<p>What's the most impressive extracurricular activity you've seen or you've had?</p>
<p>DO NOT INCLUDE AWARDS SUCH AS INTEL ISEF, SCIENCE OLYMPIAD, etc. Also, please don't post "won Nobel Prize" or "found cure to cancer" or something like that. </p>
<p>I'll go first: starting a nonprofit organization centered around eye operations in India (my friend, not me). </p>
<p>Why not? Would winning a Nobel Prize not be impressive enough for you?</p>
<p>@Ctesiphon </p>
<p>I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not, but just to clarify, I think winning a Nobel Prize or finding the cure to cancer is more than simply impressive (that alone would definitely qualify you for the Ivy League). However, I don’t think either option is within the capability of the average high school student. </p>
<p>But what if such things are in fact in the range of capabilities of a high school student?</p>
<p>I remember a kid (I think he was on TED talks) that spent a lot of time in a lab and apparently developed a process to detect early onset of an untreatable illness (when it had not yet evolved into its untreatable phase).</p>
<p>However, you seem to be placing “values” on extra-curricular activities, and how they “qualify” someone for the Ivy League… an EC need not be “impressive” for them to be “Ivy League material”. they are supposed to reflect personal interests, and I think it should be the most impressive if it best reflects a students’ interest.</p>
<p>Developing a biofuel made from algae. Said person did a TED talk on it, finalist for some Intel award</p>
<p>You misunderstand me. I’m not saying that curing cancer (or developing a process to detect early onset) is beyond the capabilities of a high school student. However I highly doubt that the AVERAGE high school student could do this. Of course there will be the rare cases, one of which you pointed out above. </p>
<p>Of course an EC need not be impressive for them to be Ivy League material. I’m just trying to get a feeling for what people consider above average ECs, that’s all. And we’re deviating from my original intention in starting this discussion. I’m not looking for, nor does it state in the question, that I’m looking for ECs that “qualify someone for the Ivy League”. Once again, I’m just trying to see what people see are excellent extracurriculars. I understand that it should reflect a student’s interest, hence my reason for posting on CC, so that many different types of students (whether they be into the arts, or athletics, or whatever) are exposed to the ECs that appeal to them. </p>
<p>@PengsPhils </p>
<p>Thank you for your input. </p>
<p>I’m published in several books.</p>
<p>A girl from my high school won an Olympic gold medal. Does that count? </p>
<p>For US universities, I would go with Katie Ledecky’s application to Stanford.</p>
<p>Games of the XXX Olympiad, Gold Medalist, 800m freestyle</p>
<p>The two areas that I have seen with my Ds friends include sports (making Player of the Year for the local paper, All American, winning the state cup every year as a high school player, National Team player for the USA throughout high school) and musical instruments (viola player recruited at top university) and sax player (all American band for 2 years in high school who attends Ivy and plays gigs in NYC) who also composes.
I do alumni interviews for a very popular university. I have met students who (1) climb mountains using ice axes and crampons and read Anna Karinina in Russian to fall asleep in a small tent at night (2) won the national painting award for high school students as a 16 year old (3) are primary caretakers for needy parents and/or grandparents while attending high school (4) jump rope champion of the USA (5) left Mongolia at age 15 to attend high school in the USA to learn English and go to university in the USA with significant homesick issues (6) professional juggler.<br>
I think the best philosophy is to “bloom where you are planted.” Make the most of what you are passionate about and do your best at whatever it is.</p>
<p>I’m confused. You want to hear about the most impressive ECs we’ve ever seen, but you also want it to be something that a typical HS student could do. What makes extraordinary accomplishments impressive is that they are extraordinary.</p>
<p>My confusion notwithstanding, I know a couple of kids who made the US Olympic team while they were in high school. Those are the most impressive ECs I’ve seen.</p>
<p>@sherpa, the OP’s insistence that the examples be things he average student could do reflects the typical HS student confusion about ECs. We see this time and again when students post complaining that their school does not offer enough ECs. At its heart is the belief that impressive ECs are simply a matter of choice and opportunity, and that any kid could do them. The only thing holding them back is that they aren’t offered (a common complaint) or the OP’s angle here that if you just get some clever ideas you’ll stand out. Of coarse just deciding you want to do it isn’t going to make you an Olympic athlete, an Intel contest winner, a nationally recognized artist, etc.</p>
<p>I went to school with a guy who had something like 5 patents before he started college. He also quit high school when he got into college. When he was a senior in college he basically quit college when he got into his PhD program. I guess genius types get a lot of slack.</p>
<p>I thought Emma Watson had a pretty outstanding EC when she applied to US colleges…</p>
<p>I read this in the local newspaper. This boy who is a freshman at the high school where Bill Gates’ graduated invented a more technologically savvy stethoscope. It can detect heart murmur more clearly than the current analog stethoscope. He is in the process of inventing something that will make it easy for doctors to perform angioplasty. Wow.</p>
<p>
Several of the students in the below articles developed a cure for cancer and did other remarkable things while in high school. That’s what makes them above average. But you’re correct, average students do not do these things, which is why average students are also finding it difficult to compete with the likes of these students for spots at the tippy-top schools:
<a href=“Most Impressive Harvard Students”>Most Impressive Harvard Students;
<a href=“Most Impressive Students at Yale”>Most Impressive Students at Yale;
<p>A girl in my high school competed in the fencing world championships in Bulgaria. She finished in the top 10 for her age group. I, for one, was very impressed. </p>
<p>I think the most impressive ECs are the ones which uniquely reflect the individual student who decided to pursue them. Best examples are noted above in @windbehindwings and @HiToWaMom and @butterfreesnd </p>
<p>bump</p>