I’m trying to decide if I should take up tutoring this year (I’m a senior). Do colleges like to place a lot of value on tutoring as an extracurricular? I have a lot of other extracurriculars and I’m not sure if it’d look good since I would only do it for one year.
Tutor if you want to do it, not because you think it would look good on a college application.
Tutoring is a legitimate EC and in some ways also a community-service type of activity, or a part-time job if you are doing it for pay. Does tutoring a few hours every week look better on your college application than being the sixth-ranking officer of a club that meets only once a month? Almost certainly. Is that, by itself, a reason to do it? No.
The advice about “do what interests you” is a valid one, as long as it comes with the proviso that you should be doing SOMETHING other than playing video games after school, and IDEALLY all of your activities should either be what you love to do or in some fashion round you out as a person and prepare you better for life (or, in the community service example, give back to the community).