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College admissions
Course: College admissions > Unit 2
Lesson 3: Extracurricular and leadership activities- Engaging in extracurricular activities
- Student story: Extracurriculars that are leadership opportunities
- Student story: Extracurriculars that are nontraditional
- Student story: Extracurriculars that are self created
- Student story: Extracurriculars that are a passion
- Student story: Extracurriculars that carry over from high school to college
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Engaging in extracurricular activities
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- At, the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale University mentioned that significant family responsibilities are also a part of extra-curricular activities. How are we supposed to inform them about these? 0:19(12 votes)
- Many college applications also include a space somewhere in the application-- whether on the activities list or on the personal statement section-- that asks if there is anything that the admissions counselors should know. You could take that opportunity to write that you didn't participate in your school's extracurriculars or certain programs because of family obligations.(30 votes)
- Would posting our account to khan or other learning sites be good an a collage application? (Assuming-that they her well respected sites and we have impressing scores one them)(0 votes)
- Not really. Since Khan Academy (and a variety of other free, online education sites) have no accreditation, most colleges would not view your scores very highly (even though KA is a wonderful resource). A better way to make use of what you do here on this site is apply the knowledge to standardized tests (SAT, GMAT, Compass, etc.) and score well on them -- colleges understand and respect these high scores, and while you will not ever mention Khan Academy on them, this site will be a major part of helping you do well.(23 votes)
- For say, a plan of being in the field of Computer Science or Politics, would athletic activities be seen as that much important(4 votes)
- College admissions officers are seeking students who are involved in their schools/communities, and who will be active contributors in college, as well. As a former admissions officer, my advice is to explore activities that interest you, and dedicate yourself to them. If you enjoy athletics, get involved. Don't think of adding activities solely for the purpose of resume-building. You might also consider activities/internships/research related to your particular academic interests, but generally speaking - do what you love and love what you do.(13 votes)
- Say I'm in the 8th grade right, would it be too early to prepare for college? I want to become a pediatrician so can you help me with deciding a major?(6 votes)
- No way! 8th grade is a good time to think about what kind of job you want to pursue. Then you need to look up the collage you hope to get into. What are the high school requirements for that? Then you need to make sure you make all of those requirements next year. I'm also in 8th grade, already know I'm striving for UC Davis for a doctorate degree in veterinary medicine.(5 votes)
- I've been wanting to do work on learning languages on the website Duolingo. Would that be sufficient for an extracurricular activity and worthy of being on an application? Also, I do online school, and as far as I know, there are no leadership positions available in any club except for student council, and I'm not interested in that. Can I let colleges know on applications that there were no leadership positions available? I know that colleges like to see those things, especially the top-tier schools like Rice, Harvard, Yale, etc. Also, I was wanting to look into learning coding as an extracurricular, and I saw something on Khan Academy about learning coding. If you do offer coding lessons, do they go into advanced coding or is it just the basics? Could I use those coding lessons as an extracurricular on an application?(4 votes)
- Colleges want to know two things from your application:
1. Can this person thrive academically at my institution?
2. Can this person thrive personally at my institution?
Number 2 is more of a concern then you might think. At my undergraduate 10% of the student left with in the first month of arriving (no joke). Everything that you have written above answers question number 1. Nothing you have written answers question number 2. You will eventually need to form friendships and have activities so that you remain personally stable and supported at your institution. If you try to go it alone, you will most likely eventually end up in a very bad situation (humans are not robots, I tested this theory myself and got bitten by it). The leadership position addresses question number 2. It says "This person in high school got involved with a group that performs functions outside of academics." This gives the college confidence the person will do the same at the college level. For your application you need to find a replacement for this. What are your activities outside of school. How do you thrive outside of the academic environment? Trust me this will matter. If you have not been away from home or been involved in activities outside of your family, and you want to go to a college away from home, this will be a red flag for the admissions office. I am speaking from experience as an applicant and college student who went to college away from home. Yes it matters and yes they want to know beforehand you can handle it.(5 votes)
- Hey,
I am sorry that this is out of context, but I really need this question answered and I don't know anywhere else to go. It is about the extracurricular requirements for colleges.
First of all, I'm from a small city from India so there are almost no opportunities to get internships and jobs at my age. There is simply no concept of pre-college employment here. I am the captain of my school volleyball team but since COVID-19 came we have not had an opportunity to play a game. I have also volunteered for a foundation that helps children who live in poverty. These two are the only extracurriculars I have a record of.
Now here is where it gets interesting. I play recreational football and cricket, but I'm not part of any official team. Thus I have no official writing that says I play. I also learn piano and guitar from a tutor. I also do a lot of woodworking projects, but again no record of any of this. I have taken part in a lot of my school's science fairs and debate competitions. However, in my school, there is no certificate or any record of these competitions. All of this is still considered intra-school and is not given that much importance here in my city.
I aspire to get into a top college in America. I have SAT scores that fall well within the top colleges' range. I'm confident I can clutch out the essays and personal insight questions. My only fear right now is the extracurricular part.
I am a senior and my applications get submitted in a month.(5 votes) - Why does it cost money to partcipate in some extra curricular activities(4 votes)
- because they have to pay all of the teachers and pay for all of the equipment and stuff like that...(2 votes)
- What could be considered an extracurricular activity? Sports and clubs would be, of course, but what if you have a hobby like knitting? Would that count?(3 votes)
- I'm not sure if it would count as an extracurricular, but like they said in the video, if that's your passion and what you do after school you could definitely mention it. And if you want to, you could try to start a knitting club at your school and then it would definitely count as an extracurricular.(2 votes)
- Should I include extracurriculars from middle school on my application, even if I don't continue to do them? (ex. did piano for 9 years but then stopped in Highschool)(2 votes)
- What about homeschoolers? As a homeschooler, I'm never really "in class" or "coming home from school" (as school is AT home) so I don't know what time period would count as "extracurricular". Also, if at all possible, I'd like some suggestions for extracurricular programs for homeschoolers--those with little to no cost please, as finances are another reason why I have a difficult time finding after-school activities tailored to homeschoolers. Thanks so much :)(2 votes)
- Hopefully, your parents or homeschool teacher has had some correspondance with a high school nearby to make sure your curriculum is up to standard and that you will get your diploma. Anything you do not related to your school work is technically an extra-cirricular. I'd recommend looking into volunteering at an elderly home/hospital/library/etc., signing up for a cheap or free class like dance or drawing at a local community center, or simply going online/to the library, picking a hobby, and learning it (e.g. whittling, rock tumbling, art). It's hard to recommend something without an idea of what your interests are, but those are some easy, general ideas.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- So while I was traveling in the fall, I realized that not
everyone really understood what they should be talking about when they tell us about
what they do after class and that's the phrase I use, "What do you do when you
go home from school?" - For some students that might mean significant family responsibilities. If both of your parents are working and you're picking up your
brothers and sisters from school and tutoring them on their homework, please let us know that because we won't expect
you to be doing all of the same things that someone who doesn't have those expectations placed on them are doing. So I always suggest to
students to really give us more when it comes to extracurriculars. Everything outside of the classroom is really what extracurricular means. - Leadership positions are great because they show commitment, but we want to make sure that students are doing things that
are meaningful to them, that they're spending time doing them and they're doing them
well, whatever it may be. - If you're spending your time by learning how to build formula one racing cars because that's what you want to do and there's no club for that at school, we still need to know
that that's what you spend all of your time doing
especially if it's something that you're accomplished in. - What we also want to
understand is how the student has really made an impact in
their school community or greater community through
the different interests and passions that they have. - So admission is also going
to look at your summers and what have you done in your summers. Ninth grade summer probably not the most important summer
they're going to look at, but certainly tenth grade,
eleventh grade summers they're going to start to take a look at what are you doing in that time frame. That doesn't mean you have to go and spend a lot of money on a program to
look impressive to a college. My advice to you would
be think about something you want to do in the
summer that could really be exciting to you. That may be having a summer job, learning how to manage your own money. It may be there's an academic program that you want to take
online or at a local college that could really be exciting,
you've always wanted to try, you know, architecture,
and there's an opportunity to try that because there's no chance to do it in high school. It doesn't have to be something fancy. It has to be something that's
really exciting to you. - Ultimately, what we
want to see is depth, what we want to see is commitment and what we want to see is leadership in some of these different activities. - When we're looking
at the extracurriculars that you are involved in, it's important that you're
giving us accurate descriptions of what they are. So while you may know
what it means to be leader of the organization
for protecting animals, we would like to know a little
bit more about the specifics. What does that mean? What have you done? How many hours do you spend on that? So make sure to tell us in detail what those extracurriculars
actually look like in your day to day life.