Lacking in Extracurriculars + Other Troubles - Freshman Year

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello. I’m a freshman currently attending a relatively rural school in western NC. As of right now I only have two extracurriculars and it’s stressing me the hell out.

There’s choir, which I’m doing pretty well in. I went to a solo competition, an opportunity very very rarely offered to freshmen, and received a superior grade. Hopefully I’ll continue to do well in this area.

My other club is engineering club - nothing competitive whatsoever. I actually don’t enjoy engineering at all, I just needed at least another club.
I was going to do Newspaper club but missed the deadline to submit my app, and in any case I find non-fiction writing to be insufferable when I’m not writing about something I actually care about.
Lots of clubs aren’t available to freshmen. I only have a limited knowledge on what kind of clubs my school offers.

I reached out to my local hospital about summer volunteering but haven’t heard anything yet.

I have a 4.0 GPA (unweighted, not sure about my weighted grade - but I’m taking as many honors classes as I can) and am looking at colleges like Duke, Brown, Cornell, UNC Chapel Hill + others. What can I do?

(If this matters - during my Sophomore year I plan on applying to NCSSM’s online program so I can add that to my regular schedule in Junior year.)

2

Relax. Take a deep breath. There is no “requirement” that you do a ton of ECs freshman year.

Only do ECs that interest you. You tried Engineering and don’t like it…I would not do it next year.

Do you belong to a house of worship? There are many volunteering opportunities there.

3

you said " I just needed at least another club" when discussing engineering club. so you clearly don’t like engineering club.
high school extracurriculars are simple. do you like something? keep doing it. do you dislike something? stop doing it or don’t even do it in the first place! do you like something but don’t have it at your school? create it. do you like something that can’t be offered or created at your school? seek out-of-school opportunities. use the internet. do research. you’ll be fine.

i hated freshman year because i was trying to find extracurriculars to pad my resume, but that doesn’t matter. do what you love, and when the time comes, colleges will see your passion for your extracurriculars and that typically better than better extracurriculars that are done just for college apps imo.

good luck :))

4

Thank you both for the reassuring advice. (@bopper - I am Christian but our family doesn’t typically attend Church so, not so much opportunity in that field.)
Next year I’ll explore some different clubs and find some that I really like. Unfortunately I wasn’t invited to National Honors Society this year but that’s alright - there’s always Junior and Senior year.

5

It is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). You don’t even have one full year’s GPA and you have no standardized testing. You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not just a 4 year college application prep experience.

It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.

For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about, continue to seek out new opportunities in your community & work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities. Keep in mind that if at some point you work part-time that will count as the equivalent of an EC.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.

When the time comes (junior year) asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. You need to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.

6

I RELATE SO MUCH oh my gosh. I’m also a freshman with no distinctive qualities.

Sure, you can count band as an extracurricular, but honestly, I suck and I don’t have any motivation to practice; In middle school, I was always first chair and made All-Region. High school? I’m last chair and I failed miserably at All-Region. I’m definitely quitting band. At this point, it’s just taking away time from other useful things because I’m not planning on being a musician and I obviously don’t want to be as good as bad as other people do.

My electives are crap, all on a 4.0 scale (my school is on a 5.0 scale) and honestly, I don’t think I will be able to make NHS either (sighs). My grades are average, but to be in the top, they have to be more than average.

It feels so hopeless. I didn’t do anything when I was younger either, so there are no extracurriculars I can build on. I have to start from scratch. It’s hard to do in a world where being in the top requires being way more advanced in the field then one in the past did; if you look at the people at the top, they usually started at a young age.

I decided to start volleyball, but it’s really competitive where I am. I made the Freshmen B Team, which is terrible, and making JV next year is a challenge that I don’t know I can accomplish (Heck, I’m going to try as hard as I can though) There’s really nothing impressive in there other than my ability to ignore how hopeless the situation is by refusing to give up the sport. (oh my gosh that sounds so depressing)

And because I like being difficult with myself, I want to get into the US Naval Academy. Unlikely, but frick everything else. I’m going to try until they shut me down.

@happy1 has good suggestions, but I don’t know about you, but I’m stubborn. I’m competitive as heck and I sure ain’t gonna give up my dreams of going to the US Naval Academy. (sorry for that cringe in grammar)

What I’m going to do is this (tips):

  1. Start having a focus on what I want to do; I'm not really focused on anything, seeing as I'm not really interested in a subject, but as I start to get older, I'm seeing where I want to go which is this: Volleyball, Business or Health, and maybe join Debate (colleges rather you achieve more in one EC than having a whole bunch of ECs)
  2. Cut down on leisure time by spending less time reading irrelevant books and indulging in TV and expanding knowledge in school subjects. Everyone has the same amount of time. It's how you use it that matters. (Ask yourself this: is what I'm doing right now going to help me in the future?)

(Make sure you can handle the load you give yourself. It’s going to be really hard mentally, cramming everything in a short amount of time.) I’m struggling with this; it’s a cycle of being super productive and motivated and then falling to negative thoughts, procrastination, and inefficiency. It’s something that takes time to do. Fight as hard as you can!

  1. Take more leadership roles by getting involved. I'm going to start speaking out more and exposing myself to as many things as possible.
  2. I'm going to push myself to the limits and I'm going to try new things.

I was shy as a child, so I was afraid of trying new things like athletics and UIL contests (which I regret. I totally would’ve rocked both) Now, as I’m older and more confident, I’m going to talk to as many people as possible, learn from their experiences

It’s good that you have a goal to get into a top college. Look at what they want and what you can do. That’s fine if you can’t do a lot of ECs. Concentrate on what you can do, like improving your grades and achieving more in what ECs you have. After researching what the colleges want, start investing in those areas. For example, where I want to go, the Naval Academy, they focus on three things: Academics, Athletics, and ECs. They are huge on STEM fields and love it when their candidate is in leadership roles and contribute to their community with volunteer service.

I think I went off tangent a whole lot, as I usually do but oh well.

YOU GOT THIS!!

7

@happy1
Thank you so much for the help. I understand it’s probably kind of crazy for me to be considering college at this age but I don’t know if I can help it - it makes me feel more secure to have at least a bit of a plan laid out for my future.
But, again, thank you; you really know what you’re talking about and I appreciate your help a whole lot. I should probably take your advice and ease my worries, it’s not time for college anxieties yet!

@rappapon
Oh yeah - I totally understand you.
In middle school I was involved in several clubs - Battle of the Books, Science Olympiad, Robotics, Chorus, etc. But now I feel out of place when it comes to ECs; like I can’t get my foot in the door anywhere. Do we have a science Olympiad team? How do you join? No Battle of the Books? Does no teacher want to sponsor it? It’s just so frustrating.

As for the US Naval Academy (which is such a remarkably cool goal) I would recommend joining JROTC. Does your school have anything like that?

Thank you for the suggestion - your post is really long but it’s full of really good tips. You seem to have an excellent grasp on what colleges are looking for and I really appreciate you sharing some of your insight! (And frustrations - because it’s nice to find someone to relate to.)
I hope you find your niche in your school (and that I do, as well.) I’d love to hear some updates in the future if anything changes for you. :slight_smile: