How will COVID-19 effect the importance of EC's?

Now that the June SAT is canceled and since data says it’s likely they won’t be able to safely hold dates through the rest of summer into fall, I assume colleges will be putting much less weight on those tests, and with online school, there’s going to be a significant difference in GPA and grades this year, so does that mean colleges are going to be looking more at EC’s for 2020-2021 admissions? This would honestly be a blessing to me because my EC’s are really the bulk of my application, as I started a club, placed at state for DECA, have run a business for 2 years, and I’m currently planning an online event for local artists and entrepreneurs, which we will be donating a percentage of to a charity to fight COVID-19. I was also about to start shooting a short film I wrote that a friend and I are directing, but we had to postpone because of the virus. So, I really hope with the inadequacies of the SAT/ACT and GPA, colleges put more importance on EC’s.

I would assume that not much will change in the admissions process. Admissions is designed to be holistic. Selective universities usually give a similar numerical ranking of 1-5 for academics, etc. Beyond that, they look at rec letters, extracurriculars, and essays to try to get a sense of you. In all honestly, academics never was a make or break factor and almost all selective schools from Harvard to Penn to WashU have median SAT scores of 1480-1520 and grades-wise as long as you have a fairly rigorous courseload (8-16 APs) and mostly As, you are academically qualified.

Congrats on those extracurriculars! I assume you will be applying to B-schools. I applied to B-schools this year and recently got my admissions. I think you have somewhat of an advantage being in quarantine at this time because you can have a head start on essays (they catch up to you lol). You may also want to consider that a lot of projects that you start now may or may not end up on your application, and you don’t want to distract yourself from the actual application and other things like demonstrated interest/ interviews (I did that by taking too many difficult classes senior year). Another thing is don’t be discouraged if you get straight out rejections from schools you apply to econ for. Those colleges know that you are looking for business and they may not think their schools is suited for that. People get into Wharton and but rejection from every other ivy.

Also, what business did you start? I was always interested in that but never took the leap.

The SAT is not the only thing affected by covid. Some extracurriculars will be most likely hit too, like sports, marching band, etc, even if students return to school in the fall. Admission officers will really have to look at the entire application in the context of the pandemic.

Now kids with ECs that were supposed to happen for Spring Junior year (like Track and Field) can’t put it on their app? Do you all think there will be an added section to explain something was planned and canceled?

Also DS had applied to lots of summer scientific biomedical research programs. He spend WEEKS AND WEEKS AND WEEKS on the applications back around Christmas vacation. With the exception of one going online he has NOTHING. I know we are all in the same boat with “inactivity” but it seems schools should at least add a section where we can explain all the ECs that got disrupted?!

Thank you for the comment, and yah, I’m definitely planning on applying to business schools, but I’m mainly interested in marketing and business management rather than econ. I was also supposed to attend a 2-week entrepreneurship program at UC Berkeley this summer, but it got canceled, as did nationals for DECA, which I qualified for in Professional Selling. And, I actually started a higher-end clothing business making shirts, suits, dress shirts, pants, and a lot of one-of-one pieces. I’d link the website, but I’m currently restructuring for my third collection. I’ve been focusing a lot on influencers and my marketing campaigns so that colleges can see I already have some decent experience. I also do everything myself like graphic design, photography, sketches, and I have done some freelance work as well and gotten paid for my graphic design work and photography by some legit companies. The schools I’m looking at right now are UPenn, USC, UVA, Georgetown, Emory, Washington, and Georgia Tech. I also have some safety schools in mind like CU Boulder, Indiana University, and SMU.

I was also very interested in Wharton at UPenn because of some articles I’ve read about some students looking to get into the fashion industry who have gotten the chance to meet the CEO of Fendi, go to Paris Fashion Week, and so on. It had something to do with the Undergraduate Retail Advisory Board is what I think it was called.