How much does it hurt to have NO extracurriculars

<p>As in a box on an application for ECs might have one or two things it it, and thats all</p>

<p>It will hurt a lot to have none. But seriously, I am sure that you have done SOMETHING besides academics in the past 4 years...</p>

<p>And it's okay to only have a few. Quality>quantity. "Varsity cross country/track captain...ran 2 miles in under 10 minutes" counts a lot more than "President of French Club, Spanish Club Member, NHS member, key club member"</p>

<p>I think many of you have important ECs you're not realizing count. A young man I know worked endless hours during high school in his family's restaurant. His life was school, studying and working. He was so smart that he became the "brains" of the restaurant and made it a success. A teacher insisted he apply to Harvard and it turned out they loved his EC. Others take care of siblings and households or design video games for fun. It's not about lots of clubs! It's about doing whatever it is you do very well and bringing the lessons you've learned to add to the culture. The kind of EC's top schools like often fit on 1 line.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if you have high test scores and straight A's but the only other things you do are work out,watch TV, and play videogames, you are not competitive for top schools.</p>

<p>you must have done SOMETHING other than suck oxygen and study...</p>

<p>^Ditto. What about your hobbies (that's 100% of my "Ec's")?</p>

<p>It doesn't have to be clubs or organizations, or community service and about loving the world and holding hands.</p>

<p>Depends where you're applying. I skipped the entire EC page at U of Illinois-Champaign and was accepted.</p>

<p>It's funny how some of you are saying that people should have done something EC-related over the past few years because the girl who's ranked #1 at my school has dne absolutely nothing at all besides study and get straight As. It's so sad how this girl doesn't do anything at all. She said the only thing she has is once this summer, she volunteered at a place ( i think it was a camp) for two days. That is it. She has no life and it's quite pathetic.</p>

<p>what if you just sat around and slept, watch tv, play computer? Like you don't need to study 25hours a day to get that grade and test score, but you really just didnt do anything else.</p>

<p>Most state schools (except top ones like Berk, UCLA, UVA, U Mich) put little emphasis on ECs.</p>

<p>Most schools in this country admit most if not all of their applicants! The point is that ECs don't matter much if at all for perhaps 2800 out of the 3000 4-year colleges in the country. On the other hand, if you're applying to one of the top 50 most-in-demand then without ECs you don't have much of a chance.</p>

<p>" On the other hand, if you're applying to one of the top 50 most-in-demand then without ECs you don't have much of a chance."</p>

<p>This isn't true for the public schools that are on that list (and virtually all public universities in general). If you have very high stats, you still can get into many of the top 50 privates even without strong ECs.</p>

<p>if you literally have no ECs, then that means you are just a curriculum-slave. Or a slacker. If you are one of those, you are not alone, as people have said, thousands of colleges that would like you. However, I think that the most likely case is that you are not a slacker or curricular, but you actually do interesting stuff outside of school. The reason that you cant think of it is because you have been hanging around here and have gotten your creativity repressed by all these CC drones who are doing all this varsity sports + volunteering + music + pretentious clubs. You may be in the mindset that you need an award to qualify a EC. The truth is, while awards, positions, etc can help, they are not needed. If you play an instrument, practice only 1 hour a week, but have done it for years and really enjoy band, that is one. If you draw or paint, that is another, you can still talk about how you love it and how it makes you feel without having won recognition for it. Maybe you are really serious about weight lifting, but you dont compete with others, you just love the competition of man vs. metal. It is nice to have serious awards, or to have raised a royal shtload of money, but nowadays, colleges deal with thousands of recognition and longlisted activity whores, so having a personal thing that you just do outside of school is an EC in many cases worth mentioning.</p>

<p>Everyone here has a good point. I joined Key Club this year, and am not even going to mention it on my application. I think, if anything, it would hurt me. As long as you have done something besides studying/videogames/TV/wasting time, it could be considered an EC.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Depends where you're applying. I skipped the entire EC page at U of Illinois-Champaign and was accepted.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Ohhhh, so <em>that's</em> why UIUC ate my soul!</p>

<p>"Everyone here has a good point. I joined Key Club this year, and am not even going to mention it on my application. I think, if anything, it would hurt me.</p>

<p>hurt you?are you applying to a top school?I joined this year because I was asked by a friend and plan on putting it down on my app. Would it hurt me or are you just exaggerating?</p>

<p>it depends. If you are doing it because you wanted to the admissions process, then dont put it...</p>

<p>Also if you are a leader, put it down, if not, it wont help you really</p>

<p>well im not applying to any CC standard schools</p>

<p>
[quote]
" On the other hand, if you're applying to one of the top 50 most-in-demand then without ECs you don't have much of a chance."</p>

<p>This isn't true for the public schools that are on that list (and virtually all public universities in general). If you have very high stats, you still can get into many of the top 50 privates even without strong ECs.

[/quote]
UC Berkeley and UCLA are on the list. You're not getting into these without ECs.</p>

<p>What if you have a legitimate, but hard to explain reason for not having any extra curriculars? Because I'm neither a curriculum-slave nor a slacker, but my situation makes it difficult to join an EC.</p>