I am a freshman taking all honors courses, two sports, one club, and my electives are orchestra and French. I plan attending an Ivy League, and I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what extracurriculars to do that makes you more well rounded and appealing to top-notch colleges.
You plan on applying. Whether you attend or not is dependent, in part, on whether an Ivy accepts you.
Colleges, including those in the Ivy League, attempt to assemble a well-rounded class. Within each class, there are people who are well-rounded themselves,as well as others who are less well-rounded. No college wants you to be (or worse, simply appear to be) something you are not.
There are no right or wrong ECs. Choose the ones you enjoy, that are meaningful to you, and that demonstrate commitment and leadership.
“I plan on attending an Ivy League”.
First off you should focus on things within your control. You can only plan on applying to Ivy League schools. Even the best of candidates frequently don’t wind up attending Ivy League schools.
Second, not all Ivy schools are the same and consequently you have to differentiate among them to determine fit. Otherwise your application is dead on arrival. Why open curriculum at Brown does not fly at Columbia, Dartmouth’s bucolic liberal arts setting vs Penn’s pre professional urban environment. You need to understand and speak to the schools culture.
Third, no Ivy (or any other school) has an ideal EC. Well rounded is fine but most schools would prefer depth, authenticity,commitment, leadership and passion in a small number of ECs versus lots of periphal involvements.
You are doing the right thing by trying to gather information, but don’t put that much pressure on yourself as a freshman. Be intellectually curious, determined, and emotionally committed to your extra curricular and then find the school that best matches all of the above. It may be any Ivy, maybe not but either way it will be your school. FYI there are a ton of non Ivy schools that are exceptional. Good luck.
Apparently playing oboe will help you get into Stanford (yes I’m serious, and yes I know it’s not Ivy). I guess if you want something badly enough that you’ll do that for 4 years to help your chances, good luck to you, but the colleges are generally looking for genuine commitment and authenticity in your ECs. Depth of commitment and achievement is usually more impressive than quantity.
Also, ivies are not homogeneous. Another reason to follow your passions and interests rather than some preconceived notion of what you “should” be doing.
Unless that particular year they are chock full of oboists, but lacking trombonists. So getting back to my earlier point, not a reason to pick up the oboe unless you really enjoy it.
@skieurope , that was my point too…maybe it didn’t come across properly
Try reading as much as you can about your targets and what they look for. What they say.
Of course it’s more than just what interests you. If you arent what they want, you may as well take them off your list. If a kid would rather spend time in the pie club or gaming alone, not engaged or trying new things, you’ll need to decide how much you want a 5% college. Same goes for academic courses.
It’s not just about being yourself or not. It’s about the self that matches what they want. They’ve got plenty to choose among.
It’s depth and breadth. Relevant choices that show the traits they want. How hard is that?
@SJ2727 My guess is that playing oboe might have helped one or two elite musicians get into Stanford one year. But once Stanford got the oboe player or two it needed for the orchestra then for the next couple of years it is likely that proficiency in that instrument would not garner the same admissions benefit.
I heard an admission officer at an Ivy college tell a similar story about how one year the school needed a harp player – but once they admitted a harp player to fill the spot in the orchestra they wouldn’t need another one for four years.
So IMO people should do activities they enjoy because there it is impossible to predict when an activity (other than a recruited athlete) might become a hook with admissions. I agree completely with @skieurope
And to the OP – It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges or group of colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.