beyond the books: extracurricular activities and college admissions success

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Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

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Page 1: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

Beyond the Books:Extracurricular Activities and

College Admissions Success

Page 2: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• How colleges view

extracurricular activities

• What kind of activities

you can get involved in

to impress colleges

• Ways to achieve

balance among your

activities to maximize

your chances of success

Agenda

Page 3: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

Why Extracurricular

Activities Matter

Page 4: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

4

School 2005 2013 2014

Harvard 11% 5.79% 5.9%

Yale 11% 6.72% 6.26%

Northwestern 33% 13.9% 12.9%

Stanford 16% 5.69% 5.07%

MIT 16% 8.2% 7.7%

UC Berkeley 27% 20.8% 17.3%

Acceptance Rates

Page 5: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Top 5% of Class

• The most challenging classes

offered at school backed up by

scores of 4 and 5 on AP Exams

• SAT Scores

– Reading: 750

– Math: 760

– Writing: 730

• Extracurricular Activities

• Demonstrated Leadership5

Harvard Student Profile

Page 6: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

Well-Rounded Well-Angled

Volleyball

FBLA

Church

The Well-Angled Student

Page 7: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Focuses on a couple of activities,

but gets heavily involved

• Leadership skills

• Consistency

• Dedication

• Time commitment

The Well-Angled Student

Page 8: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

Well-Rounded

• Key Club

• Student Government

• Cheerleading

• Pre-Med Society

• Library Job

• Law Firm Internship

Well-Angled

• Newspaper

+ Editor In Chief

• FBLA

+ Founder

• Ice Hockey

+ Captain

Well-Rounded vs. Well-Angled

Page 9: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Winnow and focus, don’t

simply quit• It’s OK to be a member of a lot of clubs

as a freshman, less so as a senior.

• Colleges like to see growth,

not just participation

• Meaningful leadership

Commitment

Page 10: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

There are all

kinds of volunteer

work available!

Volunteer Work

Page 11: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Soup kitchen

• Reading to kids

• Community outreach

• Tutoring

• Beach cleanup

• Planting trees

• Mentoring

• Planting gardens

• Coaching local teams

• Fundraisers

• Hospitals

• Hospice care

• Mental institutions

• Getting others to volunteer

• Teaching assistant

• Community theater

• School office help

• Food preparation

• Financial assistance

• Missionary work

• Daycare

• ASPCA

• Insect treatment

• Event coordinator

• Youth outreach

• City programs

• State/County programs

• National programs

• Goodwill worker

• Office assistant

• Church events

• Collecting food donations

• Ride sharing

• Summer camp counselor

• Suicide hotline

• Teaching technical skills

• Data entry

• Float building

• Seasonal projects

• Local fire/police departments

• Collate and make copies

• Art projects and banners

• Competition judges

• Supervise clothing donations

• DARE

• Translate

• Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts

• Cleaning graffiti

Volunteer Work

Page 12: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• There are all kinds of

volunteer work available!

• Pick something interesting

• Pick something (potentially)

related to your field of study

• Check out idealist.org

• Talk to your guidance

counselors!

Volunteer Work

Page 13: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Exercise!

• Natural progression,

structured

• Coaches make natural

mentors

• Can be fulfilling at many

levels of achievement

• You don’t have to be the

next LeBron

Sports

Page 14: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Can be great

• Look for clubs that actually do things, not ones that

just hold meetings

• While founding a club can be wonderful, most high

schools already have lots of clubs

• One or two, maaaaybe three

• Much like classes in high school, clubs tend to get

more demanding as you move up in grades

• Beware “club creep”

Clubs

Page 15: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Fun

• Can get course

credit too! (Band,

Dance, Drama)

• Can be a thing that

students discover

that they like

• Often an

underestimated

time commitment

The Arts

Page 16: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

Jobs

Page 17: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Make money

• Develop skills

• Build your application

– Relevant Experience

– References

• Can be hard to hold a

formal job during the school

year, but informal jobs can

be great too

Why get a job?

Page 18: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Many of the benefits of

jobs; no pay (usually)

• Industry experience

• Get a feel for a specific

career path

• Look for structured

programs designed with

high school students in

mind

• Think locally

Internships

Page 19: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Resources– Parents

– Talk to school counselors

– Contact a company!

– Vault.com,

internshipprograms.com,

internmatch.com, idealist.org

• Start looking

immediately!

Internships

Page 20: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Extracurricular activities are valuable in and of

themselves, regardless of college admissions

• You should look forward to your extracurricular

activities!

• Plan yearly, and use your summers wisely!

• The more you can “offload” to the summer, the

more you can focus during the school year

A couple more things

Page 21: Beyond the Books: Extracurricular Activities and College Admissions Success

• Get involved!

• Be well-angled!

• Quality over quantity, but

quantity matters

• Seek balance

• Meet with your counselor

• S/he is a local expert

• Cast a wide net

• For internships, think locally

Recap – Quick Tips