<p>I'm in dire need of some great looking extracurriculars, and while yes I know you "shouldn't do things just for college" and there's nothing cut and dry "great looking" that you can just select and find out of nowhere, I really need to do something this summer, but nothing cliche or overdone otherwise I'd not only be wasting time but I'd literally only be doing it for college. Most, if not all, of the good summer programs have been closed to applicants by now. So, within my current predicament, what is something that would look great or interesting to a college?</p>
<p>Get a paying job within your community. In a lot of cases, that makes you look humble and better than a kid who was able to do an environmental research program in the Galápagos Islands with Bill Nye.</p>
<p>^^ I second @Anniebeats’ suggestion. See: <a href=“When a Part-Time Job Is Your Extracurricular Activity - The New York Times”>http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/work/</a></p>
<p>Interesting. So this is better than an internship or a summer youth program? Would a paying job make you look particularly good? I thought only jobs that are normally handled by adults like store manager or something were the ones that looked good.</p>
<p>You don’t have that choice because no programs are still taking applications and very few professors will take more interns.</p>
<p>^There actually are programs I know of and have applications for that still are. Summer programs and internships are just two things I ringed off the top of my head that someone could be doing in the summer, I’m just asking if a paying job would be better.</p>
<p>Of course, there are still other options</p>
<p>You could rack up some serious volunteer hours this summer.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t do things just for college, and there’s nothing cut and dry “great looking” that you can just select and find out of nowhere.</p>
<p>Sorry, I just had to do that. I second the suggestions to volunteer, even if it’s not an impressive position. Otherwise, find a few friends interested in the same things as you and organize a group project. For example, if you’re interested in programming, build a software application or website together and create an informal Hack-a-thon. If you like social sciences, take the Coursera Questionnaire Design class from UMich (<a href=“https://www.coursera.org/course/questionnairedesign”>https://www.coursera.org/course/questionnairedesign</a>) together and distribute a survey.</p>
<p>EDIT: Why must a college-preparatory website block links to a MOOC site? 
Anyway, just replace the asterisks with “coursera” (no quotes) if you’re interested.</p>
<p>A job is a great idea. </p>
<p>If you are looking for something more esoteric, then do something that makes your existing hobbies or passions richer. What things do you do already? If you play tennis, you could try to find a place to teach tennis to kids. If you collect bottle caps, you could catalog your collection and post the catalog on the internet. In short, whatever your thing is…do more of it, share it with others. </p>
<p>@trojangirl111 Are you spam advertising lol </p>
<p>@trojangirl111 spamming some site to take advantage of innocent students. Please leave and don’t come back.</p>
<p>It looks like @AliceP is also a spammer working in conjunction with @trojangirl111 You two are deplorable.</p>