Extracurricular help

Hi,
I’m new to CC so I apologize if I put this in the wrong category aha. I’m a grade 10 student in Canada looking to apply to top-tier business schools in Canada (Queens, UWO, York, UofT, UBC, McGill, etc.). I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA and a 97% average for this school year so far. Unfortunately, I go to a very small private school so there are no AP/Honours courses except for AP Math in grade 12 (which I plan on taking). I would like to compensate my lack of rigorous courses with better and more extracurriculars, however my ECs are currently sub-par since I dropped a lot of ECs in the past two years. Right now, my extracurriculars are:

  • Founder/president of my school’s community outreach club (volunteering at various organizations/events and fundraising)
  • Yearbook club
  • Writing club
  • Piano student (3 years)
  • Top volunteer at an organization; by the time I graduate I’ll have volunteered there alone for approx. 200 hours
    Here are some of the extracurriculars I plan on taking up:
  • Student council treasurer in gr 12 (no guarantee)
  • Teaching myself German (I would like to gain fluency)
  • Photography (potentially I would like to enter competitions, start a photography blog, etc.)
  • Competitive horse riding
  • Youth council for my city
  • Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program
  • Tutoring
  • Starting another club - any ideas?
  • Other volunteering of course (summer camps, school programs, etc.)
    What do you guys think? Are any of the ECs I’m interested in not worth pursuing? Can you suggest any other quality extracurriculars? Any other advice? What were some of your ECs that got you into business school?

    Thank you!

Frankly you should investigate what your target schools value. They may give little consideration to ECs whatsoever. And you’d be better spending your time dual enrolling in a nearby college in order to take more rigorous courses outside your school’s curriculum or prepping for SAT/ACT.

HS students generally over inflate the importance of ECs.

I know that at McGill admission is strictly based on marks, EC’s do not matter. Other Canadian schools place little or no emphasis on EC’s. Check each school’s website.