In school, students should seek out other activities that would suit their interests and enhance their high school experience.
This may include athletics, academic clubs, music, dance, theater, volunteering or community service. These activities often provide leadership opportunities or creative outlets that don’t exist in the classroom. They also demonstrate that the student is capable of organizing his or her workload and managing a busy schedule.
These extracurricular activities are being looked at by admissions officers. They look at a student’s overall activity in order to judge the character, motivation and potential of an applicant. Grades alone can’t tell that story. Test scores alone can’t tell that story. What activities the student chooses to participate in, and how they handle a non-centralized workload, paint a clearer picture of how that student will perform in the college environment.
Many high school students also load up too many extracurricular activities and become overwhelmed by their schedule. This might be because you have so many passions, or because you feel the need to “pad your resume” for college admissions. In either case, it is important to find the right balance. Admissions officers are looking to see that a student can build a reasonable schedule and succeed at it. If too many extracurriculars are causing grades to suffer, they will most likely determine that this student would have a hard time managing the independence that comes with college life.