scholarships awarded by schools based on academic merit (ACT or SAT score, and GPA…no mention of ECs).</p>
<p>Many schools don’t weigh ECs highly at all in the admissions process.</p>
<p>What kinds of colleges is your daughter thinking about? If HYPSM, or equivalents, then ECs MIGHT matter. If your state public university, maybe not at all.</p>
<p>Thumper, I think a lot of colleges in between those two choices do care somewhat. They don’t have to be fantastic ECs, to be sure. And just a few will do. But a kid with NO ECs would raise a flag at a lot of colleges, I would think. Especially any that do holistic admissions at all (not just statistics based).</p>
<p>Intparent…actually just one EC that the kid really likes would do. I have one kid who had only one EC interest, but pursued it extensively.</p>
<p>As I said, if I were the OP, I would be more concerned that my kid was doing NOTHING in her spare time…than how this would impact college admissions.</p>
<p>Outside of the top 30 or so LACs and Universities, do you think ECs matter at all, especially if you are in the top 25% of their grade/test pool?</p>
<p>For example, is Tulane going to reject a kid in the top 25% of their applicant pool with only one decent EC? Probably not. </p>
<p>Same for Rhodes College.</p>
<p>Now, if you are in the bottom 50% of their pool, ECs may matter.</p>
<p>thumper1–in the 19 schools our kids applied to, automatic merit aid was strictly on GPA/Test scores and admission to the schools–which, looked at EC’s a part of the admissions process. For every school the competitive awards for full tuition scholarships do take into consideration EC’s. Some of the scholarships they have gotten are strictly for EC’s. So, while the awards for automatic merit were based on GPA/Test scores, ultimately they wouldn’t have gotten into most of those schools without the EC’s so no merit aid.</p>
<p>Haystack–Yes, I do think that kids that come in with little to no EC’s outside of the top 30 get rejected for that reason. I’ve seen the letters or posts on FB :D. So far the #1 kid in our kids’ class hasn’t been accepted anywhere. She is in ONE EC, dropped everything else to focus on being Val of the class…she has 3 rejections so far from schools we figured she would get into because of her GPA.</p>
<p>We had 3 schools that required an activity resume–all outside of the top 30, well outside–for admissions and/or merit awards.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need a full slate of ECs. It is nice to be able to show that you do SOMETHING other than go to school and that you are somewhat of an interesting person.</p>
<p>SteveMA- if I recall from your posts under your previous screenname, your one child is a golfer and will be going to a very small school for that sport as a recruit. Right? I doubt any other ECs mattered very much there. I think you experience is mainly with small Minnesota schools like your alma mater St. Benedict. VERY small.</p>
<p>Yes, EC’s of your child’s own making. Not your parent’s EC which is stalking people on CC. You need a hobby, MomofWild. I suggest knitting.</p>
<p>Walker- is this the thread for people who are too invested in their kids’ lives?</p>
<p>It’s hard with kids who are not interested in EC’s. My son was like this - I talked him into one activity freshman year, which he participated in enough to count, but did not continue. He dropped out of Boy Scouts around this time too. He did have a job one summer, and went to a summer camp related to his interest another. His last 2 years of HS he was in one club but did not spend a lot of time on it, and participated in NHS. He got into 2 schools with merit aid (decent GPA and test scores, not stellar). He’s not into much in EC’s in college either, though I keep telling him he needs to do more!</p>
<p>I think some ECs is critical too, and I imagine a blank sheet would be a problem for most schools. They all want people to contribute to the campus, right? But as a sophomore, she has time to find something fun, and hopefully something she can do in college and beyond because she enjoys it.
Momofwildchild, I’m confused. What was wrong with what SteveMA posted? His child apparently did have an EC, right? That post creeped me out a little, frankly, with the reference to his “former screen name”.</p>
<p>
Haystack, This might not have been the most prudent of examples, because Tulane is very much about community service, and if they are going to select a student with no ECs, the student had better be much higher up in their class rank than top 25% to even be considered.</p>