<p>so im gonna be a senior and i have not participated in any school clubs & stopped sports in middle school... im a
solid B student so i need more than grades to get in... Im doing volunteer work and hopefully get a job this summer.. What else can i do outside of school? tips? im interested in colleges like Pace, Marymount M, LIU Brooklyn..</p>
<p>it’s good that you’re looking at lower-caliber colleges and not expecting to get into the top colleges with your states. There isn’t much you can do senior year, so you should put time into increasing your test scores (I don’t know how you’re doing now) and writing a great college essay. But any service and club involvement is better than none, so definitely join a club or two come senior year.</p>
<p>@epan1997 so even without some EC i still have a chance in getting accepted? </p>
<p>Many of the less selective colleges don’t really care that much about ECs, as long as your grades and test scores are reasonably good. The lower-tier public schools in particular admit primarily based on GPA/SAT or ACT, and possibly class rank, and many accept the vast majority of applicants with B averages and average test scores.</p>
<p>ECs matter only for about 10% of schools, the very top ones where they use ECs, essays, and hooks to diffrentiate between their high-scoring students.</p>
<p>If you have the stats, you can get into the vast majority of colleges. What are your test scores and GPA? Don’t feel like you need to restrict yourself, there are still plenty of options for students without significant ECs. </p>
<p>Freaking out? Really? Freaking out?</p>
<p>Those schools only care if you have a pulse and fat wallet. </p>
<p>@ctesiphon my gpa is 3.1 and my sat score is 1360? i think. i need to retake it </p>
<p>I think doing some SAT (or ACT) prep to try to increase your standardized test scores will do far more good than doing more ECs. There are colleges that will accept you with a 1360 SAT, but more and better schools will be accessible with a 1500 or greater score.</p>
<p>I agree with the advice you’re getting. Raising your test scores will help you with a lot. Increasing your ECs hardly matters at all.</p>
<p>^Agree with all advice above. It’s too late to add any significant ECs, and the colleges you are in range for won’t care about them. Do well senior year and prep for the October SAT. Also consider the ACT, some students do much better on it. </p>
<p>I agree. Spend time working on the SATs (assuming the 1360 is for the three parts) and even consider a prep class over the summer. ECs won’t be a huge deal for the schools you are interested in so the volunteer work you do should suffice.</p>
<p>thanks everyone! </p>
<p>Definitely try to do some prep this summer and increase your scores. For the most part, colleges value GPA and standardized test scores more than they value ECs.</p>