"Not well rounded enough?"

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hi guys... so I'm in a troubling situation. People keep telling me I need to be more "well-rounded" and participate more/become more active in activities in order to get into my reach schools. The people who say this are involved in many sports and activities, but aren't particularly outstanding in any of them. They say I'm too academic and focused on one aspect. For this reason, I'm worried my activities might penalize me.</p>

<p>Here's my activities:
- Science research internship @ uni (9-12) - got some research awards local, state, national, international (ISEF)
{ This activity takes up A LOT of my time... people at my school don't know what I do except that I get science fair awards, do they don't know the amount of time invested in this which is 15+ hours a week}
- Job shadowing Post-doc (9)
- Created STEM mentorship program for elementary school kids (10-12)
- Red Cross Advisory Board (10-12)
- Model UN, Vice Pres (9-12)
- Ambassadors (10-12)
- Spirit Club (10-12)
- STEM Club (10-12)
- ESL Tutor at Chinese Cultural Center, paid (9-12)
- STEM exposure programs (9-12)
- Flute - I don't play in the school band but I am proficent (5 - 12)</p>

<p>I am also going to join NHS and also apply for some local jobs (ex: froyo place, coffee shop, etc)</p>

<p>Also, I'm wondering if someone who plays many varsity sports, does many clubs, etc or a specialized person has a better chance of getting into a college.</p>

2

<p>I can really only speak anecdotally based on what’s happened to some people I’ve known personally, but a lot of your reach schools want a well-rounded class full of people who are each really good at one thing. They’d rather have one amazing piano player and one amazing electrical engineer than two decent electrical engineers who play the piano pretty well. I had a friend who did absolutely nothing except school and math/science related ECs who got into MIT. Granted, he was really freaking good at math/science ECs, but he wasn’t any more well-rounded than you are.</p>

3

<p>Colleges mostly want specialists now. </p>

4

<p>You look solid tbh: STEM and community/help-esque stuff. Keep it up you look pretty committed, don’t be well-rounded; excel.</p>