- August 26, 2023
- 12:12 pm
Extracurricular Activities in Resume
Important things to keep in mind while participating in extracurricular activities and mentioning them in college applications
Important things to keep in mind while participating in extracurricular activities and mentioning them in college applications
You now have a good idea about the kinds of extracurricular activities you can potentially participate in and the importance of extracurricular activities. If you want to know about the kinds of extracurricular activities that you can participate in, Extracurricular Activities
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind while talking about them in your college application. While it might be tempting to participate in as many extra co curricular activities as possible, remember that you should be selective about the extracurricular activities you decide to participate in. Here are a few things you must keep in mind while participating in extracurricular activities and putting them up in your application.
Deep Involvement:
Colleges wish to see deep involvement in anything that you do, including the extracurricular activities that you take part in. This means that colleges are interested in the depth of your involvement in your extra-curricular activities rather than the breadth of the number of extracurricular activities you take part in.
Remember that it is always better to devote more hours in a few extracurricular activities and do exceptionally good in them instead of participating in a huge bunch of random extracurriculars and doing mediocre in them.
Genuine Interest:
Whether you wish to put up a “well-rounded” application or a “spiked” application, it is important that it is clearly visible that the extracurricular activities that you participate in are something you genuinely like and are passionate about rather than doing it merely to impress college admissions.
How to show genuine interest in the extracurricular activities that you pursue?
Competitions, Contests, Awards and Recognitions:
One way to show that you are genuinely interested in what you are doing is through winning competitions for the extracurriculars that you do at city, state, national or international level. Winning such contests proves your excellence in them. Higher the level of the competition, the more the brownie points.
Mentioning them in your essays:
Another way is to mention and talk about these activities in your essays. However, merely writing is not enough. You will have to “show rather than talk” about your activities through actual participation in events and competitions.
Gaining a leadership position:
If you are a part of a club or a team, gain a leadership position in the same. This is because such positions are given to members who have been a part for a long time and have done significant work. This will be proof of the time and efforts you have put in that extracurricular activity.
How to put up extra co curricular activities on the college application:
No extra co-curricular activity is better than the other. What makes any extracurricular activity stand out for you is the level you take it to.
While it is important to give more hours to each extracurricular activity you participate in, remember that the number of hours you put in your application should be realistic.
For example, if you are part of an orchestra, it is convenient for you to put in 10 hours per week for the same. But if someone writes 30 hours per week merely to show the time that he or she puts in, it will come out to be fake as a student has limited time for activities outside school and giving more than 3 hours to one activity in addition to other activities you write about is practically not possible.
However, if you are on an exchange program, you can easily write 40 hours per week as all you are doing at that time is attending the program.
