<p>I am currently a senior at my school. For the last three years, my school has had a lot of changes done to it, in terms of budgeting especially regarding extra-curriculars. Little did I know at the end of my sophomore year, that three of my five ECs would be cut from the budget (My teammates and I managed to save a 4th, tennis). Junior year, I let myself try things I wouldn’t have if the budget cuts didn’t happen. I was wondering, can colleges really penalize me for having an erratic ECs list if I could not help the fact that my ECs from sophomore and freshman year were cut?</p>
<p>They “can”; however, I don’t think a college would choose to penalize you for this as long they are made aware of the issue. Inform them of this somewhere in your application and you shouldn’t have a problem. In fact, I suspect many admissions officers would be impressed that a) you helped save tennis, demonstrating commitment, and b) instead of just giving up since you couldn’t participate in the activities you wanted to do, you tried new things.</p>
<p>Yeah, our school has had a lot of money taken from it because we recently split into two high schools. The whole “saving” tennis came about when our school council was given money to help ease the stress of all the budget cuts and our team went to every council meeting and talked to the council about where we thought it should go.</p>
<p>It’s sad for the Common App, how much limited word count they give you to explain the details/accomplishments for every activity. I can barely write a complete sentence! :D</p>
<p>But thank you for your input.</p>
<p>You could probably ask your counselor or someone from your school to write a note to colleges explaining the situation, if you can’t fit it on the Common App. (I’ve never looked at it so I have no idea what sort of space it gives you.)</p>