How Many Extracurriculars Should Students Have?
by Sarah M.
One of the most common questions students ask early in high school is how many extracurriculars they should pursue in order to make themselves as competitive as possible for college. There is no one simple answer to this question, but here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Quality is always better than quantity. Colleges do not care about the number of activities you can list.
They care about how you have participated in your activities: have you been involved for a long time, showing commitment? Have you achieved recognition, showing excellence? Have you taken on leadership roles, showing initiative and management skills?
Have you developed new roles over time, showing personal growth, creativity, and a willingness to learn?
- Do your activities complement what you expect to study in college?
On your applications, it is important to show not just what you have done, but how it has shaped you and your plans. Being excellent at the piano, for example, is not going to matter much to an engineering school unless you can explain how your music skills will translate into STEM.
Your activities do not all need to map onto your expected major in predictable ways, but it is important to take the time to think about how you might explain the connections between your extracurricular passions, and your course of study.
- Consider diversity in your activities. Colleges often want to see that you have pursued a few different types of activity.
Thinking about mixing things up between academics, intellectual passions, music, theater, and the arts, athletics, community service, entrepreneurship, and other types of hobbies.
Again, quality over quantity! You certainly do not need to do something in every one of those categories – but consider pursuing a few different types, so that you will have interesting and unique answers to potential application essay questions about your academic interests, your engagement with your community, and your passions.
