So my freshman year I was part of Business Pros. of America (participated at State level) and that is it. Sophomore year, I did JV Singles Tennis (4th place at regional conference) and Business Pros. of America again (but I qualified and participated at BPA nationals getting 25/500 people). Also, I did 100 hours of volunteering in both years (5 hours summer fresh 95 summer soph). My problem is, that is all I have for my first 2 years of high school. Now this year (my junior year), I have taken a leadership position in Business Pros. of America, joined debate (should make varsity this year itself), joined WYSE (an engineering competition for juniors and seniors only), and NHS (hopefully get some leadership from that), and I am playing tennis again (potentially varsity singles but most likely JV). Also, I’ll probably take up an internship in accounting (related to my major interest-Finance/Econ) summer of junior year.
I’m doing these EC’s because I genuinely enjoy them, but I’m worried that my lack of EC’s freshman and sophomore year will hurt me. In my defense, 2 EC’s I chose this year- WYSE (engineering comp.) and NHS- were not available to me other years but debate was. I know that more isn’t necessarily better, but my freshman year could have had more EC’s. I expect to do well in all of my EC’s and win awards, but judging by my overall picture of EC’s (achievements and amount of), am I competitive for highly selective schools?
Your ECs are just fine. It’s not about how many, but the quality of what you are doing.
@momofsenior1 As long as I am successful in say debate (because that’s the one I could’ve done from freshman year and didn’t) this year (make varsity, win tourneys etc.), will they look past the fact that I haven’t done it fresh/soph year? I guess what I’m trying to say is, will the weightage towards the number of years an activity is done make me not competitive even if the quality of time spent is excellent?
I think your BPA participation and taking on a new leadership role comes across as very positive, as do your number of volunteer hours. Schools know that students grow and change and try/add new things, and sometime stop activities. No one is going to hold against you joining a new activity junior year.
Focus on your academics and standardized test scores and you will be just fine!
Ok, thanks!