HS Junior here. Outside of school, I’ve racked up several impressive (and personally meaningful) internships and community EC positions over the years. At my current rate, out of ten slots, I’m expecting to put only one school-based EC in my Activities list.
How will top colleges view this? Will it be judged negatively—something to the effect of “this student hasn’t really done much in his immediate high school community”—or am I overthinking? Thanks in advance, really appreciate any advice!
Although I, personally, think it is perfectly ok to have the large majority of activities outside of school (assuming they are meaningful to you and have depth), I would like to see some combination of the two, if possible. Although some people here write about “holistic admissions” I have seen some admissions officers to be simple box-checkers. That said, if it is possible for you to have at least three school-related activities, that would be my strong preference for you. Feel free to balance my advice with what others here feel is appropriate. Good luck!
You should be fine, but it does make it harder to give much advice without you posting anything more specific about what your actual activities are. Activities outside of school can vary a lot, making a difference in how these ecs can be viewed/interpreted. So please, share a more specific list so we can better advise you.
Some will say that ideally kids should have a balance, but some high school ECs can just be fluff and when having to fill the ten, some need to be left off anyway to make room for what is most important to you.
I believe if your application paints a true picture of who you are, yours will speak to how meaningful it was to pursue what you did. Quality over quantity. This is real life and there are only so many hours in a day. Best wishes to you!
Honestly coming from a High School senior who has already been accepted into multiple colleges it is not very important I had 2 clubs and no in school sports. However I did have outside of school sports 2 jobs and Girl Scouts which are all very time consuming. If you are busy outside of school I think colleges see that and almost weight job experience and volunteering over school clubs.
If you’ve had “several impressive (and personally meaningful) internships and community EC positions” then you are more than fine. Colleges care about what you’ve done. Furthermore they know that many school-based ECs are fluff without that much substance. The French Club is going to have a host of officers each year, the Yearbook Committee is going to put out a yearbook, etc. Someone has to fill the slots, and each gets to list it as an EC no matter how involved they actually were.