How Much Do Extracurriculars Matter For College?

Introduction

As students navigate the intricate process of college applications to secure a spot in their dream institutions, they delve into more than just academic achievements. Beyond sharing their personal information and transcripts, they must also highlight their extracurricular involvements. These activities, pursued both within and outside school premises, are crucial as they showcase a student’s commitment to broadening their horizons, pursuing passions, and developing diverse skills. This raises a critical question: How significant are extracurricular activities in the eyes of college admissions officers?

Let’s talk about how extracurriculars are viewed by colleges.

Reflects Interests and Skills

From playing a sport to being involved in activities and clubs, it allows admission officers to understand the applicant better and discern their interests. Colleges prioritize character and skills such as time management because they seek students who can adapt to college studies. They decide if the applicants are a good fit based on the applicant's abilities to balance these activities with their personal lives. More importantly, admission officers focus on patterns in an applicant’s extracurriculars to see what they are mainly invested in. 

For an applicant going for a business major, their activities could include internship work for companies. For applicants pursuing a major in the field of medicine, their activities could consist of job shadowing, healthcare and social welfare-related clubs like the Red Cross, and other activities. Colleges want to see that the applicants are pursuing their interests from a young age and always strive to improve themselves.

Quantity vs. Quality 

Though joining a few clubs or organizations may be better than having no activities, colleges want to see the applicants spending time on what matters to them. If the applicants join activities just to put on the college application, college admission officers can notice this and not pay attention to these activities. On the other hand, applicants who have spent years on a select few activities that truly interest them grab the attention of the admissions officer. 

As mentioned above, colleges are looking for students who are passionate and dedicated to their activities. For example, a student who has been playing basketball for the school team or has been doing dance or debate for years all show colleges that these applicants commit.

Leadership Qualities

Universities are always looking for applicants who can meet their standards and create an impact. Colleges want students who demonstrate leadership through their extracurriculars because these students are most likely high achievers and tend to bring their unique set of abilities to their colleges. 

Being a leader means collaborating and making decisions that impact others, and this requires skills such as critical thinking and communication. However, this does not mean creating a new club just to be its leader and putting it on college applications. Admissions officers are looking for the applicant’s leadership qualities and their impact on their community. This could be being the captain of a sports team, being the leader of a club that has a relatively large student body, or stepping up to a leadership position through volunteering or internships.

Application Strength Increases

Admissions officers do not have hours to look at and analyze one applicant. They have to go through thousands of applications and decide whether the applicant is a good fit for their college. Due to this time crunch, admission officers look at the applicants’ extracurriculars holistically, looking for activities that reflect moral qualities and activities that led the applicant to develop their interests in the major they would like to pursue. For example, an applicant who is applying for a computer science major who was part of a computer science club in high school and went to, maybe even won, national competitions is much stronger than another applicant who did not do anything. 

Applicants can expand on their experiences with these extracurriculars in their college essays. The more experience the applicant has with their activities, the more they have to write about. This can allow them to entice the admissions officers to accept you into your dream college. 

Platforms like Kollegio AI allow applicants to view their strengths and chances of getting into their chosen universities based on how well-rounded their grades and extracurriculars are (use these platforms to shape your application to stand out).

 Better Chance At Top Colleges

At top colleges such as MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Ivy League schools, almost every applicant has good grades, SAT or ACT scores, and a high rank (if their school ranks). They could even be valedictorians or salutations of their school, but that does not guarantee them a spot at these top universities. To stand out from other high-achieving students, extracurriculars have a special role at these universities. 

An applicant’s unique activities and impact on their community allow the admission officer to notice the applicant out of thousands. Everyone must remember that most, if not all, students at these top universities have something that sets them apart from other students. These “somethings” are activities that these students did before applying to colleges that make them unique. 

Fun fact: According to sources like Forbes, students recruited for their sport have an 86% admission chance overall. This proves the impact of having an extracurricular that makes the applicant unique.

Conclusion

Even if extracurriculars matter, that does not mean that grades and GPA do not. Grades are equally important because, before admission, officers look at an applicant’s extracurriculars; they look at their grades. After they grasp the student’s academic abilities and chances of handling college work, they look at the applicant’s extracurriculars to grasp the applicant’s ability to contribute to the university. 

Colleges like well-rounded students who balance their extracurriculars with their school work. If applicants do not know where to start, Kollegio AI utilizes Artificial Intelligence to provide helpful suggestions on where to start and what extracurriculars to join. The stronger the extracurriculars the higher the chance the applicants have to get into their dream university.

By Vedik Ranabothu