<p>My academics are top-notch, I'm just worried my ECs will weigh me down.</p>
<p>Church altar boy (4th-12th, Head Server for 4 years)
Basketball (4 years, 2 varsity letters)
Baseball (3 years, 2 varsity letters)
Soccer (2 years, 2 letters)
MUN (2 years, award winner)
NHS (11, 12)
Chess Club (President, 2 years)
Ambassador Club (11, 12)
Over 400 hours of community service (various things)
Active in Church Youth Group
2 Summer Jobs
Summer basketball (soccer also goes into summer)
Engineering team (2 years)
Student Government (2 years)
Class captain (Senior year)</p>
<p>I know it seems like I do quantity instead of quality, but I truly enjoy everything I'm involved in (except work experience haha), and I don't have much leadership.</p>
<p>How does this list look? Thanks for any replies.</p>
<p>Those are definitely strong, but it totally depends on where you apply. So long as you aren’t applying to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, etc those will likely be well above average. You’re involvement certainly won’t hurt your application anywhere. Where do you want to apply?</p>
<p>I’d like to apply to HPYS but I wouldn’t be able to afford them and I won’t qualify for enough aid. So I’m looking at applying to Boston College, Vandy, tOSU, Miami (OH), Case Western, Notre Dame, Duke, and possibly a few others. Maybe Michigan and UVA but I live in Ohio. How would it look at those schools?</p>
<p>Are you sure you cannot afford them? All those schools are exceptionally generous with financial aid. Duke is a couple thousand dollars more expensive and is not quite as generous for aid. My advice is to apply to HYPS if you would consider going there if you got enough money, and then see how much aid you get from all the schools. You seem to have a strong application.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford HYPS then you can’t afford UMich or UVA. UMich will cost $50K/year OOS and UVA meets need, just like HYPS, though UVA does has lower cutoffs for salary when you go to full pay.</p>
<p>Yeah I see, I realized that. I don’t know what I was saying haha Michigan is like 37k tuition alone. UVA is about that too. I just feel like my ECs are a little generic and weak, not enough for HPYS.</p>
<p>The only reason I’d think of Duke, Michigan, and UVA is because I feel like I could possibly compete for merit aid even though I know the scholarships are ridiculously competitive.</p>
<p>From your other posts you are only a Soph and projecting a lot of this. Just give it time.</p>
<p>Yeah I am but the only projections are being class captain senior year (which I think I’ll be) and me exact total of service (I have over 200 hours in two years so I’m extrapolating).</p>
<p>I agree though, I need to give it time but I’m already starting to get a bit stressed over all this, which isn’t good haha.</p>
<p>UVA doesn’t award merritt except for 30 full rides per year through the jefferson scholars program- which, you’re right, is incredibly competitive. I don’t see you being competitive for that, but UVa does have incredible need based aid, even for out of state.</p>
<p>Sent from my VM670 using CC</p>
<p>What is keeping me from being competitive? I’m anticipating a 35 on the ACT (I know, it’s purely an assumption but I’m consistently scoring that high of practice tests) along with a perfect GPA, valedictorian, etc. I also thought my huge amount of community service would set me apart? If it doesn’t I’d understand haha.</p>
<p>400 hours of community service is not exceptional in our community - in fact, it’s quite common. It’s not the quantity of community service that matters - it’s what you have achieved while doing it. Several kids in D’s class had in excess of 1,000 hours when they graduated and that’s just one public suburban high school.</p>
<p>Well I volunteer in a program which helps inner-city kids. I don’t really know if I’ve “accomplished” anything other than spending time with kids being recruited into gangs/already in gangs.</p>