By Pragya Jhunjhunwala
Students often tend to have excuses to not take part in extracurriculars; the most notorious excuse we’ve heard is definitely-” I don’t have the time.” However, due to current circumstances like the lockdown, students have too much time in hand and this gives them the perfect chance to boost their application through the extracurriculars.
When a student thinks of extracurricular activities, they think of the typical pattern that most high schoolers follow- Internships, online courses, competitions, research papers, etc. This pattern, however, requires the student to spend their time on multiple different tasks and thus might even reduce the credibility and/or efficiency of each task. Many students make this mistake and take up too many activities but fail to understand that the general pattern of these activities is in fact pretty simple and what colleges really look for in students’ activities is- quality not quantity.
A few things students should know about extracurriculars:
There isn’t one activity that is more impressive than the other. Colleges look at activities as a whole and the end game result your activities produce rather than the area of interest your activity is in.
Your activities can be in a completely different field as compared to the subjects you have applied for. Colleges usually want a diverse student body so having something different in your application can actually give it a boost.
Many are unsure about what kind of activities to take up and how will it help them. Here are 4 main fields of activities that colleges are impressed by:
1. Leadership:
Leadership can take multiple forms. It can be a specific role one takes in an activity; examples: student council president, captain of the football team, etc. It is also the idea of taking the initiative or being entrepreneurial like starting one’s own business. There is a misconception that leadership is only about being voted into a position by one’s peers. It is actually something for which a student stands up and takes charge to prove that they can make a difference in the world.
2. Excellence:
This factor can actually be a number of things. Excellence is being the best at a particular activity. For example, a student can be an amazing pianist who plays at concerts around the city or he/she is really good at dancing or singing. The most common way to show excellence is to be really good at traditional activities that the school offers like sports or even academics.
Nevertheless, many students may believe that there is no way they can show excellence in traditional activities. Not to worry, there is another way of showing excellence which is through being really good at non-traditional activities and being the best at something that is original or unique; examples: being the best at playing a rare instrument. If one is good at reading or drawing, they should look for competitions that will show their excellence.
Whatever activity a student decides to do, and if they do it with excellence will really stand out to colleges.
3. Commitment:
This means really committing to putting in a good amount of time to do that activity. This factor also goes with excellence because to excel in something, one has to be committed to it.
One problem faced by many students is that they need to spend a good amount of time focussed on academics as well and therefore are not able to commit their time to any activities. A suggestion to these students would be to dedicate any free time they have to extracurriculars; they can amp up the time spent on these activities during the summer or try and do activities that are more independent. In the end, the student must be able to show causes that they are dedicated to that particular activity.
4. “Wow” Factor:
This is something that literally makes people go “Woah”. These types of activities are usually something that not every high school student is doing, so a student will need to think outside the box for this. There are the obvious “wow” factors like qualifying for top competitions from your high school for sports, performing arts, etc. Besides these, being really great at unconventional activities is sometimes the easier thing to do for most students to do to include a “wow” factor in their activities.
Another type of activity that brings out the “wow” factor that a student can pursue is something that is impressive for even an adult to do. For example, to do something entrepreneurial or something which affects the real world. The “wow” factor part can be a little challenging but that is the reason it is called a “wow” factor.
These are four major areas in which a student can start to build on their extracurriculars. Taking part in such activities should not be complicated. Most students tend to follow what their peers are doing and in the process of going along with others, a lot of confusion can take place. Therefore, in order to simplify and clarify a student can follow the above-mentioned points and thus build their application.
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