I’m still a junior, so I haven’t actually began the college application process, but I’m starting to get really worried about my lack of (good) extracurriculars. I do violin, and I was really active (solo and ensemble, all-state orchestra, out-side ensemble, youth orchestra), for 9/10th grade, but then I moved and this year, I’m not nearly as active other than my school orchestra and private lessons. I do a few clubs, but they aren’t very consistent (because I moved, and because my school didn’t allow clubs freshman year), but I don’t have any leadership positions, although I may get one next year. I’m pretty active with tutoring, I tutor middle school and high school peers total four hours a week. I have a few volunteer hours (100s) at the nursing center. Looking at some of the people on this site makes me really worried, however. I don’t have significant awards, nothing unique about my extracurriculars, and I’m just the typical asian applicant.
I have great academics (4.0 GPA, 2380 SAT, 6 APs sophomore/junior year, and 6 I’m taking senior year). I’m looking at the UCs, specifically LA and Berkeley (I am a California resident), and some high reaches (Johns Hopkins, Stanford, U Chicago, Duke, U Penn, etc. ) But I’m growing increasingly dismal about my chances, because I don’t feel that I stand out. Should I even apply to those reach schools, since I feel like my chances are probably in the 10s, 20%s? Any advice?
Colleges don’t make too big of a deal on the quantity of activities. They rather see you be involved in and commit long term to select activities, as opposed to have a long list where it would seem like you were just trying to “check boxes”. The important part is that you be able to discuss each activity with substance. By having substance, I don’t mean that you have to be able to write a page about it, but rather you have something meaningful to say about it. Being able to discuss the activity in a solid paragraph is good enough. For example, if orchestra has helped you work on your teamwork or leadership skills, that is meaningful. On the other hand, if you joined a club so that you can put it on your application but all you can say is that you showed up every other week for free pizza, that club probably doesn’t belong on there.
You should have maybe two or so activities that you can really discuss in depth. Thiese you should be able to discuss in a roughly half a page or more single spaced. Writing about how an activity has helped shaped you can make a great essay topic in your application.
Also note that leadership does not necessarily have to mean being president of a club. You don’t necessarily need to have some prestigious title. You just need to be able to somehow demonstrate the qualities of a leader. This will be much better than a president who ended up not handling their responsibilities very well.
For Ivies and the like, you definitly need to have strong leadership positions to distinguish yourself. For the top UCs still you need some level of leadership, though not to the extend needed for Ivies. UCs are more stats oriented in admision. I suggest you to strive to gain some position in a club, even if not a top position, such as Vice President, treasury and so on. One easy way is to found a club. Assuming you can build up some leadership position and continue with your academic achievement, you should not have problem gaining acceptence to UCLA and UCB. You may even get Regents scholarship (provided you improve your ECs significantly), as my daughter did recieve with very similar stats as yours from UCLA (where she is attending now).