In my freshman year, I tried several after-school clubs but a lot of them were just ones where I would be at the first meeting, then quit out of losing interest. However, the three that really interested me were the computer club, BPA, and DECA. The computer club was probably very informal and nothing much happened, but I was really interested with BPA and DECA.
(I also did attend a couple Model UN conferences but it was nothing much)
However this year, the school is trying to abolish DECA and computer club is already gone, and nobody really wants to be in a new computer club. Essentially, the only extracurricular I have left is BPA, with maybe one or two conferences throughout the whole school year in our crappy Model UN chapter.
My focus is on business and I have a minor focus on information technology, but I just can’t seem to find too many things related to business. I understand I shouldn’t have just one blind focus, but the rest of the clubs in my school really don’t interest me what so ever.
So what can I do completely outside of school that’s related to business to occupy myself and develop a huge spike necessary for admissions to the most competitive colleges? I just feel lost and without direction.
The thing is that I was okay with just DECA and BPA as I figured that was enough for ECs besides some other stuff such as internships or actual stock market trading. But since DECA was cancelled, I feel like having one significant extracurricular is just way too little.
@CheddarcheeseMN Yeah but the only jobs really available to high schoolers are crappy jobs involving retailing, flipping burgers, or whatever. I figured I’d only get a part time job for work experience and to gain money.
Many of us started with a “crappy job” in retail or at a restaurant. Are these jobs really beneath you? You can learn a lot about business from being an employee. U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan worked at a McDonalds at age 16.
This is actually an incredible opportunity. So many students fall prey to mundane clubs because they’re available, NHS, french club, etc. This gives you the chance to explore other avenues. Start your own business, reach out to business leaders in your community. Think long and hard about what you can do to make the world better and how you can contribute to your school, local and global communities. Don’t whine! You’ve been presented with a chance to become a leader. Take advantage of this opportunity. Good Luck and Enjoy!
@CheddarcheeseMN I know that, but I wouldn’t put work experience in the same category as extracurriculars. I mean most high schoolers essentially do get a job at some point, so it’s really nothing special or anything.
I would totally consider a part time job if I was interested in business…Firstly, you learn how to exist in a corporate environment. Getting to work on time. Learning your job. Doing your job. Working with customers.
Then you can start observing…how do they hire? What kind of interviews do they do? What kind of tests do they give you? How does a manager do scheduling? How do they train you? How do they enforce safety standards? How do they track the level of business so they know how to schedule employees? How do franchises work? How do you keep track of inventory? WHat promotions do they have and do they work and how do they know that?
And since you are interested in business and IT…what IT systems do they have and what do they like and not like about them? Tell your manager you are interested in business and are interested in learning about how a business runs (while still doing your job and not complaining about it)
Let’s say that you think the training to be a cashier is lacking. Then you could write something up and say that you thought that there could be additional info when training a cashier and would they like to to take a look at something you have put together.
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.”
@noplay. The incredible opportunity is that your school doesn’t offer lots of ECs which is great, because it makes you look in another direction. Anything that helps you go against the status quo and makes you think is an opportunity. If you don’t have the ECs at your school that you want, it gives you a chance to demonstrate your leadership ability by going out and creating some or doing something different than the norm and standing out!
Take it from someone who worked in a call center: you do NOT want to be the corporate guy who comes in and says you’ve never worked anything but a corporate job. Try the job.
That’s not gonna happen. There is no fairy dust that you sprinkle over an EC that makes it suddenly attractive to colleges. Do what interests you. AO’s will not view a job any less favorably (or more favorably) than any other EC. Find a job or don’t find a job - that’s your call.
