<p>Hello.
I'm currently a sophomore in high school, and I was wondering what kind of extracurricular activities i should pursue that may look good on my college profile.</p>
<p>I am not really exceptional at anything in particular. Not really good at sports or instruments, but have been playing Tennis for a bit and played JV last season.</p>
<p>I was wondering, what kind of things do colleges look for? Is volunteering ok? Any ideas for what i could do?</p>
<p>They don’t care what you do specifically, but they want you to be focused and accomplished. People often do ECs related to community service, but it’s not required or expected for college admissions. The Common App asks how many hours per week you spent on each of the (ten or fewer) ECs you list, but college applications don’t ask about volunteer hours specifically. </p>
<p>I feel like I’ve been citing this a lot lately, but here’s some advice from a Yale admissions officer ([source](<a href=“Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times):”>Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times)):</a></p>
<p>“The thing we are looking for outside the classroom is not a series of check boxes on a resume; we’re looking instead for a high level of engagement or leadership in whatever it is that the student cares about most. For some students, community service is at the forefront of their extracurriculars, in which case we pay a lot of attention to what they have accomplished in that area. For other students, some other passion or interest holds primary sway, and we evaluate the engagement in that area. We know that very few students can fully engage more than one or two primary activities at a high level. Though it is fine for a student to have varied interests, a significant number of students make the common mistake of spreading themselves too thinly in a resume-building exercise.”</p>