Is it okay if I have weak extracurriculars ?Answered
Hi! I am a junior in High School and I have big responsibilities in my household. I take care of my siblings and I help my dad a lot because he is partially blind. Because of this I don't have many extracurriculars. I am in a couple of clubs and i'm in varsity choir. I am also on track to get my IB diploma and I taken AP and honors classes. My SAT score is not that bad but i am taking it again to get a higher score but I am want to know if I have a good chance of getting into more competitive schools if I tell them my at home situation?
Earn karma by helping others:
3 answers
So something that a lot of people don't realize is that colleges have a very, very wide net of things that they will consider as "activities" or "extracurriculars." And big responsibilities in your household are ABSOLUTELY something you can put on your applications—if you care for your siblings and your dad to the point where you're spending hours a week looking after them, that not only belongs on your Activities List with whatever else that you do, but could be a big focus of your essays as well. In any case, you can talk about what you've learned from that experience, how it's affected you as a person, or any other kind of information or understanding you've gained from it.
So in truth, your application will look very different from a lot of other students applying to more competitive schools, but not in a bad way. If your grades, coursework, and test scores are on the same level as typical applicants, then you should have as good a chance as anyone if you can effectively speak to your experience basically working for your family.
For Ivies there is very little wiggle room but other top schools like Virginia UWisc-Madison they might be more lenient but state schools like Houston, Utah, Mississippi they should be very lenient.
I am a Freshman in high school and I had kinda the same question and I went to my school counselor about it. She told me the more that you show that your involvement in school the more that the college people will look at you. She told me to try and get into as many clubs you can or the next best thing is to volunteer your time to the community.... I hope my answer helped a little bit :)
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!