Extracurriculars: Quality Over Quantity

High school students seeking admission to highly selective colleges often find themselves trying to juggle multiple extracurriculars in the hopes of impressing college admissions officers. While it might seem as if taking on as many commitments as possible would be the key to getting accepted, that isn’t the case. Colleges want students who participate in extracurricular activities out of genuine interest, passion, and curiosity. If a student’s resume is broad but lacks depth, admissions officers can tell that the student is only seeking admission into college. 

Rather than seeing extracurriculars as boxes to check off and accumulating a laundry list of activities, students should consider the narrative their resume conveys. Exploring your passions, cultivating skills, and making a meaningful impact on your community are far more important than demonstrating that you are a “well-rounded” student. Here are a few key factors that admissions officers consider when assessing a student’s activity list:

Commitment 

Admissions officers value consistency and dedication, so students should consider focusing more deeply on select activities that resonate with their interests and goals rather than spreading themselves thin across many activities. If you’re in several school clubs, consider which three are most important to you. Where do you see yourself growing, or moving into a leadership position? In our College Application Crash Course, we break down a ranking system for activities, and commitment to an activity is one of these vital ranking factors.

Leadership

By deepening your involvement in a few select activities, you’ll allow yourself to to substantially develop your skills, make a tangible contribution, and take advantage of leadership opportunities. If you join a school club in 9th grade, for example, and you realize you love it, you can spend the year demonstrating your value to other club members and eventually find yourself in an officer position. If you work hard, you can hopefully find yourself as the club president by the start of 12th grade.  

Impact
Making a notable impact in your community is the best way to demonstrate that an activity on your resume was not one you took lightly or passively. Demonstrating your ability to effect positive change will showcase your potential to contribute to a college campus. 

Authenticity

Authentically pursuing your passions is key to developing a strong resume. If you are genuinely curious about a topic enough to dive deep into it, the hours you spend learning about the subject, seeking opportunities to deepen your knowledge of it, and working toward a community impact project won’t feel like work. Even better, students who follow their passions might create opportunities for themselves when no current opportunities exist, which demonstrates initiative to admissions officers. 

Tough Choices 

For students with a multitude of interests, recognizing that quality is more important than quantity can sometimes be stressful. Moreover, some of these choices might feel counterintuitive. For example, some students sacrifice an athletic commitment that they enjoy to free up time to pursue their intellectual passions. Our advice is to spend freshman year exploring—discover what you’re good at, where you stand out as the best, and lean into your strengths. 

It’s okay for your resume to be multifaceted; you aren’t one-dimensional, and it’s okay to continue developing your skills in one or two things that simply bring you joy. However, don’t attempt to maintain commitment in too many activities. More importantly, do not pursue something purely because you’ve heard “it looks good for college.” If your involvement in an activity is too surface-level, it won’t actually look good to an admissions officer.