<p>As a senior, I'm worried that my lack of interest in after school activities will be really hurtful to my applications especially to schools that take them into heavy consideration. I've only done debate for two years (junior & senior) and this year is my first year writing for the school newspaper. </p>
<p>At my first debate match, I was a fill-in (who was completely foreign to debate format and had no preparation) for an important match and managed to be a key player in my teams win this win sparked my interest in debate and I later joined the team. I understand that this is something to be somewhat proud of, however I don't really know how I would go about mentioning this (or should I even mention it?). Since then I've been pretty active and 'important' to the team, however I haven't been officially recognized (yet?) for my efforts.</p>
<p>As far as the newspaper goes, I'm a very strong writer and within my first month of being on the team I have already won the "Journalist of the Month Award" for our first (and most important) issue.</p>
<p>My question is although I don't have a lot of "hours" as an active student, I feel like within my few years of participating in extracurricular that I have stood out considerably, especially when compared to the dozens of other students I interact with at these activities. Clearly most colleges are looking for quality over quantity, but will having just two extracurriculars in my last two years play a big role in being admitted into NYU? My grades and GPA just make it, my SAT scores are a bit above the NYU average, and I feel like my essay/teacher recommendations are very strong.</p>
<p>At this point it hardly makes a difference does it? You are what you are and you can’t go back and participate in long past ECs. Like it or not you have to put the best spin on the available data. You may have some aptitude for journalism and debate, but one and half years is a pretty short period of time. </p>
<p>A quick spin through the NYU Common Data Set shows that in admissions decisions Course Rigor, GPA, Test Scores and Recommendations are considered “very important”, while class rank, the application essay and ECs are considered one step below as “important”. Combining your a bit above average SATs, a GPA that “just makes it” with your admittedly short list of ECs I think NYU is a bit of a reach, but not impossible.</p>
<p>In my junior year I took a leadership position on a community service project where a group of students and I took a long list of research topic links and began developing a website that students in the school can use as a reference tool for research essays (think of it as the go-to place for kids to collect quality resources for their papers). I’ve clocked a decent amount of community service hours on this alone. This is the only other activity I have done in the school. I was more or less completely inactive during my freshman and sophomore year.</p>
<p>^That’s an EC. I mean like what do you do in your own time? do you ski, play a lot of soccer, help your mom at work, take care of a sibling, research on your own, read, make your own website, etc… have done any stuff like this, or of this nature, from freshman year to know?</p>
<p>^ I’m a bit into everything, but in terms of having anything substantial to show for any of them, I don’t have much to present. I’d like to consider myself a well-rounded person; I speak three languages fluently and know bits and pieces of ~4 other languages (all slightly less than proficient though), I’m into arts, all aspects of design (fashion, interior, industrial, web, and graphic — I have a little bit to show for this, mainly websites/graphic design) and music, as well as technology, general sciences, and foreign cultures. </p>
<p>I don’t play any sports (big soccer fan though), nor do I participate in any other groups/clubs outside of school. I am a complex person, but most of that complexity has been obtained on my own through personal experiences and reading up on the web.</p>