I am a high school sophomore in quarantine. I have a cumulative uw gpa of 3.931 and am planning on doing the IB diploma the last two years of high school. I have not been able to do any extracurriculars though between helping out at home and having no freedom. My passion is health/medicine and plan on majoring in nursing. I am planning to be volunteering at a local hospital this following year as well as securing an internship at a nursing home. One other thing I plan on doing is starting a HOSA Future Health Professionals chapter at my school. I would love to get into my dream school which is Duke but will be happy if I get into a state university. Do you think starting extracurricualrs so late will hurt my chances? And if I really grind and put a lot into my extracurricualrs juinor year will I have a chance? Will colleges really understand how and why I have not been able to start earlier?
If you go about this the right way, I don’t think it will hurt you at all. Talk about it in your essays and explain your situation. Colleges are looking for dedication, but that can even include helping out at home. I know some people that have even considered that to be an extracurricular. Show how being limited has impacted you, and show how you’ve become dedicated and passionate from having more freedom to do what you want.