<p>I’m getting worried because I’ll be applying this upcoming year to a bunch of high tier schools (Wharton, NYU, WashU, etc., lol). So, my scores are good (ACT 34, SAT II in world history 800, AP World 5), my schedule is pretty difficult for junior year (6 AP’s, Calc BC as a junior) and next year my schedule is equally difficult. GPA 4.0, valedictorian, etc. In terms of academics, I’m qualified.</p>
<p>But I’m worried about extracurriculars. I’ve done nothing over the summers (one car in the family, can’t really walk anywhere for jobs, can’t really go to $$$ summer programs), I haven’t done anything major community service-wise. Debate I’ve done since freshman year (webmaster and qualified for Nationals last year), but besides that, I don’t know if my lack of strong EC’s will hurt me. I’m in a lot of them with several leadership positions and presidencies, though. idk, lol, maybe i’m just rambling here?</p>
<p>“I’m in a lot of them with several leadership positions and presidencies”…yeah, I think you’re rambling…getting waaayy too overconcerned. Go expand on debate or something in your essay to make it up–who knows! but you’re gonna get accepted, nonetheless; don’t stress.</p>
<p>I know exactly what you mean. Here’s a story of mine you might relate to.</p>
<p>My family’s white, flat broke and from the middle of absolute nowhere. For a while, we as a family of four lived on $12K a year without going into dept except for car and mortgage payments on a manufactured home. So junior year I applied for the QuestLeadership program at Stanford, which is for about 22 low-income students. So I fill out the application without any professional help and I’m invited to go to Stanford to interview for a spot, but how am I supposed to afford the 1300 mile trip? So I raise about $1000 from family and friends and I get to go interview.</p>
<p>Once I’m there, I realize that the Quest program’s definition of low-income is about $60-65K, which is quite a solid income where I’m from, and well over the national average of about I think $39K. There are people who have taken tons of AP classes and have the scores to prove it as juniors, and my school can only afford to offer one AP class. They’ve taken all the standardized tests multiple times, and I only took the ACT once thanks to a fee waiver. Some even go to elite private schools without being on scholarship, and are in state-wide leadership programs in their preferred academic areas, when all my ECs had to be school related. For example, in a group interview, we were asked to say our name and something we did. The girl in front of me was a VP for a Oregon hospital advocacy group, and just to be unique from everyone else, I mentioned playing football. Of course I didn’t get invited into the program. I just wish the interview was a week later, because while I was at Stanford, I was elected senior class president, my FFA chapter’s president, and the next year was a captain on my football team. Just like you, my grades were great, and I had a respectable first-time ACT score of 31 (still in the top 2%).</p>
<p>If you absolutely couldn’t do more, talk about it in your essays, but don’t apologize for it. If you just chose not to do more, then it probably will hurt you.</p>