My school doesn’t offer many extracurriculars so I have like 2 on my candidate profile. How much will this hurt my chances?
Theres really no objective answer. You’ve either submitted your applications or will do so in the coming days. Too late to add or worry about ECs, grades or test scores. Only thing you can do now (if needed), is put the finishing touches on essays. Don’t sweat what you think you don’t have and don’t compare yourself to others (especially not those on CC).
@Altras It’s not something I’m necessarily worried about at this point. I’m just wondering if the AOs would take into account that I’m from a low income neighborhood with mediocre schools.
What are the ECs?
@CaliMex Peer tutoring and student government. I’ve been doing those for 3+ years now.
@YoungThriver We had this concern with our daughter, who goes to a tiny school with few extracurriculars offered. We were advised by an AO to explicitly mention this on the application somewhere. I worked it into the “is there anything else we should know about your child” question that was asked on most of the parent statements.
@westcoastmom987 Thank you.
Quality over quantity. Because you have been engaged in both of your ECs for over 3 years, it shows that you take your commitments seriously, in my opinion.
There are plenty of options for ECs outside of school. Volunteering in the community is one. Having a job is one. Our D21’s main EC is ballet (25 Hours a week) and that’s not through her high school. Our S19 is an athlete at school but has taken art classes outside of school since fifth grade. Both of them are on local junior boards for foundations that support our community. Figure out your child’s interest and look beyond high school for options
@YoungThriver : You asked about whether having just 2 ECs will hurt your chances of admission to a prep boarding school.
If you present your involvement, contributions & achievements in those two ECs with which you have been involved with for a substantial period of time, then they should help–not hurt–your chances of admission.
Student council shows leadership & concern about your community. Peer tutoring shows communication skills and that you care for others & do your best to help. These are outstanding qualities that demonstrate admirable & desirable personal qualities.
This is an important (and I would say the important) point here. It’s a little late for the OP, but perhaps for others who are applying in a later cycle, as well as for those applying to colleges without the benefit of a BS experience. AOs tend to roll their eyes at comments like “my school/country does not have ECs.” Well, then find/make some. These uberselective schools will be possibly value the ingenuity of the applicant that had to develop ECs from scratch vs the one where the school spoon-fed the ECs.
And yes, quality supersedes quantity.
@homerdog In that case, there are a few activities that I participate in outside of school. I’ll be sure to add them on my extracurriculars list. Thank you.
Yes, agree that school activities are only one small part of the picture. There’s lot a community based EC’s you can do: library, faith ( church, temple etc), nursing homes, Scouts, etc.
Of the EC’s I would say, my kids had 1/3 deep pockets ((lessons, camps and stuff I never had access to), 1/3 inexpensive community programs and 1/3 totally free and made up. So even some schools which are well funded have few programs or kids cannot do them because the parents have to work, etc. So creating your EC’s is also an applicant, are you resourceful and doing things? Many kids have only programmatic type stuff, but some kids have some really great EC’s most of which are free and done on their own initiative.
@homerdog: You make good points, but this poster is a young middle-schooler applying to boarding schools for high school. This is the Prep School forum.
@ChoatieMom I’m currently a freshman applying for lower year.
I just realized that but the same thing applies. My kids did plenty of out-of-school ECs in middle school. Even more than in high school. There weren’t many ECs at their middle school other than sports. S19 played tennis on the USTA circuit and club soccer in middle school and always had art outside as well. Volunteering also an option for middle school kids
@homerdog I have done a bit of volunteering but not so much to the point where I wanted to put it in my application. At most, I did 10 hours.
Thanks, @YoungThriver, but I was making the point that you are applying to a high school, not college. Many CC’ers use the Latest Posts thread to reply to conversations without taking note of the forum they are replying to. Sometimes the comment applies, like this one does in general, but often it doesn’t.
@ChoatieMom Oh, ok
If you babysit younger siblings every day after school or have to work to earn your own spending money, be sure to mention. Those are important commitments, too.