What are the best extra curricular activities you can do to get into college?

Question

Im looking for activities and volunteer work that will make me stand out on my college application.

Answer 1

sports (shows that you can handle pressure/stressful situations and work in a team environment), clubs (shows your enthusiam for enhancing your mind or supporting your school), volunteer work (helping others), a job( shows that you can handle responsibility and the drive to suceed or at least make money)

Answer 2

passion stands out.  do something because you like it, not because you want it to get you into college.  they like to see commitment too, something you've been doing for a long time.  music worked for me, but i'm sure the same things don't work for everyone.  what if you spend a lot of time doing something you hate and you still don't get into your first choice school?  whatever you choose, though, don't let it get in the way of good grades and test scores

Answer 3

Anything involving VOLUNTEERING or STUDENT COUNCIL....things I never did....:/ But colleges eat it up...You might try going to a college's website and looking at (just not submitting) their application. If nothing else just pick a sport, you don't even have to play much, just as long as you can say you were on the team :)

Answer 4

well, a gold medal in the olympics would help.

Answer 5

do as much as you can

Answer 6

It does not matter which extra curriculars you pick, so long as you find some that you can really devote yourself to. It's better, by the time you're a junior, to have fewer extra curriculars and really do something special in at least one of them, than to have a zillion, all of which you do at a surface level. And you can get into Harvard out of the chess club just as easily as you can out of football. It's not what clubs you join, it's the passion you bring to them, and the devotion you show, and what you do for them.

So go on, join the math club. Or drama. Or band. Or track and field. Or... what have you. But join it because you're genuinely interested in it, not because people on a message board tell you it's the type of activity that colleges want to see.

That said, most colleges do want you to do some volunteer work. Again, it doesn't matter which group you pick. Pick one that interests you, but work there for a while so you can work up to doing something fairly meaningful for them. Don't just volunteer once a year at each place. Pick one place and volunteer there steadily.

As another poster said very well, it's depth, not breadth. And it's not about which activities you pick, but what you do for them.

Answer 7

Think depth, not breadth. Find something you enjoy doing and think is worth doing, rather than doing lots of stuff because it will look good.