<p>Hi, I’ve had a decent high school career. I am taking the most rigorous coursework available and got a 2000 on my SAT (ACT scores still pending). I know that is generally not nearly good enough to get into this school, but I am planning on re-taking the test again after studying profusely. I will not be able to do any extracurriculars until I get my license in the summer due to my father’s unfortunately erratic schedule. But come summer, I was planning on doing a myriad of activities every day. Will this be good enough? Also, when should I ask my teachers for a reccomendation? I am currently a junior, and I was wondering if I’ll have time to wait until Senior year to ask. And just in case you didn’t see the title of the thread, I am planning on applying early action. Thank you in advance for any help, it is very greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I’d recommend finding activities that don’t require a car.</p>
<p>I asked my teachers in the fall (and yes, I applied EA), but you can also ask late in the spring.</p>
<p>Doing a lot of activities the summer before senior year won’t help much. I’d focus more on refining your college list and starting on those essays.</p>
<p>Colleges look for students that have pursued genuine interests and have had long term investments in their communities. When an applicant’s extracurriculars are made up of exclusively short term commitments that were performed only months before the college process, it doesn’t exactly portray the type of student that colleges typically seek. If your thinking that loading up on activities the summer before you apply will compensate for 3 years of nothing, you are very mistaken. I advise you start finding things that your interested in and pursuing them as quickly as possible instead of waiting any longer. </p>
<p>As for what type of extracurriculars you should be doing, there aren’t really any that I can suggest. Activities should be unique to the individual and reveal something about who you are as a person.</p>
<p>I asked my teachers for recommendations in the spring, but that’s just because I wanted to let them know early since some teacher’s start turning down kids when they get too many requests.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this is anything you’d be interested in but it is something you can do from home: write. Send a few letters or make a few phone calls to your local paper and see if they could use a student reporter. This isn’t guaranteed-get-into-college advice but it is something you could do now rather than this summer. Or take up photography or, if possible, find opportunities to “get involved” within the normal school day, such as giving up your study period to help out a favorite teacher or doing some volunteer work at the end of every lunch period, etc. Ask a counselor what things you can do that don’t involve staying late at school. Also ask around and see if you can carpool. One year I had to rely on a neighborhood girl for rides home after school but I saved up and bought her a gas card so it wasn’t an inconvenience for her. When you’re choosing an extra curricular, choose something meaningful to you because you’re going to need to write something fantastic about it to make up for not doing it all four years. And like previously mentioned, it’s not about breadth of extra curricular activities but quality of them. If you have a favorite teacher who runs a club, join it. They might be able to emphasize what an asset you were to the club, even though you joined late. In the meanwhile–if you can’t implement any of these-- make sure your grades absolutely rock. Good luck!</p>