So here's my situation:
to sum up my first two years of HS, i basically slacked off. i don't think i'm dumb or anything i just i didn't do any extracurriculars or took especially hard classes. by any i mean ANY. my classes weren't hard (at least not to me) and i had good grades and everything. but this year i've completely loaded myself up: 4 APs (i'm finally a straight A student! i started off kind of bad), and i'm an active member of math team, track, spanish club. i'm also in spanish national honor society and the regular national society. I also have the highest ACTs in my school (not sure what is is...never got it) and a 1280 on my SATs (not great i know. i'm totally retaking it). and all of that doesn't really come at any extra expense to me effort-wise so i think i'm capable of more, which is why I'm going even further next year: all my classes are APs. i've decided to do cross country, basketball if i make it (if not i'll play rec), track. and i'm tryin to find some extracurriculars outside of school, maybe community service of some kind. and at least some kind of job, lol. i'm hoping to get at least 1400+ when i retake the SATs. i'm retaking my ACTs too. and maybe more credential build-ups when i think of it... but
So how will colleges look at that? Will they be biased and think i'm a slacker because of my freshman and sophmore year? I hear the junior year is the most important and mine's not lookin too impressive :(
and just so you know i don't have a single clue where i want to go for college, what i want to major in, what i'm interested in as a job, etc. i'm a math and science guy so maybe somethin with that...
Well if you do too much stuff, it'll look like you're trying to hard, and the admissions people will go "This kid is trying to whore himself out to us."
I'd say only do what you're interested in, and if you have no clue what you want to do with your life, you don't need to throw yourself balls to the wall so you can get into some great university. If you don't know what you want to do, just do well in HS, then go to a Comm. College and save yourself buckets of money. If you come out of like..Yale with a liberal arts degree, everyone will think you're just a tool.
.....I have a deep, deep hatred of "WE'RE THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY" type colleges.
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mak
Yeah I agree with Shadow. Just do what you want to do. Don't do stuff just because it looks good. When it comes time to write essays or do interviews, it's better to have a few activities reflect your passions rather than a whole multitude of credentials that don't explain what you're after.
"If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?"
ah i can get where your both coming from. but my activities aren't completely incoherent with my interests, i just have a wide range of interests. but i guess what you said will be how all this looks on paper, even though like i said, all of this doesn't really come at any extra expense of effort, i just felt like doing stuff.
Don't worry about having a lot of activities. If you get a chance in an essay or statement, you can just say how you like being active and involved or that you are interested/enjoy your various activities. That's what I did. I'm in a bunch of stuff at my H.S. It's just who I am; I like being active.
LUC:D
I agree with "der Läufer" that Colleges want to see that you are active, ambitious and interested in new challenges. As long as you are able to sell it to them, you should be fine. :)
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do no pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks." Phillips Brooks