Hi, I’m a sophomore, so maybe it’s kinda early to post something like this, but I want my junior year to be strong and possibly make reach schools less reachy.
gpa: 4.0
act: 34
awards: nsliy summer scholarship to China
lots of aps, gonna do dual credit junior and senior year
ECs (this is what I want to improve):
-Academic team/quizbowl is my biggest commitment, we are probably the strongest team in our state. I devote a lot of time to this.
-Music stuff: Violin 11 years, piano 9 years, local youth orchestra for 7 years, all state orchestra for 2 years, quartet that plays at different small events
-Volunteered at a local hospital for 60 hours, but will up my volunteer hours and get a job most likely.
I’m a white male so no hooks or anything
But the issue is, that’s about all I have for ECs…
I have leadership in my quizbowl team (which will continue to be strong for my high school years) and school orchestra, and I think I am very committed to both (as well as commitment to Chinese). And I’m not interested in inflating my list with fake ECs or anything. So basically, is this something I need to worry about if I want to be “highly” competitive? I have plenty of time to get involved in stuff, so if you are honest I will not stress out. There are other things I am really interested in that I could pursue, like maybe start a math team, volunteer at the history society, research at local university, that sort of thing. However, I would have to at least slightly cut down the amount of time I can commit to quizbowl and orchestra, which isn’t too ideal. Probably gonna up my commitment to Chinese regardless though. How much should I worry about my ECs?
I am also strongly considering doing a gap year to China through NSLIY, but don’t know if I should.
As for which colleges I am considering “reach”, the ones I am interested in (now at least) are UVA (oos), Penn (Huntsman), and I might just for fun apply to Princeton lol (but I am not asking how to get into Princeton or anything and I’m not stressing over that).
But I’m a sophomore so this list is very preliminary (except for UVA, which I have been interested in my whole life) and certainly will change, but if I had to be specific, how could I be more competitive for a place like Penn? And are there any downsides to taking a gap year?
thanks all