International Student and UCLA, I Need Immediate Help?

Question

I'm a Saudi, a senior in high school. My current average is 95% (that's almost 3.8 out of 4 if we wanted to calculate it to be out of 4.0).

I used to suffer from Scoliosis (a condition that involves a complex deformity of the spine) 2 years ago and I had a chronic pain that had affected my average which made me apply to change schools and start my average again starting from my 11th year instead of my 10th year and the ministry of education had accepted my application. My average was in that year 3.24, and now it is 3.8 as I said above.

I was caught up with my mom's breast cancer where I took care of my younger brothers, and I had to tutor some of my friends privately because our school doesn't provide student tutoring. So there was almost no time for extracurricular activities or sports.

I started looking for ec activities here in Saudi Arabia in my senior year, what kinds of ec activities are good to get to college? I want to go to UCLA real bad I need some help.

I also was in the Drama Club for several years. And I used to work voluntarily in the information and application center of our high school's annual charity run for several years.

And I'm planning to volunteer at any hospital available because voluntary work in hospitals are kind of prohibited in most hospitals.

Answer 1

It sounds like you have been involved in several such activities, and I think you can work some of your challenges into your application essay so that it is clear why you haven't done more. Extracurricular activities do matter somewhat, but I notice that people on this forum seem to over-emphasize them, as if they were as important as academics. They are not, and no one looks at them as being that critical. Your bigger problems will be your GPA and getting a visa to study in the U.S.