I am 21 years old and I will be applying to colleges next fall. Among the schools I’m interested in are Brown, Dartmouth, Lehigh, Duke, Rice and possibly Georgetown. I was homeschooled and graduated when I was 18 with a 3.8 GPA unweighted and I have a SAT score of 1510. But due to the fact that I was homeschooled, I had no extracurriculars. I’ve read that the only two colleges that this should be a big problem at is Brown and Dartmouth (and almost every Ivy League school.) Will not having any extracurriculars during my homeschool years be a severely negative factor in my admissions? I asked a question on Quora about it and I was told that because I’m in my early twenties and not still in high school, it may not be. Thanks for any answers.
What have you been doing since graduating HS? If you have had meaningful gap experiences, that may compensate from the lack of ECs in HS.
You have a reachy list. What are your match and safety schools?
What have you been doing in the meantime? Surely they will look at how you have been spending your time since HS. Also-- is your SAT recent or 3 years old?
Plenty of home school students have ECs. Volunteer work, jobs, club sports, community orchestra, church activities, etc. I don’t think you can rely on that as an excuse to not have ECs.
In general for new HS grads, GT and Duke definitely care about ECs. I don’t know much about Lehigh but I would consider adding some less reachy schools to you list.
I’m ashamed to admit it but I’ve been kind of lazy with my life. I got a full job working at a home improvement store back last year. That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing. I’m ashamed and embarrassed about it to be honest.
Don’t be ashamed, just take action now. And plan your college applications for when you do have the record.
You’re naming highly competitive holistic colleges which will be looking for much more than stats from several years ago. So, besides a low level job, for one year or less, have you done anything that qualifies as an extracurricular?
Why these colleges? What matches you to what they look for?
What were you doing before the job?
Employment is nothing to be ashamed of, especially if you were helping out your family or saving for college. Does your employer offer scholarships for its employees? What state are you in?
All of the colleges you have listed are extremely selective. Be sure to apply to some affordable safety and match schools that you would be happy to attend.
I agree with other comments that the schools you have listed all look like reaches (although I don’t know anything about Lehigh). You need to focus on safeties right now.
Have you already sent in applications to at least two safeties? If not, then do so now before thinking about reaches.