Extracurriculars Gap

Colleges & Universities University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hello folks!</p>

<p>I planning on applying to Penn ED, but I have a mild issue on my hands.</p>

<p>I’m applying to the extremely selective Jerome Fisher M&T program with my second option as Wharton, so I definitely want to emphasize some of the engineering or business related clubs I’ve been in, and all of my extracurriculars for that matter (no reason not to give M&T my best shot).
However, I switched high schools in the middle of sophmore year, thus I have gap during 10th grade during which I did very little. My old school was a relatively new one, so it wasn’t in touch with many of the larger national level clubs like TEAMS, FBLA, etc. The point is, most of my school clubs are concentrated in junior and senior years, giving the impression that I just did loads of random stuff the last minute when in reality, I had no earlier opportunities. Will this have a significant effect on my application? How can I explain my situation?</p>

<p>If it’s any help, I’ve maintained activities not connected to school, including hospital volunteer, music, TA work, and such. Though they also took a while to establish, I can show that I started doing related activities 9th grade in another state.</p>

<p>Wow this is long. Thanks verily to anyone who reads this!</p>

2

<p>Somewhere in your application you might want to talk about how your new school afforded you many more club opportunities which you were only to happy to take advantage of.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the reply!
Alright, I can do that, but is there a specific place in the Common App where I should explain this? I can only think of putting this in the Additional Information section, or incorporating it into an essay.</p>

4

<p>i would put it in the additional comments section</p>