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extracurriculars

How to Build Out Your Extracurriculars for History

Four score and seven years ago, you weren’t even born yet. Your parents weren’t even born. Probably not even your grandparents either. But your love of history transcends the worldly plane! Four score and seven years ago might contain historical moments you’re passionately interested in: Jesse Owens won 4 medals at the Berlin Olympics, the Great Depression continued to ravage the United States, and fascism started to grab ahold of Europe. But you’re struggling with how to turn those interests into tangible extracurriculars to prove that you’re passionate. No worries, we got you.

How to Build Out Your Extracurriculars for Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship. Not just an impossible-to-spell word! It could also be… your major. We don't want to lie to you. Entrepreneurship as a major can be a risky choice. Schools read that and think Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. Not because of your clear genius, but because you kids are more prone to dropping out of college to pursue your dreams. So how can you counteract these malicious, untrue stereotypes? By proving you’re in it to win it. How can you prove you’re in it to win it? Extracurriculars.

How to Build Out Your Extracurriculars for English

Twain. Dickinson. Christie. Dickens. Hemingway. Vonnegut. You’ve read them all and maybe even have some hot takes. Some people like to act like being an English major is code for undeclared, but we vehemently disagree. If you can’t tell from our use of five-dollar words, we have great respect for the academics who navigate the written word. And English is a highly applicable major to other fields. Obviously, famous writers take the #1 spot in the major, but you’d be among astronauts, politicians, lawyers, scientists, actors, comedians, directors, CEOs, and doctors.

Extracurriculars Activities: Political Science

Okay, so you think you want to study political science but you have no idea where to start. That’s totally fine. However, don’t wait until the last minute to get started on developing this interest. Colleges want to see you become as expert as you can in your interest area before you start studying–they like to see proof that you’re committed to your academic interests.

Junior Year of High School: What to Expect

Junior year can be a whirlwind. After all, it’s the pinnacle of your college preparation journey and while every year of high school is important, 11th grade can, in some instances, be make-or-break. It’s crucial to get your ducks in a row and keep pushing through until the end. If you get organized from the beginning and stay consistent throughout, you should be able to maintain a reasonable pace. Either way, the light is there at the end of the tunnel, so buckle up and drive on forward.

Think Big: Impressive Extracurricular Activities Examples for Highschool Students

We know you’re busy. Or maybe you’re not, and this article is perfect for you because you should be busy. Really busy. Sometimes we just need a little bit of creative inspiration (or a strong reminder) that colleges not only care about, but look carefully at how you spend your time outside of the classroom.  So, if you need that reminder to fill your time with activities and projects that are productive, consider this that reminder. And if you’re busy with extracurriculars, this is a good reminder to think about quality vs. quantity. Just because you’re doing a lot, doesn’t mean you’re showing your diversity of skills and interests in the best way possible.  

Online Courses as Extracurricular Activities for High School Students

We’ve found that how students use their free time is a big indicator of success (or lack thereof) during and after the college application process. That’s exactly why we emphasize the importance of spending free time, whether it is short or long breaks from school, , that 2-hour block before bed when you play video games, doing something that expands their academic interests. We’ve written in the past about how , like college-credit courses and online courses, . While there’s no one guaranteed path to gaining a college acceptance letters, we do know that colleges don’t like kids who waste their free time. In fact, it’s this non-school, , and , in addition to your , that we think most determines whether or not you’ll be accepted.

Work Experience for a College Admission Application

These days, there’s a lot of pressure on students to cultivate the right suite of extra-curriculars. Often times, kids join too many clubs or take on too many volunteer opportunities and miss the mark on demonstrating that they’ve committed to one area of expertise. But developing depth in an area doesn’t have to be limited to unpaid activity. In this post, we talk about how work experience can be a great addition to the resume.

Community Service Requirements for College Admission

We have been conditioned to believe that there is a very specific checklist of requirements to get into a great college. First comes the mandatory minimums of excellent grades and scores, followed by knockout essays. On the second tier lie the extra-curriculars, the recommendations and of course, the impressive hours of community service you’re supposed to somehow cram in instead of sleeping. But one thing on the list is not like the others; colleges require you to submit test scores, grades, essays, recommendations and a resume, but what a lot of kids don’t realize is that contrary to popular belief, community service can really be extra.  

Junior Year of High School: College Prep

When you hear the words “junior year” what do you think of? SATs? College tours? Applications? AP exams? 11th grade is often billed as THE “college year,” but any 9th or 10th grader knows that it’s not like students spend the other years twiddling their thumbs. This is a misconception. Consider that every year of high school is a “college year.” In this post, we talk about what you need to be focused on your junior year. Spoiler alert: it is extracurriculars.

How to Pick Your Sophomore Year Extracurriculars

Hey, all you rising sophomores, welcome to limbo! Sophomore year is a weird time. You don’t feel like you’re allowed to be doe-eyed and lost anymore because Junior year is within arms reach, but you still kind of are that confused freshman who wants to be able to check out of class sometimes because everyone’s been telling you that your grades don’t really matter...yet. (For the record, we completely reject that idea and grades don’t always matter, but so goes cultural programming.)

Why You Shouldn't Send Your Kid on a Community Service Trip for College

There are a lot of problems with short-term service trips, or voluntourism as it’s often called. There are social problems, there are economic problems, there are cultural problems, and there are problem problems, but none of those are the problems we’re going to talk about here. Analyzing the socio-political side effects of importing unskilled teens into impoverished countries with the (mis)intention of saving the day isn’t our specialty...or it isn’t here, at least. Our specialty is getting great kids into stellar colleges, and so we’re going to focus on why sending your kid on a service trip isn’t going to help make that happen.

Extracurricular Ideas for the Summer after Junior Year of High School

Summer is upon us. Ok, it’s not, but the time to think about and solidify your summer plans is certainly upon us.

We strongly advise against anything that could be considered what we like to call “resume building.” We are anti-resume building, and by resume building, we mean engaging in activities for the sole purpose of listing it on your resume because you think it will “look good.” Spoiler alert: admissions officers can tell when a resume has been padded by “look good” items and you attempting to hide your lackluster interest under a thing you did with a catchy cause or at an exclusive institution.