Hello!
I am starting year 11 in high school meaning I will sit the SAT exams next June. My GPA for the past 4 years has been 4.0. I know that American colleges pay special attention to whether the student has taken part in any extracurricular activities.
I used to take piano, tennis, art, yoga, ballet and modern dance lessons throughout elementary and secondary school. Due to lack of sufficient spare time and money I quit those when I entered high school. However, for 10 years now I have been attending private lessons in English and French. Do the language courses count as extracurricular activities and is the fact that I no longer practice any sports or attend dance lessons etc. a problem?
I am afraid I have never done voluntary work except for participating in events to clean my city and neighborhood but I would love to work in a shelter for homeless animals (very sparse in the area where I live) or people in need/with disabilities. Would my wish be considered or colleges would only be interested in the fact whether I have done any voluntary work or not?
Also, I have never taken part in sports competitions (except for a few dance concerts). Would that be to my disadvantage?
Finally, I used to play volleyball in my school with my classmates in our free time. Would that be considered as an extracurricular activity as well, although we didn’t officially play for any team?
Thank you!
Language lessons = yes. All the stuff you wish you had done or did before high school = no. The volleyball does not really sound like something to list. The cleanup activities could be. You can start doing something now – you have about 15 months before applications are due.
@intparent, thank you for your reply!
“All the stuff you wish you had done or did before high school” So, basically what colleges are interested in are the activities I’ve taken part in during high school only? Like, the sports/dance/music lessons will not be of any interest unless I take some of those up in the next year?
Yes, that is right. They want to hear starting in 9th grade.
Just one more thing to clarify - if I occupy myself with something in my free time, for instance, play a musical instrument regularly under the supervision of a relative (a musician) at home without necessarily joining a band or attending private lessons with a tutor - such activities won’t count as extracurricular either, or will they?
By the way, are any documents from sports teams required to be sent along with my application documents to verify my taking part in any activities held by them or will my stating it in my essay be enough?
Extracurriculars are meant to show that you have a passion/accomplishment outside of your school work. So if you’re an accomplished musician, it’s something you can list as an EC. Sports teams aren’t required to “prove” you took part – it’s something that’s verifiable anyway.
I’m concerned that you’re “fishing” for an EC – trying to find something, anything you can list, and hoping the university won’t ask that you prove your participation. If your ECs raise any kind of a concern – is this person telling the truth? – this doesn’t bode well for your application.
Being HONEST is extremely important to American admission committees. They read tens of thousands of applications and can tell if a student is padding their resume. Don’t do it.
I am not going to lie, all the things I mentioned above I have indeed practiced for many years. The reason why I had to abandon most of them, as I also stated above, is due to lack of enough free time and above all, money. It is just that I am not familiar with how American colleges approach such things - in my country universities take into consideration everything you have taken part in since early childhood. That’s the only reason why I went into so much detail in my posts. I do not want to exaggerate the truth, nor pack my essay with every single thing I’ve participated in. Thank you for your help!
Good! Also, keep in mind that US universities do take into consideration that not everyone has the kinds of opportunities that American teens have. If you tell them that due to limited finances you could only study languages and music with a relative, that will be understood, and respected.
I am glad that they do! Since I have no sports achievements, I only plan to mention what I’ve had experience practicing in order to outline what I’ve learnt as a result and how I’ve benefited from it all. Something that could be considered an achievement is winning 1st place in a national competition in English and passing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Cambridge certificates of English with an A, but as I understand the latter’s not highly thought of in US colleges?
I hope it’ll be alright to ask something that’s a bit off-topic - what are the standardized national exams? Are these taken each year at the very end?
The U.S. does not have standardized national exams. Most students planning to go to university take the SAT and/or ACT exams, and SAT II exams for the elite schools, but those who go to community college first don’t have to take them at all.
Some states have exams students need to pass in order to graduate from high school (for example, the Regents Exam in New York state), but many others do not.
Thank you for the explanation!