how are my extra curriculars?Answered
Hiii. I’m only a high school freshman, but I’m hoping to get a good head start on finding colleges.
So, I just want to get some honest opinions on whether or not my EC’s are “good” or not. Suggestions on what else I could do to up my chances are v v welcome! :)
So here’s what I have so far (keep in mind I am just a freshie):
-40+ Dance Studio volunteer hours
-6th grade orientation volunteer hours (about 10 hours and I was helping with the orientation, it was 8th grade)
-a local private college 2-week summer camp (I took Graphic Design, Weaving, and Improv classes)
-I hope to get into the National Dance Honor Society
-3 week out-of-state dance intensive at the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts
-8+ years of Piano lessons (10 awards, 25-30 performances...if that matters)
-3 years of band (clarinet) and outside-of-school lessons; also created, led, and went to a weekly Band Club.
-5+ years of competitive dance, invited to nationals multiple times (about 8-10 performances every dance season)
Honestly there’s probably a couple things I forgot, but let me know how that looks so far. Thanks!!
2 answers
hi :) - like max said in the future pls don’t ask profile evaluation questions cause that’s the #1 policy breaker here on collegevine but you probably didn’t know that, so just take this as an fyi for next time
i’ll tell you right now that trying to evaluate your course profile and ec list makes no sense since you have literally only completed 1 or 0 years of high school (are you rising freshman or did you just finish freshman year)? you will in no shape or form be ready for any college in terms of extracurricular profile development since usually you don’t have that really filled out until the end of junior year. it’s not your fault- it’s just how things work. you really can only do the hard work now and then consider evaluating how likely you are to get into your top schools by the end of sophomore year earliest. what i WILL tell you is that next year join activities in school that match whatever your intended major is. look for clubs, honor societies, student groups, courses, etc that reflect what you want to study in college. see if you can find a way to make dance and music a bigger part of your life or possibly win more awards in that. you don’t need to be top in everything but in most things you do you should have leadership or awards. you really want to focus on creating a cohesive “life story” about what your passions are and how you chose to pursue those in high school. good luck!
NSHSS and other organizations aren’t honor societies NHs is reality the only “true” national honor society so beware of scams
yeah i second that NSHSS is a big scam. honestly i recommend you cut back on dance (as much as you love it) because if that’s literally all you do then unless you’re going to be a professional dance major you’ll have no relevant activities to your name wen you apply to college. i’m not saying stop it - my band teacher’s daughter is the exact same way (out of state competitions 2-3x a week) so i understand how much you (probably) enjoy it and feel dedicated to it - but if dance is literally the..
yeah, the National Dance Honor Society is a branch off of NHS.
… only thing you did for all 4 years of high school then it will reflect poorly on yourself. is there any way you could cut back on either the hours or possibly how many competitions you do? idk if dance is “level” or “ranked” where you do a certain amount of hours/competitions based on how good you are so idk if you could change. something consider. for psych/pre-med you should 1000% join either a red cross or medical/health club if your school has it, be a star student in math/science and...
… take AP sciences (preferably BIO and Chem), take AP Psychology, take 1 math and 1 science subject test, etc etc. don’t get overwhelmed cause you’e really not supposed to do any of this freshman year other than maybe take a subject test (as i did) but pretty much everything in terms of AP and Testing you can do sophomore-junior year. focus next year on working those activities into your schedule and possibly joining a youth medical/doctors/psych group for high school students (outside of school
yeah I’m already planning on taking AP psych, bio, and chem either junior or senior year. and as for the dance thing, i can’t exactly cut back on competitions because of the way my studio works. i’m also very very dedicated to it and it would physically pain me to quit. But you are totally right. I do need to focus a more on school. In soph year I can join IowaBig, which is a collaborative project program for helping the community and things like that. I’m also planning on finding a job shadow..
at my city’s hospital because I know a doctor who is one of the dance moms at my studio and I know a few nurses.
So surnburn I am in a semi similiar situation as a rising junior I’m a debator but I am going to major in a engineering field. Debate has apprx 7 hours of practice and an all day tournemnt most weekends. So a balance is absolutely a necessity if you can find one you’ll be in great shape. Best of luck!
and my 4-year-plan for high school is 80% science classes. Almost all of my electives are science and I have 0 art classes all through high school. So the only art type thing I will do in highschool is dance.
thanks max, good luck to you too!
Thanks! Also make sure to check if a semester of art is a graduation requirement. In my state it is theater and art Both count so don’t fail to graduate just becuase you are focusing on the sciences.
sounds like you know what you’re doing, good luck :) don’t worry too much about it rn. you just need to find balance eventually!
thanks guys 😊 y’all were really helpful and i feel much better about everything. the only sort-of-art requirement for graduation is Speech or Acting. I’m planning on taking Speech so I don’t technically need any art classes.
So just a FYI you shouldn’t ask about profile evaluations that’s good for livestream and the chancing engine.
The answer to your question is depends on major and your school list. As a lot of CV users are looking for ivies I’ll use a middle of the road ivy (UPenn) as a comparison.
The 6th grade volunteer hours just hurts you as that was in MS not HS so I’d say discard that.
Your ECs are lacking for ivies it may work at the least competitive ivy (Dartmouth iirc) but that depends on the evaluator. The rest are good but are not special. The ECs would be average at elite public schools such as UNC UVA and UMich. It’s better than most at elite schools like UT Austin UW UF. But you should try to have 8/9 ECs and have more responsibilities. Also you have a lot of visual art achievements but for any non art major you have very little achievements it’s not even humanities ECs with a STEM major. I’d recommend you join a speech/debate club and another STEM club.
Also the private college that is not very impressive unless you can show achievements and was free. Unless it’s by an elite school like Harvard or vassar (elite private liberal arts school) it isn’t really impressive.
Hope this helps and comment if you need clarification.
thanks that’s really helpful and you answered my question perfectly. i mainly asked the question so that i could maybe get suggestions on what to do in the coming years and you really helped with that. I do however have many awards already in dance and i get more at every competition i go to. I’m planning to go into health/pre-med major or double major in pre-med and psych. I’m thinking about minoring in dance. But because I do so much dance (12 hrs a week) i don’t realily have time for clubs...