How important are extracurriculars for college?

<p>I'm a senior and this year, I'm going to have to apply to some colleges. Something that has got me very worried are my extracurriculars. I'm the kind of person who is more focused academically rather than really going on and becoming a leader of something.</p>

<p>I am currently enrolled as a full IB student (for those of you who don't know, IB is like AP classes) and my cumulative GPA from freshman to end of junior year is a 3.9014, UNWEIGHTED. So it'll be over a 4.0 when they weight it.
My SATs are a 1920, BUT, I am going to prep class so I am expecting it to go over 2000 by the time I take the test in October.</p>

<p>The only extracurricular I do is tutor kids (have been doing it for 3 years now) but I think this would count more as 'volunteer' than extracurricular. Besides tutoring, I participate in key club and that's it. Will this affect my chances of getting into UC schools or like really prestigious universities? Or are grades more important than extracurriculars?</p>

<p>Because kids at my school keep talking about how important extracurriculars are and a lot of the kids enroll in lots of extracurriculars (like sports or band) but their GPAs are only around a 3.5 and they aren't even in advanced classes. Does this mean these kids will have a HIGHER chance than me when it comes to applying to colleges? Or should I just focus more on my grades? I'm just so confused as to which is more important. :/</p>

<p>Check out the common data set for each school you are interested in. There is a section of that document that shows the relative importance of each aspect of the applicant’s high school career. Things such as academic rigor, standardized tests, class rank, EC’s, etc.</p>

<p>Some schools place more weight on EC’s than others. I’ve yet to see a school that doesn’t list course rigor as very important.</p>