My daughter is a sophomore. She has good grades and made a 32 on the ACT in September. She has no idea what she wants to do for s career, so she has pretty shallow ECs- cheer, Young Life, high school social club, FCA, etc. She was a peer buddy last year for Best Buddies, but didn’t love it, so she didn’t sign up again. She is doing Model UN this year. And she does a decent amount of volunteer work, but it’s scattered across multiple places.
She is leaning towards a large state school, but OOS. I’m worried that the lack of quality ECs and lack of leadership positions will hurt her chances of scholarships. But I also don’t want to force her into something she doesn’t want to do. How important are ECs for scholarships?
Do NOT worry. It sounds like she is exploring different things as she should in HS. There is no such thing as a “quality” EC compared to others. Kids should do what they like. They should become more than superficially involved in some activity(ies). This includes leadership roles eventually (she is just a sophomore so don’t push her). Her EC’s are not “shallow” unless she is just going through the motions and not investing time and energy in them.
Please be sure her life includes fun and not just preparing for the future. Grades and test scores are more important. EC’s show a student can handle their course load with time for more.
For colleges of interest, google Common Data Set. Look in Section C7 under "Extracurricular activities X
" and it will tell you exactly how “Very Important”, “Important”, “Considered” or “Not Considered” a colleges considers it to be.
Also your DD is doing the right thing…exploring various clubs.
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”
Your daughter is doing exactly the right thing for her age, trying out different activities to see what she really likes. “Passion” in high school is overrated. Most kids don’t really know themselves well enough to know what they love for years, and admissions committees know this.
Many large state schools give scholarships based on SAT/ACT scores and GPA. ECs are often not a factor at all. Be aware that many state schools reserve their best scholarships for in-state students only. Look at the financial aid/scholarships page on the websites of colleges that interest your daughter. She can find scholarships and requirements listed there.
@bopper: Thank you for that Cal Newport quotation. That is exactly how my son proceeded. His combination of being a competitive debater and a writer (opinion editor of school newspaper) – really just two major activities – was sufficient. I don’t think he belonged to any clubs (other than debate team) or service organizations. He didn’t have time for that. And he didn’t choose either of those major activities with an eye toward college admissions.
I think for many kids being involved in a bunch of ECs as a freshman and sophomore is just fine. As they get busier they may want to elimate some things so they can concentrate on the ones they like best.
I look at this from a different point of view, but come to pretty much the same conclusion as others. Specifically, I think that high school students need to be high school students. They are busy learning what they want to do with their life, and shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about what ECs will impress a university.
You daughter has a good list of ECs. Whether these are precisely what some university wants to see I don’t know and if this was my kid I wouldn’t care.
My daughter’s did what they wanted to do for ECs, had great grades and SAT scores, and found schools that were a good fit for them and that appreciated what they had done. I think that this is the right approach.