<p>As an upcoming sophomore, this is always something I've wondered. I already have a good slate of EC's (which I'll list later), but I've heard that it's bad or something like that to start EC's in sophomore year. Thing is, there are two that I'm interested in joining/have already joined.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Debate - It seems like fun, so I thought I would join it for that reason.</p></li>
<li><p>Tennis - I got talked into doing JV by a friend. Practice started last week and I'm really enjoying it so far.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>With that being said, does it look bad to start doing extracurricular activities in sophomore year because colleges think you're doing them just to impress them? </p>
<p>I currently have over 190 community service hours with my local youth court as well as a minor leadership position. Also, I have a leadership position in a club at my school as well as a few minor academic competitions. This is just for reference.</p>
<p>It only looks bad if you truly are taking EC’s just to impress colleges; you don’t want to have a laundry list of them, you want to do the ones that interest you.</p>
<p>OK, then I don’t think this should be a problem. I’m genuinely interested in both.</p>
<p>If you’re genuinely interested, then join them!</p>
<p>I’m actually in the same predicament with tennis. ;( I don’t think it will necessarily look BAD, but I’m not sure if it will look super amazing, either. (Unless you suddenly become awesome at it and win a bunch of tournaments outside of school and stuff.) I don’t actually know though. But I mean, if you really like tennis, it could be a good experience and maybe something you can write about in your essays, so you should do it.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s fine to join activities sophomore year and that it doesn’t look like you’re joining just for college. I’ve joined activities sophomore year and gotten leadership positions in it. I think joining activities junior or senior year is when it gets sketchy. Join the activities if you want too. You can even do it junior or senior as long as you truly enjoy them but that will not look as good as joining freshmen or sophomore year.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve had some ECs/activities that I started as early as 7th grade and I listed those on my college applications. It only looks bad when you join 10 clubs for a year each with not much involvement in any of them.</p>
<p>I didn’t get involved at school until sophomore year. I think that’s normal and acceptable!</p>