I’m a junior in the IB program and my past extracurriculars are terribly inconsistent, as you can see:
Freshman:
-Actor in school’s musical
-Newspaper club writer
Summer:
-Took swim lessons
Sophomore:
-Swim team (only for half of the season…)
Summer:
-Nothing
However, I have some interesting extracurriculars in mind that I want to commit to for the next two years. But the thing is, will only having two years of experience look bad on college applications? I know that colleges like to see dedication but will I be less competitive to schools with acceptance rates of 10%~30%?
What’s more important, how long you’ve spent doing something or how much you’ve put into something?
Unless you have top-end grades, course rigor, and test scores, and are aiming for highly selective schools in competition with numerous other applicants with top-end grades, course rigor, and test scores (where extracurriculars are needed to differentiate between all of those applicants), the extracurriculars are probably only a minor factor compared to grades, course rigor, and test scores at most schools. An exception may be if you swim (or do some other sport) well enough for athletic recruiting.
I tell students who vie for slots in ultra competitive schools this unpalatable fact: It’s not what you do but who you are.
Frankly, you’re not a person who naturally goes after the extras. That’s fine – your academics will 99% determine your successful collegiate career – but to attempt to adopt the Quixotic strategy proposed by @andyis is next to worthless at this point.
@sayfullahstah You misunderstand the post by @ucbalumnus . The fact is unless the OP already is competitive for the selective schools, ECs at this point won’t do much. Since the vast numbers of HS applicants aren’t vying for spots in those schools, this HS EC obsession is mostly futile in terms of college admissions.
That is why I wrote the clause starting with “Unless…”. For most schools, extracurriculars are only a minor factor at most. It is mainly at super-selective schools where extracurriculars’ importance gets magnified (and then only if you also have the top end grades, course rigor, and test scores to stay in the game).
I would say swim, write some newspaper articles, and/or act in something this year and 1st semester senior year and those will then be your consistent things. Also, get a paying job next summer.
@OHMomof2 -I went on a month long trip overseas for vacation. When I got home, I honestly didn’t make good use of my leftover summer time. But if it counts, I did spend some time doing photography and learning a bit Japanese.
Extracurriculars:
-2 years of a club where we help students find opportunities (secretary in 11th grade, *president in 12th grade)
-2 years of kendo
-2 years of volunteering at an animal shelter
Hobbies:
-Photography (4 years)
-Filmmaking (2 years)
-Learning Japanese by myself (2.5 years)
*Very likely since there’s no competition. If that doesn’t happen though, I’ll probably end up being vice president.
These are all things that I genuinely love to do and want to do throughout college as well. I’m just worried that colleges won’t care just because I didn’t invest enough time unlike thousands of other applicants who’ve spent their entire lives doing a sport or playing an instrument.
@Anonymoose3 -I plan to apply to UW Seattle (I’m a WA resident) and a bunch of UC’s that everyone applies to (UCLA, UCB, UCSB, etc.) as well as USC. I’m also thinking about Boston University and Northeastern University.