Hi all,
I am a junior currently and I have realized I have a problem with my extracurriculars: I only have 1 activity that I am/plan on doing all 4 years. That club is the Red Cross Club, and I have 2 leadership positions there. I played piano and tennis ever since Freshmen Year; however, I am quitting piano because of the time commitment and I realize that I don’t LOVE it, and I can’t play tennis because of another club I am doing. However, a have a lot of clubs that I started in Sophomore year, and I will most likely get leadership positions in a lot of said clubs. The reason why I have to quit piano and tennis is because I am doing an Economics research team this year, which spends a few hours every day preparing. I also joined DECA this year, because I realized how much I love (and how good I am) at business.
So 3 things. How bad is it that I only have 1 club that I did all 4 years? And how do I go about explaining that I dropped tennis and piano to follow a newly found passion on my resume? Finally, is it still impressive if I did a club since Sophomore year, and got a leadership position in it?
THANKS IN ADVANCE!
You’re in high school and your primary job is to figure out what you love and what motivates you and how you can best fit into the world. That means trying things out. Sometimes you find your passion quickly - sometimes you have to try a lot of stuff. Ideally, you would have been a child prodigy at something and by now would be nationally ranked or have performed at Carnegie Hall or own your own software company. And the kids who are like this end up at the most selective schools in the country. The other kids at those schools have an in-depth commitment to one or two ECs and demonstrate exceptional potential in and out of school. If you aren’t aiming for these few highly selective schools, then your ECs are not a problem and you don’t have to explain anything. Just continue to explore your interests and figure out what’s important to you. That will take you much further than spending four years trying to impress admissions committees.
By the way, just because you aren’t in a school club or on a team doesn’t mean you can’t do an EC. If you still play tennis regularly, than tennis is still an EC. Nowhere is it written that ECs only count if they are formally organized or school-based. You can be an artist who works alone on your art - that’s an EC. You can provide childcare in your family if your parents work - that’s an EC too.
Unfortunately, I am aiming for the top schools in the nation. Also, I was really good at piano (I did in fact play in Carnegie Hall), but I have decided to quit and focus on my Economics team and other stuff. Thank you for the input. But again, is it bad that I did not do anything for all 4 years of High school, even though I did a bunch of stuff 3 years of high school?
So, how exactly do you plan to stand out at a really selective school? Even with top grades and test scores, how are you planning to differentiate yourself from all the other kids with top grades and test scores who have shown long-term commitment and a high level of achievement in their ECs - and well as all the other applicants who have done multiple ECs as you have?
I’m not trying to discourage you from applying to highly selective schools. I’m just pointing out that based on your ECs, you are at a disadvantage, which you already know. There may be other off-setting aspects of your application that make you a stand-out candidate but you haven’t mentioned them here.
Ok. So the clubs I started in Sophomore year and now have leadership positions in don’t carry weight? That was the main thing I was trying to ask.
They do, to a certain extent, but if you’re talking Top 10 or even Top 25 universities/LACs, they’d expect that level of piano AND the economics club you founded. What does your economics research team do? Can you keep up with piano at a lower level, so that you don’t quit it just dial it down (say, 30mn-1hour practice 5 times a week, with occasional performances at a much lower level than Carnegie Hall?)