Too few dedicated extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

<p>As a junior this year, I've been stressing out over my ECs. I know colleges like to see a dedication to your ECs but I've really only been committed to 2:</p>

<p>Robotics: I founded the club in freshman year and I've poured my heart and soul into the club. I've spent countless hours learning engineering and programming and competing. We've won several prestigious awards in regionals but we've never made it to state. Nearly half my high school life has been spent in the robotics room building robots.</p>

<p>Tutoring: I also tutor a 5th grader in math and this has been an adventure. He started the school year with a passionate hate for math and I've worked extremely hard to get him to a point where he not only can do math but he's actually excited about. I consider it to be one of my proudest accomplishments to date.</p>

<p>But these are the only two I've really shown a dedication to. I have other ECs, but not of the same depth of commitment:</p>

<p>Tennis: I've only won one tournament and I did work as an assistant tennis coach, but I quit this spring because I was self-studying for the AP Physics C Mechanics and C E&M exams. I'll probably get back into tennis in summer because I like it, but I don't have any tangible accomplishments. </p>

<p>Guitar: I'm in a band, but we've only played at school shows over the years.</p>

<p>Student gov: I was 10th grade class rep, 11th grade president, and have a good shot at becoming school president next year.</p>

<p>Journalism: I'ma reporter and an editor for the school newspaper.</p>

<p>Volunteering: In addition to tutoring above, I volunteered last summer for 40+ hours at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. This year, I've participated in quite a few drives such as canned food drive and homeless shelter gift drive, and I'm personally organizing a book drive this May. </p>

<p>I'm also thinking about pursuing a personal passion of mine, stand-up comedy, but that would probably only go so far as performing in some school shows, and possibly starting a Comedy Club next year.</p>

<p>So I'm not sure, I mean I have two that I'm dedicated to and these others, but would this be good enough for colleges or would it just look like I'm spreading myself thin? Note I do have a 4.52 W GPA and a 2300 SAT and my APs have been 5s so far, so I'm not too worried about academics, but I am concerned with the EC side of the application.</p>

2

<p>May I suggest you’re losing the forest for the trees? The fact that you feel your disappointing ECs will directly mar your college chances flies against the reason that a handful of colleges are curious about applicants’ ECs. They want to know what makes you tick – not if you can manage to climb through hoops and leap at their command. Please remove the focus on what others will think. My honest advice for you is to pursue your ECs as if you were never going to inform a single college about any of them. That’s who you really are. And that’s the person colleges want to admit. Not someone who’s trying to game the system and is worried about not being savvy enough. Good luck</p>

3

<p>You’re fine, more than fine. Colleges want students like you - someone with passion for and focus on a few (one or two) things. Write about robotics and the boy you’re tutoring, why you choose to stick with these activities and how they shaped your world. </p>

<p>Colleges really don’t want to see a grocery list of EC’s. It’s not the number of activities that matter, it’s what you do in the EC.</p>

<p>good luck!</p>

4

<p>@SlackerMomMD: Thanks so much. You have no idea what a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.</p>

<p>@T26E4: I didn’t really think about college until this year, so I lot of the stuff I did or I’m doing I did for personal enjoyment. For example, I like playing tennis, but not enough to dedicate hours and hours to it. But this year I had a sort of shock because I know a few people who practically all dance competitively, are excellent debaters, do tons of volunteering (girl/boy scouts), play golf, are in student government, and have amazing grades so it kind of shocked me into worrying about what I had to present to colleges if I was competing against these candidates.</p>