How do colleges view an applicant who is not super involved in school activities but have one good EC that takes up a big chunk of time? My daughter has played an instrument since age 8, and in high school she couldn’t play a sport (not that she’s really athletic, but she did okay field hockey in middle school and enjoyed it) because they had practice six days a week, no exceptions, and her youth orchestra rehearsals made this an impossibility. Some other activities post similar problems, for example trying out for the school dramatic productions required daily attendance at rehearsals.
With her instrument, however, she did a good amount. She has been in both the regular HS orchestra and the chamber orchestra, played in a well-known youth orchestra for four years, been in the pit orchestra for the school musical, and has participated in several music festivals and a chamber competition. She is in the Tri-M Music Hinor Society. She also just started voice lessons over the summer and sings on occasion as a soloist at our synagogue.
Other than that, her involvement in other activities is pretty minimal. She has done things like Relay for Life and the AIDS walk, is in the National Honor Society and the Foreign Language honor society. She’s been volunteering as a homework helper at the elementary school since junior year.
I guess it does look like a lot when I look at it on paper; however, it seems that so many students are president of the student body or have done academic competitions or play a couple of sports and so on. She’s applying to selective LACs (but not the super selective ones like Williams or Amherst). It’s hard not to worry that she will not seem well rounded enough.
My daughter was very pointy - not well rounded at all. Every activity on her common app was about her work in her single subject of choice. She used the activity character allotments on the common app very thoughtfully and she wove her personal passion for this subject into her essay responses.
FWIW, my take would be that each activity description can’t be just that she played in this or that orchestra, each description has to tell a tiny story. The activity titles can be the labels of each of those orchestras, e.g. “chamber orchestra” or “miller high school orchestra” and then she indicates something special about each experience - did she perform a solo in front of hundreds? Did the teacher ask her to mentor less accomplished players? Did she move up to first or second chair over the years? Did she learn an exceptionally challenging piece of music for a specific concert for this orchestra? I would pretend that a non-musician is reading the app and spoon feed them why music takes up so much time and why music holds such meaning in her life. Also, clarify which musical activities are for school and which are personal volunteer work. Hopefully, she has some music awards to list.
Also, and again these are my personal thoughts so feel free to ignore me, but I am presuming she will be a music major?? Or is seeking a music scholarship?? If she is not pursuing music in college then I think it’s reasonable for admissions to wonder why she didn’t try out some other activities in high school, or to be more well rounded. If she’s clearly majoring in music, or wants to be a music teacher, or clearly wants to join the college band/orchestra, etc. then you’re fine, but if she’s coming across as an undecided major, or wants to major in something completely different like computer science, and the essays don’t align with music, then, if it was my daughter, I would encourage her to re-think that. Because if she wants to share in this app that she’s not pursuing music in college then there needs to be a thoughtful pivot that acknowledges yet moves onward from music in an essay response somewhere in the application. So, in a nutshell, if she’s going pointy on this app - keep it pointy. If she starts off pointy and then goes in a different direction in the writing, I think that could be distracting to the admissions reader and care should be exercised.
It’s a stressful time for sure, best of luck to you and her!
Contrary to the popular perception, selective colleges do not look for “well rounded” students. They build a well rounded student body out of kids that excel at sports, at music, at leadership, in research, etc. As Stanford says in its FAQ
I appreciate the replies. In response to @x793n28, she is not pursuing a music major. Actually, I don’t believe that it is part of a college application to indicate an intended major, is it? These are small LACs where a huge percentage of students come in undecided. She does, however, wish to participate in ensembles in college and continue to take lessons. She wrote a supplemental essay about the role music has played in her life, which fits right in with that quote in @mikemac’s post above. I don’t know if it’s accurate to imply that unless she wants to major in music, her “pointy-ness” is a detriment to her application. I do appreciate the suggestions about describing each activity in more depth…not sure how much detail she gave but I’ll take a look at it with her. Thank you!
At this point her activities are what they are so there is no sense fretting over it. At this point tt is important to highlight her positives in the application which sounds like what she has done.
I’ve heard admissions officers describe how they are looking to put together a well rounded class. That does not mean that each individual has to be well rounded. They are looking to create a class which includes a combination of well rounded individuals as well as individuals with special passions/talents etc. The LACs would want to get students who have interests, are involved etc. as opposed to people who go home after school and sit on the couch watching TV for hours on end. Your D should be just fine.