Q&A 🔍 My Child Has Joined Many Clubs but Holds No Leadership Positions; Now That They're in the Second Semester of 10th Grade, Should They Shift Their Activity Focus?

This is a very typical and very important turning point. Many students try joining different clubs in 9th and 10th grade, accumulating what looks like a lot of experience, only to discover a problem at application time: none of their activities have any real depth.

First, an important clarification: admissions officers don't only look at whether you "hold a position." They look at your level of engagement in an activity, your impact, and whether you've sustained your investment. Simply showing up, even across many clubs, has limited effect. If the current situation is "lots of participation but all of it shallow," then the second semester of 10th grade is an excellent time to recalibrate. Here are some steps to consider:

• Start by reviewing all activities and identifying which ones genuinely interest you and which were simply joined because everyone else was doing it. This requires honest self-assessment, not a judgment based on which one "sounds more impressive."

• From those, select 2 to 3 core activities as the direction for focused investment going forward, rather than continuing to spread your energy thin.

• Within those core activities, think about what "next-level" contributions you can make, such as organizing events, launching projects, or taking on more responsibility, instead of merely participating.

• If a formal title doesn't materialize in the short term, there's no need to panic. In many cases, substantive contributions matter more than titles. Admissions officers care more about what you did than what you were called.

  
  

Another common misconception is that "if you don't have a title by now, it's too late." That's not true. There's still considerable room to grow between the second semester of 10th grade and 11th grade. What matters is whether you start intentionally building a trajectory of long-term commitment and sustained growth.

In short, the focus at this stage isn't on adding more activities, but on subtracting—concentrating your energy on a small number of genuinely important directions and gradually building depth. Compared to "doing a lot," admissions officers value "doing it for a long time, doing it deeply, and doing it with impact." If you can make this shift now, the path to application time becomes much clearer.

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