Your college application provides an opportunity to make an excellent first impression on the admission council. However, if you think just having great academic scores will help you cut it, you may stand corrected. The higher the reputation of the institution, the stiffer the competition. Your application can help you outshine all others, so you should be able to make the most of it. One of the most important elements in your application is a section called 'extracurricular activities'- these activities provide the universities and the admission council a better understanding of who you are as a person and your interests and ambitions.
It is critical to understand the kind of activities you should mention in your college application. While you may have participated in a variety of events throughout your school years, not all of them need to be included. In fact, the key to making an impact is to have focused areas of interest and allow the finest activities to stand out. Read on to understand more about the advantages of including extracurricular activities in your college application.
What are extracurricular activities for AP?
Just about any activity in which you are significantly and successfully involved while bringing a positive change in your personality, society, or environment can be classified as an extracurricular activity. Some popular categories are:
1. Sports
2. Social Service
3. Arts
4. Hobbies
Advantage 1: Extracurricular activities help demonstrate what you do and why you do it
Admission officers in colleges go through hundreds of applications in a day. While screening each application, they try to see the personality of the student in the application. Precise, clear interests and accomplishments that tell them about the student's passion, habits, qualities, and capabilities are valued more than achievements in multiple disjointed fields. What you do is less important to them than the reason behind your persuasion in the particular domain. What drove you towards choosing chess over painting? What was on your mind while chasing the zonal level championship in athletics? Why did you take up classical singing, and what does it mean to you? If your application answers such questions clearly, you are on the right track.
Advantage 2: Extracurricular activities reflect your leadership skills
Leadership is one of the most uncompromising skills colleges look for in a student. In addition to inculcating leadership through a rigorous curriculum, colleges assess each applicant on their ability to lead positively. Activities in sports and social service will help you tell them that you have what it takes to be a forerunner.
Advantage 3: Extracurricular activities unlock self-esteem
Working hard and learning new skills in a motivating, easy-going, and sometimes competitive environment helps you become a positive and confident risk-taker. As your confidence grows, you will be more willing to tackle challenges with confidence in all other parts of your life.
Advantage 4: Extracurricular activities help you make lifelong friends
Each extracurricular activity you participate in gives you an opportunity to broaden your social network, which will come in handy while pursuing a career and beyond. If you meet friends through your extracurricular activities, you are more inclined to get more involved.
Advantage 5: Extracurricular activities give you invaluable life skills
The more you push yourself in extracurricular activities, the more life skills you'll gain. Leadership, teamwork, time management, communication, problem-solving, and analytical thinking are considered invaluable in college and professional life. These skills may not be specified in the job description, but they are necessary and even mandatory in most organizations.
Advantage 6: Extracurricular activities demonstrate persistence
Persistence, patience, and dedication are the skills that will help you sail through your college exams, the rigorous training programs, and the tough assessments. But how would the admission council know that you possess these skills? The answer is, again, extracurricular activities. If you have constantly followed dramatics, helped your local dramatics club put up a great show, trained budding actors in your school and community, and continued these practices for years in a row, you will be seen as persistent and dedicated. In fact, there is no other way to demonstrate dedication than through extracurricular activities.
WritersQi believes that a well-rounded personality isn't possible without involvement in extracurricular activities. Book a consultation with us to understand what it takes to put forth a complete, impactful, failproof college application.