We assume that kid’s “all arounded-ness” helped with his applications and merit awards – he was an athlete who was also a musician, with most rigorous curriculum. He didn’t have any reach schools, because we needed merit, but the fact that he had deep commitments in multiple areas, we figured, help make him an attractive candidate for admissions since he would contribute to campus in more than one way.
My kid has xc practice about 10 hours per week, meets most weeks run 5-10 hours depending on format and location, fortunately many are on saturdays. I included travel time in the longer meets because it’s not realistic to get schoolwork done in a school bus at 5:30 am. When that ends, she’ll do 2 non-sport school teams which practice about 8 hours per week with roughly 4 hours for competitions. About 2 hours per week in clubs. So I’d say 14-17-22 hours per week on that stuff.
But she also writes and submits to literary competitions and is very involved with several literary magazines and organizations. Formal meeting is about 2.5 hours per week for just one of them and I know she spends a lot more time than this, not to mention actually writing. The litmag activity will peak in the spring, but by then she’ll be done with all teams (well I guess one will still be happening). She spends most of her free time on this stuff (and also on critiquing and socializing with her literary friends). So this is both an organized EC but also how she chooses to spend most of her leisure time and I can’t say how many hours it all is. Quite a lot.
I think it’s obvious when it becomes too much and interferes with studying. You would see the grades drop, you would see homework not completed, you would see that your kid is not getting enough sleep, or maybe your kid is holding the academics together but would be exhausted, stressed and unhappy from not enough down time.
ECs crept up on D1. We were oblivious to the fact that activities that meet a couple times a week in middle school would ramp up to so much more in ninth grade. So she had way too many activities in ninth grade, and it was impacting her grades. We had a sort of emergency intervention/family meeting, where decisions were made on what to drop immediately and what to cut back o at year end. We were a lot more savvy about this for D2, and she did not start ninth with as many activities.
I know you are familiar with my daughter, so I won’t recap everything…but homework and studying took up the vast majority of her time after school. She had rigorous courses. She did quite well in the admissions process. She was pretty honest when filling out the common app about time spent doing various activities.
Her ECs were probably not a huge factor in college admissions for her, because they were nothing special. I would say 3 hours a week for various clubs, but a lot more when her main EC was in season. More like 10 hours a week then, over a 6-8 week period. Her musical instrument and lesson used about 4.5 hours a week, more when it was closer to festival time. But she was not a serious musician. She had various hours here and there for NHS commitments, such as tutoring, school involvment, and community service projects, so add another 1.5 hours a week, November-April. She did all her volunteer hours during the summer when she had plenty of free time, so that doesn’t affect the school year, but she did six hours a week for about ten weeks.
I wish she had had a job during high school, because I think there is a lot to be learned from working. She got so much out her job this summer, even though she didn’t particularly enjoy it.
Anyway, I advise just being honest about listing ECs. They really just want to see that kids are involved and interested in something apart from schoolwork.
Why are you asking this question? The answer varies wildly from student to student.
My #1 (son) had two major EC’s in HS: newspaper and debate. I have no clear idea how much time he spent on newspaper b/c I never saw him working on it at home but in senior year he was editor of the opinion page, writing a column every other week or so. Some of these involved research or data collection (surveys of students). But it’s fair to assume he spent the equivalent of two hours a day. I have a much clearer idea how much time he spent on policy debate. In addition to team practices several days a week, he had tournaments in season, many of which involved travel and overnights. The biggest commitment was probably to research, which he spent a couple of hours a day at least, mainly at home where he had a computer and access to Lexis-Nexis. Add this to tournament time on weekends in season, and this was enormously time-intensive.
What he did NOT have at home was “homework” from his classes. He was very efficient in getting his math, Spanish, English, history, etc., reading and study done IN SCHOOL. Sometimes that meant doing English in his math class, math in his Spanish class, etc. When he had to write papers for English or other classes, we never saw him working on them at home. He somehow managed to write them during the day at school, then print them at home.
So I would say he had a very demanding EC program, equivalent to that of a varsity athlete. And he improvised well. His debate coach made sure he and other team members had turned in their assignments for their classes – or they would not be allowed to participate in a tournament.
One of my kids had a city-based EC that took up almost all of Sunday (from morning till night) but didn’t impact the rest of the week at all. It’s so variable - depends on the kid, depends on the type of activity.
My kids weren’t athletes.
For older son he did Academic Team which met 1 hour a week and had morning tournaments I’d guess at least once a month. He also did Science Olympiad - it also met about an hour a week except the week right before tournaments when they’d spend all their free time helping the kids with the building events. They usually ended up with three tournaments - the Regionals, an Invitational and States. Senior year he worked long distance computer programming. He’d ask for projects when he got bored. I think the time he spent on them really varied - I know that he spent most of spring break senior year making sure the company met a deadline. Finally he had his own projects on the computer - I have no idea how much time he spent gaming vs learning stuff, vs working on mods with a team. But probably at least a several hours a day.
Younger son was in two orchestras - most practice was during the school day. He also took lessons one hour a week and supposedly practiced every day. He also did Science Olympiad spent the same hours on it as his brother. And he worked on the literary magazine - but I don’t think it took more than an hour or two a week.
@mathmom my daughter’s middle school SciOly team met 8-10 hours a week! I would have let her continue in high school if it was only an hour.
Our sons’ team beat kids who had a special class that met every day during school hours. I think teams that spend that much time are probably wasting a lot of time. It may be harder to herd middle schoolers.
She had three events and each one met 2 hours a week or so. They attended a lot more invitationals though, mayber 5? Plus regionals and states.
@thumper1 EC’s are a big concern of mine. I have asked other questions on this topic. Surprisingly, I’m not worried about D’s grades, but the EC’s have been tricky, because she has changed her mind a couple of times regarding what she wants to do. This is the time when she must register for activities. I’ll send you a pm if you want more details. It’s helpful to hear what other kids have done/do, because it puts things in perspective, and it also makes me realize that my D will probably never be one of those kids who devotes 30 hrs + to EC’s, and I’m ok with that. It’s also helpful to hear of kids who spent less time on activities and still got into good colleges.
@citymama9 , she should sign up for activities she is interested in. If she changes her mind next year, that is okay. She should change her mind, she is a teenager. Unless she is shooting for tippy tops, I really do think that ECs are unlikely to be a deal breaker. And remember, her dance trumps all the other piddly stuff. You might not think of her dance as being an EC, because I know she does a class in it, but it is a very important and major EC for her. Believe me, colleges will be primarily interested in that more than whatever other stuff she signs up for.
And remember, a job is ALWAYS good!
I haven’t read all of this thread, but I do agree with @Lindagaf, it is more important that your child does things that she loves and is interested in rather than compiling a list of things for a resume. The things she loves doing will have so much more meaning to her, and that will likely leak through on her applications.
Just be careful that she doesn’t do TOO many different things. If her time is stretched that thin, she runs the risk of not being able to do anything with gusto. And her academics could suffer as well.
My oldest had very few EC’s mostly just a few clubs and some volunteer work. She still managed to get into a competitive school. Not a LAC though.
@Lindagaf You’re always reassuring! We’re holding off on the job for now. I had some great ideas for my D, but she had her own so whatever she does will be what she wants to do. My concern is that she does have interest in “the tippy top” schools, so that makes me second guess all the EC decisions. She has a way to go, but she informed me that her dream schools are Vanderbilt and Northwestern. That puts more pressure on the situation. Anyway, I think she has 3 things to do besides dance that sound like fun to her, but none of the things involve leadership or competing. If one of the activities falls through she will go to trapeze school (I kid you not) Again, I always enjoy hearing from you:)
I have a good friend whose daughter goes to an Ivy. She had excellent high school grades, very good standardized test scores, and one significant EC: she is an accomplished musician. Her former boyfriend also got into an Ivy. He too had excellent high school grades, very good standardized test scores, and one significant EC: he is an accomplished musician. Neither did a sport, neither had a job, and neither did ECs other than music except on a very casual basis.
Hmm, well, my D17 works a part-time job (10-15 hours a week), participates in mathletes and Science Olympiad (not a huge time commitment - maybe 5 hrs a week only for a couple of months), was the president of our city’s teen council (10 hours a month max), and volunteers for a couple of hours a month. She also worked for the city as a program assistant over the summer (40 hrs a week). I consider her jobs part of her extracurricular.
And, she took 3 AP, one community college course and an honors level course junior year with 3 AP courses this year…
Jeez, when I put it on paper she’s really a busy kid!
Three more ECs in addition to dance, which she spends a lot of time on every day, is more than enough, IMO. Remember, grades and test scores are nearly always the two most important criteria, followed by essays and teacher recs. Do be careful of inadvertently giving her the message that if she wants to get into top schools she must do a lot of ECs for many hours. Show her the CDS for schools she is interested in and note how much emphasis is put on a given criteria. If her be all and end all goal is to get into those schools, then let her take the lead in doing what she thinks is necessary.
I just read this comment on another thread, posted in the admissions forum, concerning listing ECs on applications, and this comment is relevant:
“You have to understand that in most cases participation in one EC or another is not going to make or break an application. Also, for some really impressive EC, the school will most likely expect that the GC or a teacher will mention it. If they don’t, that might be reason for a followup to the GC for confirmation.”
By really impressive EC, I am thinking about Intel, USABO, major Scholastic Awards, etc… I do agree with that comment, and I think it might give you some perspective on your question as it pertains to your daughter.