<p>So, during my freshman year, and halfway through my sophomore year, I was avidly involved in jiu jitsu. I went to 4-5 classes a week, competed in a few tournaments, and was really involved. I had to drop it for a while due to some personal issues, and during junior year, I decided to pick up engineering to develop my interest a bit more ( and I was involved in that 5-6 days a week). I'm worried, because it would seem to colleges that I did nothing during that year and a half, so I want to show them that I did something. But, they might not like it that I quit. </p>
<p>My question is, should I list this on my apps?</p>
<p>That seems to be more of 1/2 - 1 year, rather than 1 and a half. Anyway, if the “personal issues” were serious, then they shouldn’t penalize you for it.</p>
<p>You could also just put the jiu jitsu as “freshman and sophomore year, 4-5 classes a week”, then put engineering as “junior year, 5-6 days a week” and there doesn’t seem to be a gap. Though they may wonder why you stopped something you were so involved in (was the personal issue serious?).</p>
<p>Yeah, it was a serious family related thing. During that time, all I did was go to school and come home. Another big thing was, clubs only developed during junior year in my school, and the new opportunities interested me a lot. Also, I got a lot more into volunteering, and it sort of became my thing. And, I started it about a month into freshman year, and ended about halfway through sophomore year.</p>
<p>As I said, if you list it as “freshman and sophomore year”, then engineering as “junior year”, there appears to be no gap. Also, make sure to note the serious family issue as the reason you had to stop jiu jitsu.</p>
<p>In general, colleges aren’t going to care what your ECs are or whether you even have any. Most don’t use ECs as admission factors. The colleges that do use ECs as admission factors are places like Harvard, which can use ECs to pick and choose from an overabundance of applicants with high academic stats. For places like Harvard, to stand out for ECs, one would probably need to be a state or national champion in something like jiu jitsu, so your stopping after a couple of years wouldn’t matter.</p>