I’m a junior in high school, and i’m worrying about what I can do to make myself more attractive. My school doesn’t have very many clubs, and the clubs that we do have really aren’t advertised that much and they don’t last the full year, either because of the teacher or the students. I am in student council, the National Technical Honor Society, and the Mayor’s Youth Employment Program. I also plan to sign up for the local youth council. I also do a lot of volunteer work:
Habitat for Humanity
volunteering at the hospital/nursing home
tutoring
reading
cleaning classrooms
babysitting
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”
The other thing I would think about is “Do you show leadership”?
It doesn’t have to be a title…for example, do you organize events for any of these ECs? Did you ever start a new club/activity? Do you assign tutors to students?