I am a Junior in highschool, and I am shooting for very selective schools (Duke, Harvard, MIT, etc.). As I was reviewing my extracurricular list, it seems rather generic. Band, club leadership, volunteer work, etc. I know I need something that will help me stand out. I recently read on the forum that some of the best extracurriculars are things that don’t fit the mold of the typical extracurricular. In my spare time, I like to write scary stories, and so far I have written over 10 shorts stories. I post them online, and generally I get a good amount of views and favorable reviews. I was wondering, would this be a good extracurricular to put on my college application? It is one of my favorite things to do, but I am not sure if it is appropriate for an application to extremely selective schools. Any help is greatly appreciated.
If there’s an essay that it would be applicable to, opening with a line from one of your stories could be a great attention getter! Just make sure it does work in with the prompt appropriately, otherwise you’d be getting attention, but not in the good way.
And if you have ever won awards, contests, etc for them, then that would be very appropriate to mention.
As for listing as an extracurricular, it’s not organized so generally not considered an extracurricular and it looks like you do have plenty of extracurriculars to round that section out, but if you’re applying for the school’s writing program, then definitely put it there if there’s absolutely nowhere else more appropriate to work it in.
Thank you for the response. I come from a small town where someone gets accepted to a prestigious school about once every 5 years, so I don’t really have any one around me to turn to for help. My AP lang teacher just submitted an essay of mine (not a scary one, but an essay nonetheless) to a statewide writing contest, so hopefully that yields good results.
I would definitely include it on your app. If not in activities, then in additional info. Mention that you post them online. Would try to get some awards though before apps are due.
I agree that you should try to get these stories published or submit in contests. Teen ink will publish stuff, just submit it. Look around, there are dozens of writing contests. Start submitting, and look for places to publish your stroies. If you can do any of that, then you should absolutely submit this in your activities section, and unless you have something more impressive, I would submit it as the first activity. Yes, something different is an eye catcher, and provided your stats are good, this could be a great thing. But without some kind of material-world proof of what you do, it really is just a hobby, albeit an interesting one.