How import are extracurricular activities

Currently I’m a US citizen studying abroad. I plan to come back and complete my senior year of high school. The school I attend now does not offer any extracurricular activities but I do I play tennis occasionally, and attend kickboxing lessons. Will this be enough? BTW I want to get into Virginia Tech or some better university

Well, EC’s show your leadership, participation, and the sort of extra flavor that you might bring to enhance campus life. Colleges that consider more than grades and scores often want to know that they will have people singing in the a capella group, walking on to the rowing team, serving on the residential life committee, winning on the college quizbowl team, joining the group mentoring of local schoolkids, and, well, you get my drift…

For VA Tech it’s not too bad, for instance

Very Important: rigor of coursework, gpa, test scores

Everything else is just Considered: recommendations, EC, talent/ability, personal qualities/character, alumni relation, first generation to college, work experience, volunteer work, race/ethnicity, level of applicants interest

Some other uni’s may have EC up as Important or even Very Important. EC isn’t only the sort of thing you do at school and they know overseas sometimes it is not as available. But it can also be what you do in and for your community. What you do on your own, be it build apps or citizen science projects. Sure, seems kickboxing can go there. Playing tennis occasionally with your friends for recreation isn’t really.

The ratings for various factors that BrownParent helpfully gave you are found in the Common Data Set filing for each college.

Most colleges don’t care much about ECs, and for the ones that do one motivation, sorry to say, is to screen out kids like you. You seem to have adopted the idea that colleges “ought” to score kids on whether they have taken advantage of opportunities presented to them. Given a smorgasbord of opportunities, the kid that turned up his nose at them should be viewed less favorably than the one that enthusiastically plunges in. But, if in this uneven world, the school “does not offer any extracurricular activities” then that shouldn’t be held against the kid. Or so many think.

While a common view, in reality top colleges are looking for kids with initiative and drive. There is nothing stopping you from being involved as a volunteer in your community, from pursuing interests in art or music or what-have-you, from doing some of the things mentioned by BrownParent. ECs are a way to show initiative and drive as you discover your own interests and figure a way to pursue them. The ones that really stand out aren’t just signing up for some group on campus, so attending a HS that does offer ECs is not a panacea.

I had only one or two ECs and wasn’t denied admission anywhere. Just make sure your GPA and ACT/SAT are good

thanks for the helpful replies

They are important - and when you get to the top tier schools - they are very important.

For VTech, you should be fine, just write good essays.

Best of luck.

I have started teaching the underprivileged. how can i get this documented and will this complete my tee for extracurricular activities ( to get in a university like the university of richmond or better)
other activities: kickboxing, i train hard