5 Activities That Don't Help Your College Application

In general, these activities won't help your college application very much. Instead, focus your attention on what will improve your admissions chances!

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Learning Made Awesome!

Produced by: David Paul
Edited by: Sara Lester

[yubiie]

She talks about passion as if school hasn't already mercilessly robbed me of my sense of motivation and passion.

[beckaf.]

alright lemme just become number one in my class, get near-perfect scores on the sat and act, spend 2 hours at school sports and 2 hours at club sports every day for the whole school year, take 6 AP classes, be the best player in band, and be the president of every activity I'm in. oh, and also start my own business, organize 3 new clubs at school, and mentor in a children's program. don't forget a healthy 8-10 hours of sleep each night!

[DaesungMars]

Getting good grades and actually doing well in school just aren't enough anymore. Not everyone has the time or energy after a long day of school + hours of homework to do these extracurriculars. Originally, these were there for fun, for students to enjoy, but now they're just there as resume padders as students scramble to make themselves seem as competitive as possible. It's sad. The entire American college and application systsm is a weird game that you have to BS like there's no tomorrow in order to win.

[snehapas]

Life tip: do what you want, if you have a passion for an activity do it regardless of whether or not it'll look good on an application. Life is more than the college admissions office

[fandingdano]

Man, it really is a shame that colleges only accept leaders. It's as if all the people that work under leaders don't matter at all :/. (i'm gonna stay on the volleyball team, even if i'm not good at it. because i LIKE it and i'm DEDICATED).

[isabelv]

Watching this at 1:00am just feeds into my anxiety

[lukkash]

I’m not in the US educational system but I have heard here two SAD things:
1. Be passionate ... but only under condition that you’re the best at this activity ... if you aren’t the best (or aren’t a leader) then drop your “passion”.
2. You go to a college with all these catchwords about “changing the world”, “making impact” etc. ... heh, and then people get into some corporation and do a very regular job as a cog in the machine or even his job could be harmful to other people or to the planet.

[harajukulover]

I did all of this. And I got into UC Berkeley with a 22 on the ACT. Take this video with a grain of salt and just focus on writing a really compelling admissions essay :)

[aliak]

You can try to get to a good college as much as you want, but remember:

*mental health before success*

[mchobbit]

I'm from Europe and I always found it ODD that, after school, homework, studying, family responsibilities and possibly a job, teens are supposed to spend the time they have left doing activities they don't really want to do to impress the colleges. And this is called well rounded? Always being around peers and never your family, someone of another age or god forbid ALONE is well-rounded? Someone who does ten million activities at his school and always just his school is more well-rounded than someone who volunteers? Volunteering isn't "innovative and original" but running laps around your school court IS...as long as you are good at it? Wait, WHAT?!

America must really hate introverts and those that connect better with people of other ages vs. peers. And doing anything for the joy of it seems to be unacceptable, you have to be GOOD at it. I also don't get how you cannot show involvement if you aren't good at something. And how can the whole team show "leadership"?? There has to be a majority of non leaders for their to BE leaders and in the work world, it will be the same. Yet everyone has to be a leader going into college, though the majority won't be coming out?! What is this circus???

Your admissions process is a circus and teaches Americans young that NONE of their time is ever ever EVER their own. In France and Germany, nobody cares much about what you do in your free time. That's why it's FREE time. I always hated extracurricular. In my free time, I wanted to do fun things with friends, read, write crappy fanfiction, do some crafts or text my friends on my flip phone. These things had no purpose but enjoyment and destressing. The closest I got was teaching myself languages (doesn't count, solidary), babysitting (doesn't seem to count) and learning the guitar (doesn't count again, because I was mediocre).

Also, what does telling someone to only do what they are naturally good at already teach them, anyway? Someone who isn't naturally good at something sticking with it shows dedication. Not being good at something from the start doesn't mean that you cannot improve. But if you dismiss everything you aren't good at already, how would you know how awesome you could be if you showed dedication? My friend who is an amazing writer was pretty horrible at high school age...she is good at it now because she didn't give up.

[jasonb.]

Have fun in high school. Get the best grades you can but don't be afraid to try new things. You'll never be able to go back once you graduate. Don't miss out on life experience just to try to look good for some admissions counselor. If you're a crummy swimmer but you love swimming ... do it!

[theboys]

tbh if your a senior on JV, I applaud you. That is hard to take as a senior but only the ones who truly love the sport will continue playing it because they love it.

[irvingmorris]

“so you can avoid wasting your
time on these activities and spend your time instead on activities that are going to help you get into college”

are you kidding me? this is ridiculous! kids should do activities that bring them joy instead of feeling like they’re WASTING THEIR TIME on something just because some random admissions officer doesn’t care about it

[wedeldylan]

I wish colleges in America were like in Europe where you just have to pass an entrance exam and not do all these petty bullshit extracurriculars

[frasssaeed]

746 key club members disliked the video lol

[madelinemello]

I dont agree, even if you arent good at a sport doesnt mean it isnt a huge time commitment and it shows youre good at time mangement if you can get good grades and spend 3 hours a night on a sport, that means a lot

[ssjack]

she did not come to play with y’all on the mediocre activity segment

[kaylabrown]

College admission isn't this black and white. No extracurricular activities will get you in or break you. Don't not put volunteering just because you heard here that colleges don't like it, especially if you had an extended commitment and it's in your field of interest. By the time you do your application you'll have already committed all these hours to your clubs and other activities. PUT THEM DOWN AND BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU DID

Your essays matter way more than your list of activities will. Focus more on that than fluffing your application with what you think colleges want/ don't want

[mastertoad]

Grades? Colleges don’t care
SAT? Colleges don’t care
Extracurriculars? Colleges don’t care
Volunteer? Colleges don’t care
Money? Colleges don’t—

Oh wait.

So how do you get in to college then?

[justincarroll]

Examples of extracurriculars that help you get into Harvard: Boys/Girls Nation (not state...nation), Eagle Scout, Debate Team Captain, Sports Team Captain, Class President or Student Body President, Black belt in a martial art, Cheerleading Captain (yes, cheerleading really helps), creating phone apps or other software that becomes popular (especially if you're a girl), having scientific research published in a peer-reviewed journal with you as a lead author, being conductor of an orchestra. Starting clubs or organizations doesn't help much because it's very common nowadays. 20-30 years ago, it helped a little.

Basically, find a couple of activities you're really interested in and go after the top level of leadership and accomplishment in those couple of activities.

Things that really don't help much for Harvard: Starting a club or organization that you are "president" of (unless it's something that really became big on a state or national level, not just your school), volunteering, tutoring, mentoring, random clubs (FBLA, HOSA, chess club, math club, etc.), summer camps and programs (unless they are extremely selective and prestigious like TASP or Research Science Institute...usually those types of programs are free), and "leadership In the summer, it would be better to take challenging courses (in Calculus, English Lit, U.S. History, etc.) at a nearby 4-year university and get As in them...that would look good, especially if the courses are in the subject you plan on concentrating (i.e. majoring) in at Harvard.

Hopefully you have near-perfect (or perfect) grades and test scores. Being #1 or #2 in your class looks good. If you've taken AP or IB exams, it looks good to show them a bunch of 5s (or 7s on IB exams), and nothing below a 4 (6 on IB). It helps (a little) to be from an underrepresented state like Mississippi or Wyoming. It helps to express interest in an unpopular concentration like Linguistics or Anthropology, especially if your interest for that subject shows in your essays or activities. It helps to be a girl interested in a STEM major as long as your grades and test scores strongly back up your STEM ability.

Oh, and if you're poor or even middle class (family income less than ~$70k or so), that helps quite a bit. Incorporate that into your essays somehow. Yes, they could just look on your FAFSA form to see your family's income, but they really like kids from poor or middle class (not upper middle, haha) backgrounds. They like kids who overcame adversity or lack of opportunities in their communities and schools. This won't overcome less than great grades and test scores, but it will definitely help.

And if you don't get in, it's fine, really. Harvard (or Yale or any other school) is FAR from a guarantee of any success in life. You will have to make your own success in life regardless of where you graduate from college.