<p>Hey guys, I'm currently a sophomore in high school and I'm in a little dilemma. I'm on my school's cross country team, and I also do Track and Field. I'm JV right now and I will most likely be JV next year. I'm not very enthusiastic about sports, but I see them as easy extra curricular activities that don't take that much time.</p>
<p>My teacher wants me to join Academic Decathlon next year; however if I join, I will not be able to be on my school's cross country or track and field team due to scheduling issues.</p>
<p>My grades are pretty lackluster. I have a 3.7 unweighted GPA and a 3.9 weighted GPA. I'm concerned that I don't look smart enough on paper to get into my desired university (My top choice is UCLA). I'm also not involved in any outstanding ECs.</p>
<p>The main reason why I'm hesitant to join Academic Decathlon is because I heard it was generally looked down upon as an EC. I'm also worried about the added workload, since I'm already struggling to balance my school work and social life. </p>
<p>Based on the information above, do you guys think I should join Academic Decathlon or just stick with XC/Track?</p>
<p>Do you have other academic extracurriculars? And do you think you can work hard enough to get to varsity next year?</p>
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<p>The only other extra curricular i have is volunteer work at my local hospital. Based on my times, ita very unlikely that i will be varsity next year.</p>
<p>I think you should be less concerned with how EC’s will look and more with what you want to do personally. Colleges like to see specialization and enthusiasm in EC’s, not a laundry list. Find something you like and spend you time in that EC, and then pick up EC related to it. It will spread you less thin depending on how many you add, look better for colleges, and should make life better for you as a person.</p>
<p>To me, a big red flag was doing sports despite your lack of enthusiasm. I am a runner, and I can’t see doing it if I didn’t enjoy it significantly.</p>
<p>I have never heard of “Academic Decathlon” so I can’t help there. But I think the more important issue is not doing EC’s for colleges but for yourself first, with a mindful eye on how colleges perceive them.</p>
<p>Honestly, you don’t sound like the kind of person who belongs on a cross country team. If I didn’t love running and my teammates, there’s no way I could keep doing it. If you’re just doing it to pad your resume then you’re probably not going to get that much of a boost from it for college admissions. </p>
<p>UCLA is a big enough school that they can’t pick only students with incredible talents and special background stories. A lot of the people who get in are just people with good test scores and grades and no incredible ECs or hooks. If that’s your goal, just focus on your grades and standardized tests and do whatever you enjoy as an EC. It’s not worth wasting two more years doing something you don’t want to do.</p>
<p>I don’t know your stats, but I think you could probably make varsity if you really worked over the summer; I improved a lot over my summer between sophomore and junior year by running about an hour a day. You indicated that you were doing hospital volunteering, but this volunteer work and running a little bit in you spare time aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive… But if you don’t like sports, then I guess it wouldn’t be rewarding to stay in track/X-C.</p>