<p>I am thinking of applying as a Spring '10 transfer to Rice. I will be a sophmore and I was wondering, how important are college ECs? I was very involved in high school and have a ton of ECs to list from then but not so much in college. I think the only thing I can list for a college EC is being an orientation team mentor (we do all the orientations for incoming freshmen as well as various other events) which they do pay me for. Will not having any college ECs besides this hurt me a lot even if I had a lot from high school? My college transcript is flawless and I had good test scores from HS too.</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>Just like most questions on this board, no one will ever be able to give you a definitive answer. I’m not sure exactly what your grades or test scores are since you didn’t explicitly state them. All I can tell you is that although your grades may be phenomenal, most highly ranked colleges, such as Rice, employ a holistic process to their applicant pool in which they look for more than just stellar grades. Also, you must consider your competition. You may be competing with individuals who have higher grades and test scores than you do and were still able to hold down a steady part time job while participating in ECs. It’s the summer right now, so why not see if it’s not too late to get involved in something in your community, or at school if you live near campus. If there are opportunities allotted to you, then continue with those ECs in the fall. If not, then just see what opens up in the fall since I’m sure that the majority of on campus ECs will be looking for new members at that time. That’s just my take on it; my opinion isn’t infallible. O, and also, you could possibly come up with a plausible excuse as to why you have very few ECs in college, such as medical reasons. However, I’m guessing that’s not the case since you didn’t state anything about that already.</p>