So I’m currently a junior in high school and I’m thinking about what colleges I want to go to next year. I’ve taken the SAT once (plan on taking it again in March) and I’m taking the ACT in February. I’m really stressed about the extracurriculars that you need for college apps. I’m in psych club, humanities club, national technical and national honors but I don’t hold any leadership positions. I am going to be doing researching during the summer before my senior year and hopefully I can actually get something published… The only places I’ve volunteered at were 2 local hospitals and a children’s museum. The only extracurricular that doesn’t really relate to what I want to major in is piano- I’ve played for roughly 6 years and I’ve done official exams for it. Do you think that I still have a chance to get into a fairly decent college (top 50-60) when I don’t really have any school related extracurriculars?
It makes no difference to college admissions officers if your ECs are in or outside of school.
It appears you have a couple of school-related ECs on your resume, even if they aren’t the dominant ones. Colleges won’t care either way. Showing school spirit could help strike the right cord at a few particularly rah-rah schools, but only in exceptional cases might it really tip the scale.
Don’t join clubs just because you think you need them for colleges, join them because you enjoy the people and activities. If any of these clubs are draining your energy, you should feel able to quit and spend that energy somewhere else. Enjoy the activities, be involved, be friendly. And I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t get a title in one of those clubs you actually like next year.