ECs in college admissions?

WishStar12
Sun, 06 Mar 2016 03:11:38 +0000

I go to a very rigorous school and I spend most of my free time doing homework (I’m a sophomore). I had a rough freshman year in terms of grades but I’ve gotten on top of my work this year, but I don’t have that much spare time. Next year I’ll be taking even more difficult courses and I don’t think I can set aside a lot more time to do other things. I play sports and I think I can make varsity in one of them, but that’s all.

As a very soft-spoken person, I honestly can’t see myself running a club or something of that sort either, and I’m worried that this could impact me in admissions. I’m just not really leadership material. In addition, in the clubs that I am a part of I feel unqualified to be a board member.
In most of my interests outside of class there are many students who are more advanced than me - e.g. I like coding, but I’ve only recently started and there are students who have been coding since middle school. I don’t really think there’s anything I stand out on compared to a lot of other people at my school.
I’m thinking about applying for a couple things for next year but I feel like I’m still not doing enough and I’m not 100% sure I could get what I’m applying for.

Even if I have stellar grades and test scores, how much would having few ECs affect me? I know I shouldn’t be doing ECs just for the sake of college admissions but it’s been something in the back of mind for a very long time now and I’m starting to get worried I’ll have nothing senior fall.