So I’m a sophomore right now and I’m stressing about my extracurriculars. My mom is really eager to help me get more volunteering hours this summer + I’m planning on doing more volunteering with my school’s Key Club so I’m not worried about that too much, but do you guys think I need to do a significant amount of extracurriculars? (I also do taekwondo and I’m in my school’s choir). I’m also planning on joining the tennis team and a couple culture clubs next year. Do yall think these will be enough and do you have any recommendations? My dream school is UT Austin by the way + my current GPA is ~4.6 (3.9 UW).
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If you don’t volunteer this summer, what would you do instead?
Tennis camp but I doubt that could be listed as an extracurricular seeing that it’s like 1-2 weeks. Other than that I’m knocking out US History (Dual Credit) so I don’t have to deal with it later.
doesn’t UT-Austin give automatic admission to those in the top 6% of their HS class if they’re in-state?
yup!
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i’m aiming for top 6% but i probably wont make it haha!
Don’t think of it as checking off boxes. There is no magical number of volunteer hours or extracurricular activities. Colleges want to know how you spend your time when you are not in school. Are you sitting at home on TikTok or are you doing something else? If you are doing something else, what are you doing and why are you doing it?
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Have you considered getting a part-time job? Working at a supermarket, restaurant, etc is good experience that always looks good on an application. It might also be fun.
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My older kid did tennis camp for two weeks every summer and he did list it as an EC.
For ECs…do what you enjoy doing. That is what matters.
Agree…a part time job is a good idea for the summer.
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Thank you for the info! Yeah, I finally enjoy choir now that I’ve started to actually put in some effort, and as for tennis, I just randomly thought one day that tennis is super cool so I signed up! I’m not sure if I could commit to a job but I’ll definitely look into it!
Thank you for the info! I have thought about maybe getting a job but I’m a huge procrastinator and my time management needs a lot of work, but I’ll keep looking into it!
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Oh I see, thank you for the info! I do scroll around my phone quite a bit but I go to taekwondo whenever I can but that’s really it as of now.
And this is why your mom wants you to get involved in some sort of volunteer activity.
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Time management is VERY important. Getting a job, showing up on time on the right days, doing the assigned work….all important as well.
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There is no dream school - so stop - and TX has lots of great options.
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Do ECs for you - for purpose - whether money, learn skills, etc. On its face, Tae Kwan Do and Choir are good. If you volunteer, do it on your terms - what interests you? A dog shelter, a food pantry, etc? You want tenure and quantifiables if possible.
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Don’t spread yourself too thin
Lots of colleges out there - UT or otherwise.
i cant believe I only found out about this rn- time to move to texas now
Same story here haha. Also a sophomore and my school doesn’t have enough STEM related extracurriculars that relate to what to want to study. So I’ve been volunteering at the computer lab at my local library and hope to one day teach a class there for the elderly on technology.
If you enjoy it that’s fine. If you don’t, do something you enjoy.
Not sure why everyone thinks activities need to be related.
Do the athletes have related activities, or band, or student who gathers carts at the grocery store or walks dogs at the shelter ?
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Wait that’s a good point!
Be authentic. Not fake !!