HI guys. I was wondering what are some activities you do outside of school that are helpful for your resume and increase your chances at college admissions to some degree. (work, model un, volunteering places, etc). Please share all the extracurricular activities you take part in or maybe even have founded.
Well, I am going to be volunteering @ Max Planc and Scripps insitiute once I turn 16, but for right now, you should volunteer for things you like. Since my academy is medical, I am volunteering at a hospital right now. I have heard that helping out the community works also.
Hey, I’ve seen you post similar threads a couple of times. As an incoming senior who’s seen a lot, I wanna give you a bit of insight.
Anything that you do will help your resume and boost your chances. There’s no one club to join that will set you apart, there’s no magic extracurricular activity that will get you through the door. If you’re interested in an activity, do it. But don’t make the mistake of doing everything because you think doing more than others will look better. There’s a lot of people that end up unhappy at the end of junior and mid senior years, because they realize that they did things because they felt like they had to, not because they were interested in them.
Yes, having a lot of extracurriculars is good. Having extracurriculars that you loved to do and thus paint a picture of who you are are is infinitely better.
That being said, here’s what I did (school-associated ECs only, my big ones are out of school and REALLY personally identifiable so I won’t be listing them on here)
Student Council rep 9th, Gay-Straight Alliance 9-12, Speech and Debate 10-12 (captain), School Newspaper 10-12 (co-founder). I was also involved in a couple of other clubs that went bust, but I won’t be putting those on my application because they only lasted for a year or so.
I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished with those clubs and I loved being a part of them, but they don’t really do a good job of showing who I am and what I’m interested in. That’s where out of school stuff comes in- things that you do independently make you an individual. The club involvement that I have is fine, but I think my out of school activities are pretty damn cool and will make my app stand out. And I loved doing them!
Honestly, try not to stress and just involve yourself in what you’re interested in. It will make your life a whole lot easier.
Context: I’m an incoming freshmen.
I’m a big science nerd, especially with life sciences. I compete in Science Olympiad and planning to compete in USABO, volunteer at the children’s center at a natural history museum 4hr/week…yeah that’s about it for science, but I’m insanely serious about Science Olympiad and USABO.
Another major extracurricular for me is art, I have 5 hours of art class every week, and I draw plenty in my free time, and I’ve won several Scholastic art competitions. I absolutely love it.
Some things I do on the side are karate and chinese class. I take 2 hr of karate a week to learn self-defense, and I’m currently a 3rd level brown belt in Shotokan Karate. My parents signed me up for Chinese class when I was four, and I’ve just continued taking it. I graduated my 12th grade Chinese class in 2017, and I’m taking AP Chinese at my Chinese school in the 2017-2018 school year.
Tbh I just love life sciences, and anything to do with it.
If I find any clubs that spark my interest during the beginning of the school year, I’ll probably join.
Stuff I’ve done as a rising junior and including my plans for next year:
-rock climbing (competing on and off), 4-11
-Science Olympiad, inc. ~20 medals in 9 (?) events at the Invitationals, Regionals, and States level, 6-11
-Science Bowl, 10-11
-Gender-Sexuality Alliance (usually called Gay-Straight alliance, but the consensus at my school is that our name is cooler), 9-11, VP 11
-Biology Olympiad Club, 9-11, VP 11
-USABO, 9-11, Semifinalist 10
-Computational Linguistics Olympiad Club, inc. competing in NACLO 2x and the local competition 2x, 9-11, VP 11
-Chess Club, 9 (won’t put on applications, bc I didn’t do much)
-work at climbing gym, 9-11
-Mu Alpha Theta, 11
-German Club, 10
Probably some other stuff??? And I should have more officer positions in 12th grade. For CLO, officers are unofficially “tracked”, so I’m almost guaranteed to be the president.
Except for Chess Club, I’ll probably do everything (or as much as I can!) in 12th grade as well. RIP me. Next year, I plan on taking the qualifying tests for the Astronomy and Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Linguistics, Math, and Physics Olympiads. I’m probably only going to maybe make semis for USABO, but that’s whatever.
I feel like all of the stuff I do is really fun, so most of it doesn’t feel like work 
And also local math competitions, in which I have never done anything resembling well. Still mad fun tho