I’m going into my junior year, and though I’ve had good grades so far I’m somewhat concerned about my EC’s. So far, I have volunteered a fair amount at a local library during middle school, but only a small amount during high school. I may pursue this more this year, or the next summer. I may also get a job there. I’ve participated in Cross Country at the JV level for two years, and I plan to continue with this for the rest of high school. I participated in Track as a sprinter during freshman year.
I’ve seen several things written about extracurriculars in different places, and they tend to suggest that I pursue things that I am interested in, but I find this difficult to apply to myself. My main interests include Physics (I plan to major in Physics), music (I play guitar regularly), and reading/writing science/speculative fiction and fantasy. My lesser interest include history (general, but mostly Russian and Middle-Eastern), philosophy, and computer science. I’m also decent at drawing, I have a keyboard and I’m considering learning to play piano.
There are two activities that would appeal to me most, one of which stands out because of my plan to pursue a physics degree. I would hope to obtain an internship or position as an assistant in a research lab at the UW Madison (I live in Madison), which is not something that would definitely be possible. the other is to play in a band, though I don’t know how much colleges would care about that, if at all. I’d probably enter a program that forms bands to do that, which is also not a definite possibility.
I have considered joining the debate team, but from what I hear that takes quite a lot of time to participate fully in, which I’m not sure I have. More likely is the possibility of me joining a robotics club.
So I’d like to ask for advice- which of these would be best to pursue, any other suggestions, or anything else you have to offer.