<p>Okay, so here's the problem--</p>
<p>Due to budget cuts in my state, my middle school hasn't really offered many (or barely any) extra curriculars since my 7th grade year. (last year.) All they offer is the play, newspaper club, and the music clubs (wind ensemble, selective chorus, etc.)</p>
<p>I'm a little concerned because I know many schools are really into extra-curriculars and stuff, and in middle school I've only participated in newspaper club & wind ensemble, but I have lots of outside of school activities I've done. Will this be a problem? ( I would've done more ECs like debate team, sports, other minor clubs if I had the chance to. )</p>
<p>Do you live in New Jersey? Because the problems with the schools here have been so widely publicized that everyone in the academic world on the East Coast knows about it, and any schools you’re applying to in New Jersey are very sympathetic. I don’t see why outside EC’s wouldn’t hold the same weight as a school EC.</p>
<p>Yep, are you a New Jerseyan too?</p>
<p>I see. Alright, that makes me feel better. 
Kind of hard to be active in the school community atm.</p>
<p>@intrincsically,
My school is an arts concentration school and it has a lot of music ECs. But we have literally no sports, or clubs like Debate, Newspaper, Model UN, etc. What I did was do as many as I could outside of school, but it still does suck that some ECs my school doesn’t offer.
And I doubt that outside of ECs will be a problem. Just make it look good on paper I guess.</p>
<p>Yep, but thankfully I was already in prep school when the cuts were made. Any school in NJ knows exactly what you’re going through and won’t hold it against you. In fact, a lot of my teachers send their younger kids to public school.</p>
<p>Don’t forget EC<code>s are for your interests not for looking good on paper. If your school cuts the activities of your interests you should find things to do outside of school. The difference between school chess club and, lets say, community sv. speaks volumes about who you are as a person. This may sound corny but you should do things that interest you and the rest will fall into place.
I play 3 sports a yr. and don</code>t have time to be on school paper or MUN. So on the off seasons and on school breaks, I do community sv. Nxt. yr. I<code>m going to drop one of my sports to do more community sv. because it really means something to me.
BTW, I have to play 2 of those 3 sports outside of school due to budget cuts so I really know where you</code>re coming from. Good luck.</p>
<p>There are lots of EC’s to do outside school–club sports, Scouts, tae kwon do, volunteer work, music lessons/community bands, etc. I don’t think it’s that uncommon for middle schools to not sponsor a bunch of sports and clubs. As maddog suggests these should be genuine interests, not just ec’s to list on an app, and probably more convincing if done over several years. If you think about your life outside school though, I bet you’ll be able to come up with those kinds of activities.</p>