I’ve been thinking of taking a club such as Chess and thought if Colleges would look at this as a benefit. Also, I’ve been wondering if you need to use your after school hours if you decide upon attending to one, for Highschool.
If you look at the Common Data Set for almost any college, it will show that Extracurriculars are “Important” in admissions.
Think about it: Who would you admit: the student who has a 1400 SAT 3.89 who can do that and Marching Band, Key Club and Newspaper or the one who has a 1400 SAT 3.89 and does nothing else.
Doing ECs shows that you can handle course work in addition to these other activities, and that you strive to improve yourself or your community.
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Generally these clubs are after school but it depends on your school…I know some that occur during lunch time.
The whole idea of extra-curricular activities is that it is something done outside of the classroom and typically outside of regular school hours. Some extracurricular activities (ex. tour guide, library aide) may be available during a free period or lunch but generally not a “club” because different students will have different free and lunch periods and the club will typically want to allow ever student to join.
The reason many colleges look at activities is that they hope to attract student who will be active members of the community both inside and outside of the classroom.
But don’t do an activity just to pad your resume for college – do something because you are interested in it.
The key to ECs is not just joining a club, but to do something meaningful as part of the club. Let’s use the Chess Club as an example. You might think of the Chess Club as some activity where you and a few other people gather around to play chess against each other. But you can easily make the club more meaningful. It doesn’t take that much to run a kid’s tournament(s); set up an after school program at the library; or expose underprivileged kids to chess. If you’re really good at it maybe you can tutor kids in chess. You can get your HS to offer space in the library or cafeteria or gym as a gathering point for your events.
The same goes for other clubs too - making an impact in the community or even amongst your fellow HS students.
If your asking if ec’s have to be school related the answer is no. Colleges don’t care if you do any school ec. They can be community, work, religious etc. Leadership doesn’t require having a title such as president of a school club. You can help young kids and not have a leadership title but colleges will still consider it leadership etc.