How do extra-curricular activities, majors, recommendations, essays, and factors come into play in college admissions?
College admissions in the United States are not standardized in any way, which means that each undergraduate college develops its own system. Some of the most important factors in college admissions are high school grades, difficulty of a student’s high school course selection, and scores on the SAT. The reputation of the high school is also important. Extracurricular activities such as membership to clubs, service activities, and athletic or musical talents are important during the admissions process and it is very damaging to a student’s application for him or her to have no extracurricular involvement. The typical breakdown of college admissions is your class rank is 50%, the SAT is 25%, and the rest of the 25% is extra-curricular activities and recommendations. Private schools tend to rely more on extra-curricular activities for admissions than public schools.
