<p>I'm 17 and going to be a senior in high school next year. I haven't had many opportunities for leadership positions, clubs, etc. because I'm homeschooled. I know that that could be considered a poor excuse because many homeschoolers are always on the fly doing this and that, being involved in this or organizing that, but my family has never been and never will be like that. It's just the type of homeschooling that my mother chose to do because of the type of person that she is.</p>
<p>(Things I HAVE done, however--member of a local non-profit dance company for three years; art teacher's assistant for one year; member of a local christian group with a focus on serving and volunteering for one year; roughly 64 individual volunteer hours at local hospital.)</p>
<p>Another reason why I'm lacking in the extra curricular department is that I have been struggling with severe medical issues for the past two and half years. The psychological and physical tole that my disorder has had on me has been truly debilitating to my academic resume. And also, just to make it clear, I'm in no way trying to complain about my situation. I just don't want anyone to think that I'm lazy. The one thing I can be proud of, though, is how I have at least been able to remain committed to my course load. I have a weighed GPA of 4.62 (unweighted 4.0) and I was surprised to get a 1970 on my SAT (even though some may consider that low.)</p>
<p>Could someone please let me know if I have any chance of getting into a good school? (BTW, by "good" I don't mean Ivy, I mean, like, a school with a rep. for being good, but not necessarily amazing.) Don't be afraid to be brutally realistic. I can take it.</p>
<p>Honestly, extracurriculars are mainly important for Ivy Leagues and similar schools. State schools, even many state flagships, are mostly numbers-oriented (Focusing on grades and SAT/ACT scores over other factors like essays and activities). The activities, when considered, are usually used as tipping factors or for scholarships rather than being the be-all and end-all. I don’t foresee you having difficulties getting into a good school. If you are really self-conscious about your lack of activities (and it’s not like you lack activities; you’ve done a reasonable amount of volunteer work, after all – don’t sell that short!) you can always explain your difficulties in an essay. </p>
<p>Again, ECs aren’t that big of a deal outside of those schools that are always so deluged with 4.0/2400 applicants that they need some way to weed applications out.</p>
<p>You have some decent ECs, and the medical issues give reason that they aren’t better. Anyway, as I understand it, the only schools that care much about ECs are the amazing schools - Ivy and equivalent - anyway. </p>
<p>Also, on College Board, search for a specific college and go to the Admissions link in the set of 10 links under the big school name. That page will show what factors are important to the school for admissions. Good luck!</p>
<p>You see you have an EC deficiency, but I don’t see any of that at all. You’re just looking at them in a bad light, even seemingly “smaller” ECs like yours can really shine if you make it that way on your app. You don’t need Science Bowl and all that fancy math stuff to show what you got.</p>