Does anyone have any knowledge of a lack of extracurriculars keeping a SF from becoming a finalist? My D’s gpa is excellent, her schedule rigorous, her PSAT score very high, SAT above the confirming score, a good essay writer, good recs, but NO extracurriculars. She just didn’t want to – she taught herself an instrument, painted, read, wrote, watched Netflix, babysat her siblings, helped them with their homework, but wanted no part in chasing ECs. Will this hurt her?
@2big2babies … Lack of ECs will have little or no impact on your D progressing to Finalist. If your D’s principal somehow let that influence whether or not they recommend your D for advancing to Finalist (extremely unlikely, but I don’t know your principal :-? ) it could have some impact. One other area where it could affect her is if she is hoping for the one-time $2500 award from NMSC. No one knows for sure what criteria NMSC uses when choosing recipients for those awards. If your D is interested in any of the large $$ “unofficial” college sponsored scholarships, lack of ECs will have no impact whatsoever on her achieving NMF status and becoming eligible for those awards. Congrats to your D!!
Don’t worry about it. I don’t think ECs are weighted at all, I only had one and honestly there’s very little space in the app to write anything about ECs. If she doesn’t have any Cs and has an SAT score over 1960 (and sends it to NMSC) and doesn’t write anything wacko in her essay she should be fine. Congrats and look for the big scholarships!
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she taught herself an instrument, painted, read, wrote, watched Netflix, babysat her siblings, helped them with their homework, but wanted no part in chasing ECs. Will this hurt her?
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Teaching herself an instrument IS an EC. Of course it is. An EC doesn’t have to be school-related…at all.
Also mention the babysitting siblings. Many kids have to babysit siblings while parents work…so no outside ECs.
The lack of "typical ECs’ may hurt her for “top school” admissions, but at many schools, particularly the NMF big scholarship schools, they typically don’t care if you have any ECs or not.
Thank you for the answers. That is what I thought.