It’s no secret that beyond a strong academic profile, colleges like to see students who pursue their interests and passions outside of the classroom.
But it’s not about ticking boxes or finding a magic formula for the perfect list of activities, because what really intrigues admissions officers is authenticity. That’s right – your child’s interests and natural inclinations are at the heart of finding the best right-fit activities and summer planning. That’s it. Pretty simple, actually.
Here’s the thing: colleges care more about the quality of student engagement – be it with volunteer work, sports, artistic involvement, or an independent project (at home or in person) – than the name of the activity. Colleges get excited about students who take initiative and make positive changes to better their communities because they see leadership as a projection of how students will give back when they get to colleges. It’s about the qualities students possess, such as persistence, creative thinking, innovation, or hard work, not the number of activities on their resume.
In fact, many colleges ask potential students about these qualities developed through their involvement in activities during the college interviews. Read more about interviews in this blog post here.
Young students who are solution-oriented, aware of the needs of others or who see a problem and engage in a deeper way to connect are the ones who cause admissions officers to sit up and pay attention.
And you don’t have to spend a lot of money on resume-building activities to make them meaningful. At Colledge, we can help you find something local, within the community, self-started, or even online.
Here are some great ways our students have contributed to something bigger than themselves.
- Ronald McDonald House
- Club 21
- Friends of the LA River
- Debate
- Mock Trial
- Robotics
- National Charity League
- Habitat for Humanity (San Gabriel Valley)
- Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts projects
- Girls Who Code
- Teenline
- Music Heals Minds
- Club and school sports teams
- International mission trips
- 2nd Day Denim
- The list is endless…
Here are some of the excellent pre-college summer programs our students have attended:
- Georgetown Medical Summer
- LMU Pre-College Programs
- Brown University Precollege program (online)
- Stanford Summer – Surgical Skills
- Interlochen Center for the Arts
- DaVinci Camp (Caltech)
- Reading Partners
- USC SHINE Program
- Kenyon Young Writers Workshops
- UC Cosmos Program
- RISD Pre-College Program
- Parsons Pre-College Portfolio Program
- And many more…
Figuring out the best way for your child to deepen into their extracurricular activities during the school year or the summer can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. We can expand their horizons beyond what they’ve already tried and what you’ve already heard of, and help your family think outside the box with local, national (or virtual) activities and programs. We can inspire further exploration that deepens their knowledge-base.
Working with your child, we think critically about their innate qualities, and come up with ideas that work for them and your family so they are ready for college interviews and college applications.
If you’re not sure if your child’s resume is developing with college in mind, let’s talk. We’d love to help you sort out what makes sense for your child specifically, and what doesn’t really matter. Click HERE to schedule a free introductory call.
