<p>Hey guys.
I'm a sophomore in highschool, and I try to engage myself in as many extracurricular activities as possible, but am I choosing too many that aren't connected?
Currently, I am doing:
Science research, newspaper, literary magazine, and key club. I'd love to expand my interests in writing and science, but I feel as if I'd also want to expand my knowledge of languages, and I will be self-studying French this summer. In addition to volunteering, is this just too much?</p>
<p>If they are all things that you enjoy, then it certainly is not too much. There is no reason for you to feel limited! If these are things you want to do, do them. Perhaps their “not being connected” is a good thing: it shows that you are well-rounded and that you have a diversity of interests, which is very cool. Just make sure that in your college app essays and short answer questions you show that these are all things that you really like, not just things that you are participating in to expand your EC list.</p>
<p>Don’t do things for college. Don’t avoid things for college. Do what you love, and enjoy yourself. Colleges will see this and recognize you as something unique in what you do. If “spreading yourself thing” makes oyu happy (you’re not, btw), then go for it! If there’s anything up there you’re mostly doing for putting on a college application, stop it. Stop it now. People that do thigns for college applications aren’t as involved, and make the activity less enjoyable for the people who really do care.</p>
<p>Thanks Eliana and Chsowlflax17. I really do appreciate your insights and concur with them as well. I should be looking outside and expand my focus beyond the realm of the college world. The newspaper and literary magazine are things I just love to do, naturally. Science research is the same. However, the Key Club thing is a little bit forced, and I might even drop and find something else I might enjoy better. Once again, thank you both for your two cents!</p>
<p>Key Club/INTERACt at my school was never really great. I’ll admit that I did it for a scholarship I was guarunteed for doing a certain number of hours, so in my mind I was essentially being paid $10/hour I volunteered (it was so eclectic though that it didn’t really play any role in my college application. And ironically, the scholarship was cut so I only got 1/5 of what I thought I would. Paid $2/hour =P). And I was doing stuff with all my friends, so it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all. However, the people who really enjoy their volunteer work tend to be people interested in medicine who work at the hospital, or with their church, or doing work they feel like they’re really making a difference.</p>
<p>An added bonus of doing unique volunteer type work: you really only write maybe two essays about doing specific things, so if you do generic volunteer work, you’re probably not going to write about it, and nobody’s going to care on applications and such. But if you find something you love doing, it’ll come out when you write about it (and you’ll feel like you WANT to write about it), and that makes your essay more enjoyable to read.</p>