<p>I am in the Class of 2008, going to college in a year. However, my lack of ECs are going to hurt my chances very roughly.</p>
<p>However, I have several good reasons for not having ECs.</p>
<ul>
<li>Autistic brother taking up my time</li>
<li>Single mother working long hours</li>
<li>No ride</li>
<li>Clubs full of people who joined just to pad their resume (I hate this so)</li>
<li>Depression hit me hard. If you were ever depressed, you'd know that this causes you to not want to participate in much of anything.</li>
</ul>
<p>It's not like I've been static throughout high school. I've done History Day in 9th and 10th (didn't get very far...), gave some help to the school newspaper, joined a couple of sports in my underclassman years, and took 4 APs (with pretty good grades) in my junior year.</p>
<p>And I'm planning on helping out the journalism club and the drama club a lot more once I get my license. It'll be halfway through my senior year, but I really do not care. I'm doing it for me, not for colleges.</p>
<p>Will colleges understand if I write an essay that describes my troubles?</p>
<p>A well seasoned admissions officer will take into account your extenuating circumstances. Many extremely viable HS seniors have to work jobs, care for sibs or sick relatives, etc. and can't be on X, Y, and Z ECs.</p>
<p>If I were in your situation, perhaps have your GC enumerate these items rather than your using personal statement space. Your essays are where you can write about what you're passionate about or meaningful to you. If it's your pressed life situation and reflections about that, then fine. If what you'd rather write about is something else, I'd find a way not to have to include explanations in your personal statements (such as your GC) or a supplementary note of explanation.</p>
<p>Your essays are your marketing tools per se. Beyond this, crank on your transcripts and any standardized testing you still may have. Then carefully choose a suite of colleges you can see yourself enjoying. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>A note: it might not be a good idea to talk about your depression — I don't know how accurate this is, but over time reading about college admissions, I've gotten the impression that discussion of depression, even if you are talking about how you overcame it, might make an adcom wary of admitting you. I also wouldn't complain about clubs being filled with resume-padding people (even though it's probably true, it comes off as whiny/self serving). </p>
<p>However, definitely make them aware of the other stuff. Esp. having to take care of an Autistic brother, that shows a LOT of character—not everyone (myself included, probably) could handle that. Whether you do that in an essay, or, as T26E4 suggested, a supplementary explanatory note or through the GC letter is up to you. If you do write about it in the essay, though, don't make it sound like you're trying to make excuses about why you don't have enough ECs. Instead, try to focus on what you've learned through dealing with your situation, and perhaps (if it's true) how that has helped you in the ECs you do have.</p>
<p>Would "didn't have a ride" be a viable excuse? Because that seems to be my case for much of my early high school career.. my mother doesn't drive, and everyone else in our family is at work.</p>
<p>"didn't have a ride". I wouldnt use that as excuse for low EC, because you can always arrange for rides if you want it bad enough. Don't give adcom an excuse to toss your app.</p>
<p>I feel that not having a ride is an unfortunately real excuse. Not everyone has friends who can pick them up at any time. It's really frustrating when you want to do something after school (or before school) but you can't because you're tethered by the bus schedules. Especially when it's a one-time thing, like a fund raiser.</p>