I’m a rising junior and I am worried about upcoming college applications because I do not have many extracurriculars. I volunteered at a one time event and played a sport in a recreational league, but that’s about it. I’m hoping to get into UCs and heard that they take extracurriculars very seriously. So far my grades are good, however I need to work on my standardized test prep. I’m not sure what I should spend my time doing the last few weeks left of this summer and junior year. I know that I shouldn’t do extracurriculars just for the sake of colleges, but I really don’t have many interests and was hoping to join some things. I hope it’s not too late to start getting involved in more activities.
The role ECs play at most UCs depends on your stats and essay. If you are a well above average GPA/SAT applicant you can get in with little outside the classroom.
What are your current stats and what are your target schools?
My current GPA is 4.0 unweighted, 4.25 weighted (only counting sophomore year). I took 1 AP and honors English sophomore year and I’m taking AP Lang and APUSH next year. Of course my GPA isn’t set in stone because I still have junior year. I haven’t taken the SAT yet but I started studying for it and I got 1700 on a practice test. I hope I can improve it to 2000+.
Target schools: UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego
I got into top UC schools and I had really weak ECs. I think in most cases, people overestimate the importance of ECs. Unless you have extremely novel and unique ECs, I don’t think schools weigh them very heavily. From the school’s standpoint its very hard to differentiate how important Key Club or the tennis team was to one student as opposed to another and they spend so little time on each applicant.
If I were you, I would just pick up some activities simply for the sake of college admissions. Writing something down is a lot better than nothing and you can at least pretend that you are invested in something productive outside of school.