Hey currently I’m a freshman in high school. I was wondering what are some activities or things I can do to boost my resume?
Whatever you want to do! Go check out what’s available at your school and in your community, and join what interests you. If you really want to participate in something specific but there’s no outlet for it in your area, you could even make your own opportunities (e.g. creating a club, etc.).
You should do what interests you! You’ll do much better (both in college admissions and in the long run) if you work on things that you find at least somewhat interesting. You’ll eventually have to worry about an actual grown up career that pays the bills, but I strongly recommend spending high school doing whatever you find the most interesting.
Note that figuring out what you’re interested in is not a easy problem and takes effort. For many people, finding their interests is partly a trial and error process of trying out different things until they find something they like. So, keep an open mind and try out different things! It takes work to find out what you’re interested in, but figuring that out will pay off in the long run.
I couldn’t agree more. Do things that interest and excite you and let your passion shine though.
The whole point of this thread was to get exaples of things that are good. Like I know doing a job would be good on your resume what else?
What the posters above said is what is going to “look good.” Believe it or not, there are real benefits to finding things that you actually enjoy. The most important one is happiness, but from your tone, it doesn’t seem like you care much about that, so the more practical impact it will have on the application process is that you will come across better in essays and interviews and it will be easier to get good grades if you pick ECs that reduce stress for you.
Would being on the soccer team look good? Not if you hate sports and have to force yourself to participate. Would participating in art contests look good? Not if you have no interest in art and are just doing it for the resume.
But if you like soccer a lot and can talk about what it means to you – yes. If you love art so much that you’d do it even if it didn’t go on your app – yes.
For me that was stuff like creative writing and marching band. In college it’s volunteering, research, and a club. Some of my ECs now barely get a mention on my resume. But I do them anyway, because I like them and they make me happy.
Music: Marching Band, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Pep Band, Orchestra, Orchestra outside the school, Church band
Sports: School Sports, outside sports like martial arts etc
School Clubs: Student government, newspaper, yearbook, etc
Theater: In school or out of school plays
Community Volunteering
Dance
Art
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.”
http://www.examiner.com/review/be-a-relaxed-high-school-superstar
@bodangles Actually it would look good on your resume if you play a sport even if you dont enjoy it. It’s not like colleges would know you don’t like it.
If you don’t like something, you’re not going to pursue it as diligently as someone who loves it. A sports star who is team captain, participates in other competitions, and volunteers as a ref for kids’ games (for example) is going to look better than someone who participates at the lowest possible level just so they can say they’ve done it.
Plus the second person will have nothing interesting to say in interviews or essays.
I don’t think you realize how easy it is to bs a passion for something.
Then do it – whatever. Not sure why you’re arguing.
I’m asking what are some ideas? I can think of some sort of job like a tutoring job