<p>I "graduated" from a Catholic school which offered classes only until 10th grade, will the fact that I moved schools for 11th grade (this year) hurt my college applications? </p>
<p>So far, in terms of EC's, I have joined couple of clubs and managed to earn leadership positions in them, as well as awards in a few. My concern is that I don't exactly have consistent EC's because the clubs in my old schools are not offered in my new school. I believe I can establish certain clubs in my new school though, but that will have to wait until senior year. </p>
<p>So,
1. Will colleges understand that my extracurriculars are not as strong as they ought to be due to the transfer?
2. Will obtaining leadership positions in senior year make up for the inconsistencies in EC's?</p>
<p>Have you considered exploring your interests outside of school? I don’t think moving schools will hurt you. Especially since you didn’t have another option. Having a bunch of school clubs doesn’t help you much though. They are more impressed by a show of passion. Example, let’s say you were really into languages. You took languages all 4 years, you joined and became the president of the German club at school, you joined the German society in your community and perhaps organized and ran the youth area at the Society Ocktober fest. Do you have any interests that you could expand into more community involvement? </p>
<p>I’m not saying it’s bad to re-start the clubs at your new school if you are really into them but I wouldn’t just so that it looks like you did 3 years in a club instead of 2.</p>
<p>I did roughly the same thing. When you submit your Common Application, you will be required to explain briefly the nature of your change in schools. Be sure to write <em>why</em> you changed schools (you have a pretty good reason after all) and <em>how</em> the move affected your extracurriculars.</p>
<p>To be clear, don’t use the move as an excuse for grades or anything else. You want to emphasize that despite the disruption, your continued interest in activity X or subject Y enabled you to pop right back into a leadership position, even if activity Z was no longer available or compatible with your schedule. Aside from demonstrating your resilience and passion, it’s a nice way of telegraphing to colleges that you will be engaged on their campus too.</p>