Hello, I am currently a junior in high school. I have fairly decent stats when it comes to GPA and SAT, but not ECs besides volunteering at the local animal shelter. I have avoided extracurriculars for the most part because of my speech impediment, which I am very self-conscious about.
My GPA:
Unweighted: 4.0
Weighted: 4.81/5
Weighted class rank: 2/329
My SAT:
Math: 760
Reading/Writing: 700
Total: 1460
I have not yet taken the ACT (should I take it if I want to improve my chances in the competitive college seen as much as possible?)
Colleges I am interested in:
UMD College Park (In-State)
UVA
Georgetown
Cornell
Columbia
Northeastern
Though I have not taken any ECs as of yet, I have taken up weightlifting, and play to play football and run track my senior year. I also plan on joining the NHS. How much will this improve my chances at admission?
Overall I posted this because I would like to have a rough idea of what my current chances are at colleges I’m interested in, and how I can improve said chances.
UMD looks like a match. Your speech impediment could help you as an “overcoming adversity” story on your essay. Since your stats look fine otherwise, I would concentrate on developing one or two leadership ECs. If not, there are some schools like Vassar that care less about ECs. And there are always the Canadian schools, like McGill in Montreal, that don’t care about them at all.
Georgetown, Cornell, Columbia, and Northeastern will be extremely high reaches without extracurriculars, as those are a pretty important part of the application for those schools.
First, for some of these schools you should raise your scores. Second, ECs like weightlifting, being on the track team and joining NHS won’t impress anyone at Georgetown, Cornell or Columbia. These schools don’t want to see ECs for the sake of ECs; they want to see them for what they reveal about the applicant. Try to do something more interesting or impressive with your time. Remember your goal is to stand out relative to the applicant pool, not relative to your school. I would also recommend taking a gap year to strengthen this aspect of your application if going to one of these more selective schools is important to you.
Think about it from a long-term perspective. If your speech impediment is stopping you from activities now, in high school, what are you going to do when it comes to presenting at work (even engineers present)? What about participating actively with your class in college and being in clubs and activities where you guys are representing your school? How will you get a job?
Columbia and Georgetown won’t suddenly change you. They are opportunities to push yourself.
It must be very difficult to have a speech issue. However, many people with disabilities do go on to excel. Treat yourself to some confidence and push yourself to go beyond your comfort zone. If you cannot do that, I would say you would not be comfortable in those top schools anyway, because they are all about pushing yourself.
My suggestion is to think about your concern about the speech impediment, your shyness, as the #1 thing you need to address–even more important than getting into college. Make a plan to break through the wall you have set up for yourself.
Think about something that you think needs to be done in your town. Literally anything. A park clean up? A new mural? An art exhibit at the mall? A fundraiser to fix something? I don't know, it's your town.
Now make a list of all the ways your speech impediment prevents you from fixing it.
Now cross off everything that involves "people will notice my speech impediment" because only jerks will think worse of you for it. Everyone else is going to be like "wow, he has such confidence, here I am without any speech issues sitting on my butt doing nothing about this problem."
For anything where it is really, truly an issue--for example, let's say you want to hold an auction and don't think people will be able to understand you at all when you talk about the items for sale through a microphone--find a way around it. Find a volunteer MC. But you still need to speak in front of others whenever possible.
Make a goal date for when you are going to finish. Ideally before October senior year. :)
Figure out what needs to happen before then. Go to your parents or a teacher for support. If you have a speech therapist who supports you, consider talking to them about your goals.
Then come back to us, feel free to write a PM. Let’s figure out how we can help you to become the person you want to be, speech impediment or none. If you can overcome this you may or may not get into Columbia, but you will definitely be way better prepared for college and excelling at work in the future.
That’s your extracurricular. You will improve your community and you will get over your speech impediment. Remember, it’s not about you, really. It’s about being someone who can contribute. That’s what they want to see because that is what is important in life.
Side note… I once saw a tech exec get up in front of thousands of people and give a speech. For the first minute I couldn’t place the accent. Then I realized he had a pretty pronounced speech impediment. But he didn’t let it stop him. You really can do this and you need to do it, for your future.
Hi. I am in a similar situation with few EC’s. I have a 4.43 Weighted, 1500 SAT, 770 SAT BIO-E Play Soccer and Baseball, Model UN, Social Climate Committee, and volunteer at Little League. What do you think for schools? Honest opinions.
I’d definitely find more EC’s, those big name schools want students who will be involved on campus and create a difference. I recommend finding stuff you are very passionate about and show how you would be an asset to the campus. Maybe it is related to your speech impediment, maybe you could become an “inspirational speaker” and go various schools doing assemblies about overcoming adversity and being nice to those with speech impediments. Think of doing things like possibly becoming a puppy raiser for a service dog program (this also compliments your animal shelter volunteering), it may give you some confidence and can give you a spin that you by helping raise these dogs for those with disabilities it helped you cope with your own. There are so many celebrities with speech issues, like Drew Lynch or Selma Blair. If you want those big name schools you need a very good essay to explain why you had a lack of EC’s and a few very strong EC’s to show how you would be an asset to the campus and how you overcame adversity. Without EC’s that are remarkable (things like NHS are nice, but everyone applying to the ivies is in NHS for the most part, you need to stand out), it is very very difficult to get into those top tier schools.
Colleges aren’t interested in your being in a few ECs. They want to see you excellent at one or two. They Alo don’t like it when students pick up an ec just senior year because it looks like resume padding. Why wait till next year to join the track team, aren’t there no cut teams running in the spring?
But, bigger: as explained above, figure out a big project. Since you’ve been involved with the animal shelter, ask what they need and how you can help. Plan something, manage the project, and make an impact. You dont need fifteen activities. Just one where you made a difference.
That being said, most universities in your list are reaches plus one match.
Get a Princeton Review’s best colleges or a Fiske Guide, and start reading. Figure out what you like about colleges and find two safeties you can afford. (Could be Towson and Morgan state for instance). Then look for 3-4 matches. Run the NPC on every one of them and show the results to your parents. Are some too expensive? Cross them out of your parents can’t afford them and keep looking.
Generally, large public universities will be less demanding in terms of ECs. Look into UAlabama (you qualify for a near full tuition scholarship), Iowa State, Temple. Some may not offer financial aid, such as Penn State or VTech.
The sort of activated kids tippy tops like aren’t held back by an impediment. They may be challenged (I’m not minimizing your challenge,) but they don’t let it hold them back. They don’t let self consciousness stop them.
The problem is you haven’t built a record, over time. And the animal shelter isn’t quite the sort of activities your competition will present, over their 3.5 years in hs. The most competitive colleges want to see how you personally stretched, how you do engage with peers, your impact (even small,) plus ECs relevant to your potential major.
That’s what “shows” them what you can offer the four years in college. Find colleges where you can thrive, based on who you truly are. That’s so much more important (to you, as an individual, ) than brand name.
Is there anything else you’ve done? And you need to be reading up on what any targets do look for, what they say and show. You might enjoy finding other colleges that fit you.