Welcome to Extracurricular Activities and Colleges Part 2

As you might remember from our last post (and if you don’t check it out HERE), grades and SAT scores are only one aspect of your college application. Another big part is what you do outside of the classroom, what you do in your free time – your extracurriculars. So, let’s jump right into it and start part 2 of this!

Large, Competitive Public Universities

Big state flagship schools like UC Berkeley, University of Virginia, or University of Michigan receive tens of thousands of applications each cycle. Due to their great reputations, applicants are not only from local areas, but from all across the country and even the world. The sheer number of people applying means that these schools must make their selection processes much more selective.

To give an example, the University of Florida (which would count as a “large, non-competitive public university” from part one) receives nearly 30,000 applications annually, and they accept around 50%. However, nearly 200,000 students applied to UC Berkeley and only 17.5% were admitted. With so many high quality applicants vying for such a small number of spots, competitive public universities must evaluate qualitative criteria like extracirruclar activities with greater depth.

In order to gain acceptance into these internationally-renowned public university like UMich or UNC, you’re going to need nice grades and test scores as well as significant extracurricular involvement. I know it sounds tough, and it is, but think of how many other people are applying! Typically, students admitted to these schools are involved in a number of extracurriculars and tend to hold some sort of leadership role in them.

However, while extracurriculars have more weight for large, competitive public schools, they still do not weigh it as much as their smaller private school counterparts. These big guys (I’m referring to these large, competitive public schools – I just wanted to switch it up a bit) have literally hundreds of thousands of applications to sift through, and so it’s necessary that admissions committees use some sort of process to determine if an applicant is even worth looking deeper into. And this often takes the form of standardized test scores and grades. So while extracurricular activities certainly matter, you’re going to need to pass a basic benchmark first.

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Large, Competitive Schools Admissions at a Glance:

• Generally more holistic than large, less-competitive schools
• Tend to consider factors beyond grades and standardized test scores, but still rely on these measures to sort through applicants in order to determine who to look into further
• Sometimes do not accept as many letters of recommendation and other supplemental materials compared to private colleges

Along with grades and SAT scores, colleges also put heavy consideration into extracurricular activities. Basically, they want to know you have a life outside of classes, school, and all that boring stuff (I’m kidding; all of that is pretty important). Students are often pressured to volunteer at the local animal shelter, become president of a club, play a varsity sport, and do anything else to demonstrate that glowing leadership quality that colleges look for in applicants.

But how much do extracurriculars matter? Do they play the same role in every student’s application? Read on to learn more about how much extracurricular activities actually matter in a college application.

It Depends on the School

To be honest it really depends on the kind of school you apply to. Obviously, extracurricular activities are super important in your application, but the extent to how much they can impact your profile will rely on differences in admissions requirements, class sizes, and student populations. These factors can cause admissions committees to place differing amounts of weight on extracurriculars.

Large and Less-Competitive Public Universities

Unfortunately at larger public universities, extracurricular activities typically won’t have significant weight on your application (but this is good if you’re worried about not having enough extracurriculars!). Schools like this, especially state flagship schools, receive tens of thousands of applicants each year, but have extremely limited resources available to evaluate them. I can’t imagine what it would be like sitting in that office reading through piles of applications…

Schools like this aren’t able to dedicate the time and attention to a single applicant.

As a result, these schools tend to rely more heavily on the quantitative side of your application (think SAT or ACT scores and GPA). It’s quick and easy to evaluate numbers, and it doesn’t take as much time and energy to pore through essays and recommendations. According to CollegeVine, some schools even use computer algorithms to quickly sort applicants by GPA and test scores… Ouch right? That’s how it is sometimes, and it’s why we apply to multiple schools!

Where Extracurriculars Actually Have Impact

One way extracurriculars have significant impact at large public universities is actually in the merit scholarship selection process. The selection process is quite a bit more competitive and rigorous than general freshman admissions, and so these programs put greater consideration into extracurriculars. Additionally, these programs might even require supplemental application materials that ask applicants to discuss their interests and accomplishments in greater detail than they did on the Common App or freshman application.

To Summarize:

Admissions at Large, Non-competitive Universities

• Grades and test scores are considered first, typically admit or reject applicants on this basis
• Not holistic, as you can see from above (sad face)
• Evaluates extracurriculars for merit scholarships
• Merit scholarships are likely more intensive and holistic than general freshman admission

What Activities Should I Pursue to get into a Good College?

All colleges want to see that you have passion for something and that you pursue your interests to the best of your ability. So it is probably important to, well, have passions and interests. Stop worrying about whether college admission officers will be impressed by the things you’re interested in and just go for it. The college application reflects on your best personality, not your perception of the admission officers’ best personality. You like video games? Great. Nothing gets you more excited than the new limited edition sneakers that are about to be released? Okay. Your voice enters ranges not audible by humans when you see puppies? Cool. It doesn’t matter what you’re passionate about, as long as you’re passionate about something. Regardless of how quirky your passion is, it is your own. So, show that in your applications with pride!

What are you doing about it?

Okay, now you’ve got a passion. That is still not enough — you have pursue your passion. You’re a painter? Blog about it, give your painting for a showcase, conduct painting lessons. You love cooking? Maybe there is a food festival coming soon or host your own community cooking show. You <3 puppies? Find a local animal rights charity or dog rescue and start volunteering (but do it passionately, don’t treat it like a chore). No matter what your passions are, find out what you love the most about your passion and pursue it in that path.

How are you pursuing it?

I am not saying that you should ONLY do things related to your narrow range of interests. You should focus on being involved in your school and your community (and not just to get into college, but because you enjoy it). Lots of students sample a little bit of everything, their resumes list positions in 15 different clubs each year to the point where you have to wonder if maybe they have a time traveling device to get to all those meetings. Well, they definitely don’t yet. Colleges can see that, and they know that you did this to pad your resume to impress them (and so, of course, they aren’t impressed). Find a few clubs, organizations, charities, teams, or groups that you enjoy being a part of and stick with those activities throughout high school.

Why it matters?

The reason you shouldn’t spread yourself out is so that you can spend time developing your interests and skills. It is not just about how broad your exposure and knowledge are, but also about how deep they are. How can you become the editor of your school newspaper if you are only in the newspaper club for a semester? How dedicated to quiz bowl can you be if you only participated for a year? Find the activities that truly interest you and pursue those activities for multiple years. Of course you can go through a trial and error process. If you are not sure what clubs you enjoy, try the ones you are interested in for a couple weeks when you start high school. Once you figure out your interests focus your time on that. The main focus of this process is for you to figure out your interests that you would enjoy for the rest of your life. Do this for yourself and not the college applications!

When it comes to your college applications, your essay is the best place for you to put your totally awesome, unique, interesting personality on display. After you participate in activities that you enjoyed every minute of, you’ll find it so much easier to reflect and write about them in your essays. So, do things that you enjoy rather than what you think the college wants because you are the best at being yourself!