Extracurricular activities are an important aspect of the college application process. But not in the way that many students think they are. Deciding which extracurriculars to pursue is an exercise in branding yourself, and it starts freshman year. Let’s compare two different activity lists and then discuss:
Student #1:
Environmental science club (freshman year)
Debate team (freshman year)
French club (freshman, sophomore, and junior year)
Student newspaper (junior year)
Math club (junior and senior year)
Community service club (sophomore, junior and senior year)
Student #2:
Environmental science club (freshman year)
Started recycling program at NYC apartment building (sophomore year)
President of environmental science club (appointed junior year)
Sustainability research with a professor at NYU (senior year)
Coursera online courses on climate change initiatives (all years)
When a college admissions team looks at your application, they should be able to easily discern what you’re interested in. Their takeaway should be that you took recognizable steps to educate yourself about your area of interest. They should see progress. Student #2 has achieved this goal. Student #1 has not. Joining multiple clubs and not progressing or diving deeper into any of them is 1) a waste of time and 2) not impressive to competitive colleges.
Now that we’ve shown you an activity list that demonstrates progression and dedication, let’s get back to the question. What do you do if you’re not interested in the extracurricular activities that your school has to offer? What if you’re interested in feminist literature, but your school isn’t? We often hear from students that the clubs at their school are lackluster, uninteresting, and not worth joining. Maybe they meet only once a week and/or get nothing done. If that’s the case, you’re not off the hook. Here are a few courses of action that you can take:
Start your own club. No robotics team at your school? Make one. You’ll have to convince your school that there is a need for a club, and there will be additional barriers to cross if your club will cost money. But create a proposal, try to keep costs down, and have a meeting.
Build on an existing club. Let’s say you’re in the Mandarin club, but you’re also interested in the political climate of China. Approach the president of the club and ask if you can be in a charge of a meeting. Look for tangible improvements that you can make and pitch your ideas to those in charge.
Take online courses. Coursera and Edx have thousands of ~free~ online courses. These classes are especially great because you can build on existing knowledge while stumbling upon potential new areas of interest. And most importantly, use the knowledge! Don’t just click through the slides. Use what you’ve learned to help you apply to internships, jobs, and summer programs.
Read books. It’s time to get on board with the fact that colleges are starting to ask what you read during your free time. Geniuses read! Reading is so important. And we are not talking about the high school textbooks. If you’re interested in history, become an expert on a time period or region. Find your niche.
This blog post is exclusively about things that you can do during and/or after school, and we have another blog post coming about summer options. If you take anything away from this post, it should be that you still have options even if your school doesn’t currently have the best extracurricular activities to offer. Your goal is to become an expert in your field of interest, and while sometimes that requires thinking outside of the box, it’s still entirely possible.
Need help figuring out how to find opportunities that stand out? Contact us here.