I entered high school convinced I wanted to be an engineer, with my asian parents totally supporting me. After a rough first half of the year in an engineering elective, I changed my “passion” and (with my parent’s approval) decided I wanted to be a doctor (very asian lol). I then found out that I hated chemistry and was not willing to spend my life in school getting a phd. Oh, and I realized that I was scared of blood, which might be a problem. Halfway through Soph year, I turned to business: I signed up for AP Econ, joined a few business clubs in 10th grade, and tried it out. Now, I’m a junior and Ive won many awards for business related clubs, have many leaderships, and I think I’ve found this elusive passion. I think I want to become an economist (though I’m not tying myself down to it cuz history tells me I’m bad at deciding what I want to do), and I think the skill set God gave me is perfect for a life in finance/economics. Now here comes the problem: I joined all these clubs in sophomore and junior year, dropped a bunch of EC’s from freshmen year, and now I only have 1 club I’m gonna be in for all 4 years of HS. So firstly, does this negatively impact me? Second, come application time, how do I effectively communicate this soul searching? Thanks in advance and have an awesome day
Your entire application should reflect who you are. Your short-answer questions, or your recs or your main essay should shed light on who you are and what you want to do. They are not disjointed pieces; they should reinforce each other.
@Picapole my problem is that I am worried that all my different EC’s won’t support who I am. How can I convey my story without making it seem like I am making excuses?
Your story can be one of discovering your interest in economics. Discoveries don’t happen right away. On the common app they ask for ECs in order of importance to you, so you can put the economics-related ones first.
I think the fact that you have won awards and have leadership positions will out weigh the fact that you have not been in a club all 4 years. I think it is great that you have explored what works for you.
I had literally no clubs until the end of sopho more year, and it was junior year where I really was serious about any club (I really didn’t care about school at all). I dedicated the entire junior year to my one club, while joining a couple other smaller ones, and ended up winning a bunch of awards and even getting media coverage. I wrote about it in my essays and had a great letter of Rec from my coach. It has already gotten me two likely letters from Ivy Leagues, and a full ride to NYU. Granted I have other stats that helped, but it goes to show that you don’t have to be in a club for 4 years or be super dedicated to one thing for your entire high school career. Just do what your passionate about and do it well.
Good you’re thinking about this. I wrote an answer, then looked at your chance-me thread. Basically, you’re fine. I’d say, take a look at the volunteering, see what it amounts to. A few hours here and there, even with some leadership title, aren’t the same as some particular cause. Recently, a number of kids do senior tech literacy of some sort, which can be low impact. What about doing this with some program for community kids?
And see if you can do some econ or biz or even political internship or work this summer. Try to get past hs clubs and awards.
In your CA, you can use Addl Info to very briefly say you didn’t discover the love for econ til later- but I don’t think you need to. The proof is in what you show, not always in what you say.
One last note: the schools you list will also like it if you did more than just the piano, vol and pre-professional. Is there something else that rounds you, that you have fun with?