No extracurriculars :(

I am a sophomore in high school and i have no extracurriculars other than: being involved in advanced art since freshman year and rally committee for a semester. I have a 4.3 gpa. I was wondering if it is too late to get involved in school, will it affect my college application if i am only involved in EC’s toward the end of sophomore year and junior year? What can i do to compensate for a lack of EC’s?

You’re only a sophomore.

Cut yourself some slack. Continue to be involved in art, since it’s something you enjoy. And seek out other activities you also enjoy.

In my school at least, membership in NHS depends partially on activity/sports/club membership. You may want to check with the NHS moderator and see what the requirements are in your school, and keep an eye on that. In my school, it would probably be too late to get enough activity credit to be admitted Jr. year, but you certainly could remedy it in time to be admitted as a Senior.

Only the most competitive schools care about ECs. The vast majority of schools don’t even consider them.

If you want to get into top schools, some volunteering would help. You could actually find it quite enjoyable.

@costello, thanks for your question and I want to be reassuring by relating my daughter’s experience which so far is pretty positive.

As a parent, I always encouraged my kids to participate at school because I think it is good from the perspective of their social development. Aside from college apps those activities bring you experience making and keeping friends that share your interests. However, my encouragement fell on deaf ears as my D did not “fit in” in high school.

My D declined to participate in music, sports, leadership, theater, clubs, etc, except for in the beginning of junior year she and a friend started a small club which raised money for a local charity. On the other hand, she did some summer internships, taking advantage of unique local resources within her interests (museums, policy think tank). She also did other volunteering in summers, at the local library and local parks. These were the activities she listed in the space on the common app for “activities”.

She has a 4.0 with 9 APs, 2100+ SAT, independent study, and was a creative essay-writer. No “hooks” as they say here, yet so far she has already been accepted or received a likely letter (colleges in the Top CC LACs list) from 3 colleges!. She even got some nice honor designation and even merit aid.

So, while it is not yet clear whether she will be accepted at all of the schools on her list, so far she has done very well and will go to a great LAC despite having very minimal extracurriculars. Note that she did push herself to find, apply for and do 2 challenging and unique summer internships.

So as a sophmore, you might want to consider now looking for something cool that interests you this summer, even better if you can continue on that theme in high school junior year. If your school offers it, you might also want to look into independent study. I agree with what people have said about volunteering. Those are activities which you likely will enjoy more than you think, and even if you don’t enjoy it, others benefit and that’s a very good thing!

Good luck and don’t worry!

To compensate- start a bunch of ECs! Sophomore year isn’t too late, but by the end, pick 2-3 you like and stick with them. For the schools that care about ECs, your achievements in the ECs also matter so much more than how long you did them.

It’s never too late to become involved in interesting, enjoyable activities.

What schools do you want to get into?

volunteer at a hospital