The Three Keys to Quality Extracurricular Activities

A quick note: simply pursuing 10+ extracurricular activities and throwing them onto your college application won't accomplish much (it might even hurt you). It's crucial that you follow some basic guidelines when assessing which extracurricular activities are worth your time. Because, in this case, quality certainly matters more than quantity.

One key component of quality extracurricular activities is the commitment you show in it. This is usually expressed in how long you've been involved, or how many hours you've put into it. Why does this matter? Because anybody can join an extracurricular activity for a few months and then drop it! Staying shows that you actually care about that activity, and aren't just involved to pad up your college application. Try to stay involved for as long as it's feasible to do so. Then, when it's time to document that activity on your college application, do your best to note how many hours/years you committed to give a true sense of your dedication.

That being said, don't feel obligated to stick to any particular activity if it isn't plausible to do so anymore. Is it taking too much time out of your week? Excruciatingly boring? Too difficult right now? It's better to reevaluate your situation and find something else than stay just because you want longevity to show on your college application. Changing your mind and priorities is perfectly normal. Besides, even if there are 2-3 activities on your college application that didn't last very long, don't hesitate to list them anyway (the idea is to show that you generally commit to what you pursue).

For example, if you're doing something like school sports, try to stay in each individual sport for at least two years (of course, the more the merrier, and it's especially impressive if you stay all four years).

Things like summer jobs, on the other hand, don't have to be pursued every single summer. Summer jobs are known to be temporary and nobody will care much if you only worked as a lifeguard one summer and as a cashier the next. If you can show that you gained something out of that experience regardless of its length, you can still define it as quality extracurricular activities (more on this later).

Colleges don't just count off how many extracurricular activities you had and assign you a score. In other words, they don't really care that you did a given activity, they care about what you got from it. If you simply write down "summer camp counselor" and don't provide an explanation, all those hours as a counselor may be nearly useless if your college application reviewer can't determine what being a summer camp counselor actually reveals about you. It's important to come up with some sort of takeaway. Ask yourself what you learned from any given experience. If you don't feel like you learned anything (and this should be rare), think about what you at least developed or improved in.

Don't wait until the college application process before you determine the takeaways from your various high school activities. Instead, actively write down everything you do and as you partake in that activity. Take notes on what you're learning or mastering (it's a lot easier to remember what you did this way). Once college applications come around, explain or phrase your takeaways in a brief 1-2 sentences. Yep, that's all most applications give you to talk about any given activity. Doing so will provide some much-needed insight to your character throughout your app. Plus, you'll be a much more competitive applicant when you make clear how your activities made you a better person.

For example, let's say you were the captain of your high school swim team in your senior year. That's a nice title, but it improves upon providing some depth. What were your responsibilities as a captain? How much pressure was on you to make certain decisions? Were you a leader, an organizer, or both?

One way to describe your position could be, "Practiced leadership and communication skills to guide the rest of the team into many successful swim meets while providing oversight on strategy and training". Notice how that sentence, however brief, covers ground on your responsibilities, the new skills you learned/developed, and your prior abilities in action. Adding a sentence like this to each of your extracurricular activities will give colleges a vivid picture of your skills and evidence that you actually have them. That is key to quality extracurricular activities when in comes to college admissions.

The third and final element of a great extracurricular is progression. It's important that, if you stay in a given activity for a while, you efforts to show your commitment and abilities succeed, via promotions and the like. Showing progression lets colleges know that you actually gave a commendable effort in a given activity, and that you were worthy of moving forward in whatever hierarchy was available to you.

For example, being a general member of a volunteering club at your school for 4 years isn't particularly impressive because anyone can do that; on the other hand, starting as a general member and then becoming vice-president and eventually president shows remarkable dedication and potential.

This is the kind of thing colleges want to see in activities you participate in for considerable time. Likewise, if you were on a high school sports teams for 3-4 years, starting off at the junior varsity level and working your way up to varsity or even captain/assistant coach shows great ability; on the other hand, being a lower-level player for 4 years shows that all that time didn't go to good use. Remember, of course, for times you had other commitments: it's fine to occasionally love activities in which you weren't able to progress muc).

Overall, we can sum up the pillars to a great extracurricular activity with three qualities: commitment, depth, and progression. Participating in something isn't enough. It's important that you do your best to stay in your activities for considerable time; show some sort of learning/development within that activity; and do your best to rise the ranks to provide evidence of your efforts. Obviously it may be hard to find all three qualities in every single activity/organization that you partake in. On the whole, however, it's a good rule of thumb to look for at least two of the three in anything you consider. Once you've developed a considerable portfolio of extracurriculars with these qualities apparent, you'll be that much closer to being considered a top-notch college applicant.