I’m 15, a freshman, attending a high school in Northern Kentucky.
Typically people have trouble with being involved in enough EC’s. I, on the other hand, am the complete opposite.
Here is a list of the EC’s I am involved in:
KYA (Mock Kentucky legislation/government assembly by the YMCA)
KUNA (Mock U.N. assembly by the YMCA)
Debate Team
Speech Team
Science Olympiad
Beta Club
Tennis
Democrats club
Sophomore council
Y-Club leadership team
72+ hours volunteer work at a hospital
Now, I am not trying to impress colleges by proving I’m a “well-rounded” person, I genuinely enjoy ALL of these activities. Is it a bad thing? Should I start focusing on a few specific EC’s?
Here are my achievements in the following EC’s:
KYA: Passed legislation approved by the governor of the assembly
KUNA: Passed resolution approved by the Sec. General. of the assembly
Debate Team:
Won 2nd place in a regionals competition
Speech Team:
Won 6th place at a regionals competition
Won 5th place at a state competition
Science Olympiad:
Won 4th in towers at regionals
Won 4th in write it do it at regionals
Won 3rd in write it do it at regionals
Democrats club:
Leader/Started the club
Sophomore council:
Wasted elected the class president of the grade by the student body.
I don’t think you need to limit yourself…but you need to make sure you can have enough time to do each activity. For the Democrats Club…do you have enough time to get that club started?
Also, what do you think you might want to major in? Political Science? Something STEM? You might want to focus more in one area if you don’t have enough time.
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”
Freshmen typically are involved in more ECs then the number dwindles as they figure out what they’re most passionate about and get more involved in those.