ACTIVITIES Colleges DON'T Care About - I Learned This The Hard Way...

Colleges don't care about these activities, whether you like it or not. Today, I share my personal experience participating in many extracurricular activities that I thought colleges like to see, but in reality made colleges care less about my application while stressing me out mentally and physically.

This list of college activities might seem like a great way to fill out the extracurricular activities section of your Common app, but this couldn't be further from the truth. I suffered through these activities so that you don't have to.

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Comment down below if you'd like help turning your passion into activities that colleges will love (leave a like before you do!)

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[justinholmes]

Colleges may not care much about sports but there’s more to life than only doing things that appeal to elite college admissions. It’s pretty simple - if you like something, do it.

[emmanuelaaboagye]

1. Sports *everyone has played a sport* (unless you are really good or the captain)
2. Volunteer Work (make sure it you are passionate about it) *it has to have a theme*
3. Position of Club (if you are founder or officer of club) *most importantly your contributions*
4. Random activities that feel bottom slots (it is very tempting!)

[zarvonrejaee]

I just do what I like and strive to be the best at it. Don’t let an institution determine what you do with your life; do what u wanna do

[prettycutiepie]

you're right, Brown did not care about my conspiracy theory club i started... but UCSB did 😎

[carmenmeinson]

Ahahah! “2 languages at once😱”. I love how this is a big thing for Americans, but like in Estonia (or many other countries) 2 foreign languages are many even take 3.

[miguelsaucedo]

I would counter that sports argument because if it really does take up so much time (it does im on the track and field team) it shows that even with that strict schedule you are able to maintain great grades and even do some other extracurriculars it shows you are responsible and have great time management skills. Not to mention that you are dedicated to what you love to do.

[Carpz]

Sometimes people get too caught up in the next step and forget to enjoy the one they are at. I get it a lot of people play sports and it might not look that good for colleges, but in the end of the day the bonds formed on those teams wins out.

[enjoyfanta]

I agree about the volunteer work especially. I’m currently a junior, and wasted my freshman and sophomore years doing useless volunteer work. This year, I started volunteering at my local library to teach 1st-8th graders math because I’m very passionate about math and I’m planning to major in it. It makes me feel like I’m making a difference in someone’s life because most of the kids I work with weren’t interested in math and I understand that because I hated math at first until my 7th grade math teacher made me really interested in the subject. I try to teach them in a fun and interesting way to share my passion with them, and the best thing for me is when one of the students has a bright look on their face after understanding something challenging for them.

[StudiosAdVanced]

Actually, if you are honestly putting in hard work and effort into an activity, don’t hesitate to include it in your college apps. The ONLY scenario where colleges won’t care about activities you do (or will it hurt your app in any way) is if you just sign up for 1000 clubs/organizations and rarely show up or dedicate yourself.

[siddharthsharma]

Great videos man. You changed my perception of the college admissions process

[cerealbeforemilk]

"Colleges really care that all of your activities have a theme in common and that you're not just doing volunteer work for college."

[adam]

You made all these “mistakes” and still got in...

[pa]

My passion is learning about the Universe and the extracurriculars I do are:
°Volunteering at my nearest planetarium.
°Publishing articles on scientific topics at the news paper every week
°Astrophotography
°Student Government
are these extracurriculars enough or should I do more? Is having all 10 extracurriculars necessary? If yes then can you suggest some more which are related to astrophysics? Other than joining clubs.

[bobbyswanson]

I’m almost done with my early applications and tbh I rarely thought about college through high school and nothing I did besides take ap’s was with the intention of helping me get into college. I just did what I liked and what I thought would be fun.

[declandonovan]

Also, you can just stick with an extracurricular if you enjoy doing it! As someone who also signed up for way too many clubs my freshman year (tennis, track, drama, model un, mock trial, etc) I can tell you that you should stick with what you love, not if it will make your application look “perfect” because the perfect application is the one that’s the most authentic! You don’t need to be president of the club to seem dedicated, you don’t need to be captain of the team to show you love a sport. It’ll all work out.

[diva]

I feel like it helps to join a bunch of clubs at the beginning of 9th grade just to get a feel of what you actually enjoy. After attending for a little while, just cut out the ones you don't find that interesting. I experimented and then stuck with the 2 or 3 that I thought I could pursue for the rest of high school.

[therealxenith]

These videos help me more than my guidance counselors at school!

[redheadedcutie]

I am going to correct this kid. Do the activity you enjoy, do not do an activity just for college applications. If playing a sport makes you light up like a Christmas Tree level happy, then stick with it. Even if you are not good at it. Do the activity that is going to make you the most centered mentally. If doing a sport makes you miserable, than quit. Same goes for all other clubs and volunteer activity.

College admissions people can tell whether the activity that you chose was done just for an impressive app or done because you are passionate about it.

[vasco]

One thing, from American education system, that I wish to have here in Europe, is the variety of clubs and extracurricular activities on school. We barely have more than 4 extracurricular activities in our schools (and most of them are sports).

[billalsheik]

Hey Greg, I wanted to ask you about the whole 'IQ' thing and I've been wanting to hear what you had to say about it. I recall seeing an individual speaking about how you required to have a 125 IQ and if you had anything lower then you oughtn't consider going into a prestigious Ivy League.
Do you think it has to do with innate intelligence or does it have to do more with work ethic and putting time and dedication into academics?