Trouble with extracurriculars...

Applying to College
1

I’m currently a Junior at a very low-ranking public high school. In my school and the community, not much extracurricular opportunities are offered. I have attempted numerous times to try to create organizations that would show my innovative leadership, but they all got rejected.

My ideas were:

  1. A nonprofit organization that would donate supplies to other needy schools (rejected by principal and ASB director)
  2. A Patients-In-Need Club that would donate clothes, magazines, etc to needy patients (rejected as well)
  3. A tutoring class that would teach elementary and middle school students music theory (rejected)

Obviously, I can’t put these in my college applications because they haven’t been established, but I want to show that I am full of ideas and motivated to start things by myself. Right now, my extracurriculars are “mediocre,” and definitely not something that I can show off to say, an Ivy League admissions officer.

Right now, my “mediocre” activities are:

  1. Music Composition and Music Theory: started online music business, collaborated with DJ, composed for school bulletin, composed for school film festivals
  2. Japanese-English Tutoring: created online website where Japanese students (from a school that I have connections with) could ask me questions about English
  3. Internship at a local IT Department: renewed all the computers and phones in the district’s schools
  4. Vice President of the Junior Society: a club inside a local hospital that spreads awareness for the patients in need
  5. Volunteer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center: assigned varying jobs weekly
  6. Varsity Tennis
  7. National Honor Society
    …and some few other clubs

Is this enough? Should I stop worrying about the three ideas that were rejected? My GPA and SAT so far are not too bad, and I am taking the most rigorous classes at my school.

Thank you.

2

It is late in the game, but read “How To Be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport for ideas on how to think about this.

3

You don’t need to start a club at school to show your leadership talents. For example, your number 2 proposed club at school (involving patients in need) seems to represent the same kind of interest as your number 4 activity (serving as VP in the Junior Society at a hospital.) Work on beefing up your activities as VP perhaps by advertising the need for patient supplies at your school, in your neighborhood, or at your church.

4

Why do you think those 7 activities are mediocre?

Particularly at an underrepresented high school???