I’ve heard mixed opinions on this, but never a clear answer.
I’ve seen so many fellow students take on a variety of different extracurricular activities, in essence: swimming, NHS, Asian Student Association, sports, music, Key club, and many more. I’ve also seen some of them hold officer positions in those clubs. (I swear, some of these guys are on steroids or something :P)
I’m sure that it shows colleges that they are incredibly active/talented students, but I feel that it just seems like most of the clubs and extracurricular activities they take on, don’t necessarily resonate with their intended major and what they actually want to do with life.
On the other hand, I’ve seen students much more focused. Rather than take up as many different leader and membership opportunities in school clubs as possible, I’ve seen them pick a few that correlate with what they want to go to college for and do afterwards.
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So my main question to you is this: Do colleges prefer students who take up as many extracurricular activities as possible, or do they prefer students who picked a few that mean to them the most and focus on growing in them?
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In my humble opinion, I feel that participating in as many extra curricular activities deems that you’re trying to bloat your applications/resumes. I don’t know how college admissions councils think when choosing to admit students, so I can’t really make that judgement, hence why I ask you. I understand that there are other factors that impact your admission
Colleges want to see that you have interests and talents outside of the classroom, and that you’ve taken the initiative to pursue them. They can be important to a young person’s development, and can make a difference at top selective schools in differentiating between candidates beyond test scores and grades. But having a long laundry list of ECs doesn’t generally do much. Having a few ECs that clearly mean a lot to you and on which you focus is usually more effective, and a better use of your time and effort.
Depth of involvement in a smaller group of activities is preferable to having a boatload of clubs. Find a group of activities you enjoy, find interesting, and care about and pursue those with gusto.
You’re more likely to stand out from the pack with a high level of accomplishment in a few ECs. If you do a lot of things, it should be consistent with who you are and you should be able to explain it. (And “I wanted to have a good college application” isn’t a good explanation! )
Some people are super focused from the get-go, others experiment to see what they like, and some people really prefer variety. Some people are passionate about causes while others use ECs as a way to connect with different groups of people. Both are fine. Just be sure that whichever approach you choose is authentic to who you are and consistent with the person you present in your application. You should be thinking about this in the context of what you do, not how you’re going to articulate it on an application.
In high school, I was involved in a wide variety of things, but all of them were things I enjoyed and none of them were done with admissions in mind. That’s what’s key; it’s okay to have a lot of things if you enjoy them. There’s also no issue with your activities not being related to your major. I’m a math/CS major, but most of my activities were performing arts (lots of music, dance, theater, etc). The only thing I did that could be considered relevant to my majors was electronics club, and I quit that when I joined a choir that met at the same time.
adcoms call kids involved in everything they can sign up for “a mile wide and an inch deep”.
Of course we don’t know where you are thinking of applying. ECs make little or no difference at perhaps 90% of all colleges so just about anything someone says to do for EC’s will be “true” at those schools. However if you are thinking of a very selective college they are looking for depth more than just participation. Stanford, for example, says
This is a quote from one of my former posts. I believe very strongly that no one should do an activity “just” for college admissions. Here is the quote:
“Anything [my son] did, he chose to do of his own volition, and he did it because it was interesting to him. I figured he was working hard in school, and his extracurriculars should be fun and a release from pressure, as opposed to more pressure.
And guess what? He was admitted to Williams without having invented a cure for a major disease, without spending a fortune to fly somewhere exotic to do service work, without having won any major competitions, without having a title of President of anything. This does not imply that his activities were not meaningful. They were. He cared about them, and I am proud of his accomplishments. He developed good leadership and social abilities, kept in good physical shape, felt the thrill of accomplishment and the joy of being part of various types of teams/group experiences. But his activities weren’t “unusual” and they didn’t need to be. He was a happy kid doing things he enjoyed. And if he had “only” gotten into his safeties, I still would be glad that he did what he enjoyed during high school.
One of his essays was based on something that happened during his summer camp job, and his mini-descriptions in his activities sections demonstrated his interests, dedication, and character.” I should add to that: he had no idea at the time of the camp event that it would be significant or something he would someday include in an essay. It was only when he looked at the common app prompts, when it was time to apply, that he saw how this event showed something cool about his personality. I think that’s how all extracurriculars should work for all kids. You do them because they interest you… and someday you will be able to tell an interesting story about yourself based on them.
Also in response to the OP’s questions, I would add that only one of my son’s activities, and it was a very unofficial one (just what he likes to read in his free time), was related to his major. He did things for fun, not to build a resume.
Every school has its share of butterflies. They flutter from one activity to the next, briefly stopping here and there, never making an impression.
As faculty, we know we can’t count on the butterflies. We don’t give them leadership positions. They don’t know the inner workings of the activities. They don’t contribute. They stop by and flutter on to their next location.
The kids we count on are the kids who are invested in our activity. The younger kids know they can go to the leaders, because the leaders have put in their time. They know how things work, how to get things done.
These are the kids who get the activity awards at graduation, the kids we’re happy to write letters of recommendation for, not the butterflies.