Which extracurricular activities should I do?

I wasn’t sure which forum to put this in, but this one seemed to fit okay. Before I continue, I know that I have very little need for college confidential until I really start looking at colleges, but this is a very pressing matter for me.

I am a freshman and I need to start taking some extracurriculars. I did not have the option to take any throughout middle school due to my long commute, so I would like to start some now. I have competed in science fairs at the county and state level and was selected as one of the 300 Broadcom masters, but aside from that I have not been able to do anything. I want to be able to start things now so that it doesn’t look like I am padding my resume when I start applying. I am aware that extracurriculars are only part of the application and that colleges look for drive and passion in select activities as opposed to a ton of unimportant and superficial activities, so I would like to know what kinds of ECs would be best for college apps and the most enjoyable for me without consuming my entire life. As a starting point, my general interests are math and biochemistry/molecular biology, especially computational. All guidance and answers are appreciated.

Hey! Welcome to CC! While I don’t know much about STEM related things in school, have you given the Science Olympiad a look? One of my best friends is in it, and he loves it. Since you always really like computational areas, have you checked if there is a Computer Science Club? My school has one, and you do not have to be enrolled in the class to join. I would suggest giving that a look if you enjoy that.

Also, it may be a good idea to ask your counselor for all of the ECs available in school. I don’t know if your school has it, but my school has a list with every club on it, the sponsor, and the sponsor’s email. I’d ask someone if there’s anything like that. It may help you decide or help us people on CC give you better advice.

Have a good day and happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day!

Thanks! I will look into it.

My STEM kid loved Quiz Bowl (if your school has a team) and Robotics.

  • math team (try to get to state-level)
  • biology olympiad
  • chemistry olympiad

other stem clubs:

  • computer science club
  • robotics team
  • engineering club (don’t have that at my school but have heard of it at other schools)

Congrats on the science fair - that’s a great achievement!

I’m also interested in biochemistry (not so much the computational part though). You might want to look into Summer Science Program (SSP) in Biochemistry. You wouldn’t be able to do it this summer, but it’s a great goal to strive for. Also, FIRST Robotics is popular with people that like engineering/CS. You might want to try some math competitions - I don’t know a lot about competitive math but I think there’s an exam called AIME, and that would be helpful for SAT prep too - not that you need to worry about that yet. IBO and IChO would be good too, like @needtosucceed27 suggested. There are other chemistry & biology competitions as well - WUCT is the first one that comes to mind, but there may be others in your area.

If you find that your school doesn’t have a club in bio/chem/math or a team for one of these competitions, you could start one! Science Olympiad is popular, and there’s Science Bowl as well as other STEM competitions. Unless your school is as big as mine, there has to be one your school doesn’t have. If you start a team, it will show initiative, and if you succeed, it becomes even more impressive.

Good luck!

Look at your school clubs.
See which are interesting.
Attend the clubs that you think are interesting.
Drop the ones you don’t like.
Have one of these be a service type club.

@bopper You don’t have to do service through a “service type club” that seems very formulaic and lame. My robotics team does a lot of service and I also volunteer in robotics on my own. Do what seems interesting to you.

I agree @snowfairy137 …you can do community service through your house of worship, town, hospital, etc. etc.

One of the things that I think helped my son wasn’t so much the school-related clubs, but what he did in his own free time. He started a couple online businesses, found an internship and started working on his own with investing after being part of the investment club for three years. Really, what you need is to find things that interest you so you can take them a step further - demonstrate how you can be a positive contribution to the university…Just being involved in a lot of STEM clubs may not demonstrate passion…if that makes sense?

Look at your school clubs.this will probably help you.