High school extracurricular activities

This page is about extracurricular activities for students in school, specifically high school. Extracurricular activities refers to activities that are not part of the academic curriculum of the educational institution.

The corresponding page about extracurricular activities at the college level is (where?).

Key takeaways

• There is a wide range of extracurricular activities that people may not think of as extracurricular activities, but that are good from a wide variety of perspectives: they enable long-term personal growth and learning, they can be used to signal quality to colleges, they can be fun, and they contribute value to the world.
• Participating in online communities may be one overlooked category in extracurricular activities, and you should seriously consider such participation if the type of activity you are interested in is amenable to that.
• Colleges are flexible when evaluating student involvement in extracurricular activities. Students who are unaware of this flexibility may mistakenly over-optimize their profile of extra-curricular activities for what they believe colleges are looking for, at the expense of personal growth, fun, and value contributed. Or, to put it bluntly, they may spend hours on activities that are boring, teach them nothing, and contribute no lasting value to society, but with no payoff in terms of college admissions.
• The key ingredient in using an extracurricular as a signal of quality to colleges is how convincingly you can demonstrate your passion for and achievement in the area. If recommendation letter-writers can vouch independently for your passion or skill in the area, that is even better.

What to look for in extracurriculars

Human capital: acquisition of long-term knowledge and skills

Extracurriculars can be used to acquire valuable skills. These include:

• The specific skills being practiced in the extracurricular: For instance, playing the violin for your school orchestra makes you better at playing the violin, and that might be a skill that you can put to use for later orchestras, or it might help you appreciate music better, or you might be able to tutor others in the violin later in life.
• General skills related to hardwork, perseverance, concentration, and acquisition of mastery
• Skills related to dealing with people: Many extracurriculars involve activities that rely on teamwork. Some extracurriculars involve dealing with customers or potential customers. Some extracurriculars involve reading the minds of opponents (poker?).

Nontrivial implications: Keep in mind that with every extracurricular, one can construct a just-so story about how that extracurricular builds valuable skills. Avoid doing that. Before you commit to an extracurricular that requires a huge investment of time and energy, consider whether it builds lasting skills. Keep in mind that extracurricular activities in music and sports very rarely provide career-relevant skills. So, unless you are either really good at these activities or enjoy them a lot, they may not be optimal choices.

Signaling quality to colleges

This is discussed in the section below. Basically, extracurriculars can help with college applications, but not in the way many people think.

Improved peer groups

Extracurriculars can be a way to hang out with people in your school or neighborhood or around the world who are more fun and useful to be around. For instance, if you are at a school where the typical student has little interest in having serious discussions, joining the Debate Club might help you interact more with the few people in your school who are interested in serious discussions. This improved peer group might be helpful in many ways:

• Friends and perhaps romantic partners of higher quality
• A more inspiring peer environment can push you to achieve more
• The peer group might provide you with high-quality information that can help you with your goals

Consumption

One major draw of extracurricular activities is that they can be fun and engaging, and provide variety.

Colleges are more flexible about extracurriculars than many students believe

Some students are under the impression that outside of their school work, they should participate in as many activities as possible. A common reason for this is that students believe that colleges are looking for students who participate in as many activities as possible.

Our research hasn't turned up much evidence that supports this, and we've come across many indications that colleges don't look specifically for students who participate in as many activities as possible. Here are some representative examples:

• Stanford University admissions department says: Students often assume our primary concern is the number of activities in which one participates. In fact, an exceptional depth of experience in one or two activities may demonstrate your passion more than minimal participation in five or six clubs.
• MIT's admissions department says: Choose your activities because they really delight, intrigue and challenge you, not because you think they'll look impressive on your application. Go out of your way to find projects, activities and experiences that stimulate your creativity and leadership, that connect you with peers and adults who bring out your best, that please you so much you don't mind the work involved. Some students find room for many activities; others prefer to concentrate on just a few. Either way, the test for any extracurricular should be whether it makes you happy - whether it feels right for you.
• The founder of adMISSION POSSIBLE wrote: When it comes to extracurricular involvements, it doesn't really matter what the content is. Anything from doing a major DNA research project to volunteering at a school that serves low income students to excelling at fly-fishing is legitimate fodder for college application grids. No matter the activity, colleges look for quality of involvement rather than quantity of activities. In other words, it is better to be consistently involved in one, two, or three activities and/or sports over a number of years, than superficially involved in eight, 10 or 12 for shorter periods of time. Simply said, activity laundry lists do not impress.

Suggestions for extracurricular activities

Because colleges don't appear to favor applicants who are involved in a large number of extracurricular activities, you should take advantage of the opportunity to base your choice of extracurricular activities in areas that will interest you, and/or extracurricular activities that are conducive to personal growth. Some extracurricular activities that we recommend are:

Creating something new

One of the best ways to learn about the world and about yourself is to create something new. Creating something new is also good for college admissions: it shows greater independence, initiative, and originality than participating in school clubs.

• If you're passionate about writing, this could be a book.
• If you're passionate about math, this could be a mathematical research paper.
• If you're passionate about programming, this could be a computer software.
• If you're passionate about education for underprivileged children, this could be an after school educational enrichment program for them.

Participating in online communities

One of the virtues of the internet is that it enables people to find others who share their interests. Because the population of people who use the internet is large, participating in online communities can give you access to some very knowledgable people who you can learn more from than the people who you know in person. Some ideas for online communities that you might participate in are:

• Quora — a question and answer website where you can ask and answer questions about any subject that interests you.
• LessWrong — A group blog where participants discuss psychology, philosophy, self-improvement, artificial intelligence, and the far future.
• StackOverflow — a computer programming question and answer website.

Internships

You can learn more about careers that interest you by doing internships at companies and nonprofits.

Earning to give

A lot of community service work and volunteer work isn't an efficient way of helping people. An alternative that you should consider is earning to give. If you get a job, or work a few extra hours at your job, you can save up money that you can donate to charity. Some charities are very impactful. For example, GiveDirectly gives 90% of donations to very poor Kenyans who have household incomes that are about ~$1000/year. If you donate ~$1000 to GiveDirectly, you can double a poor Kenyan family's income for a year, enabling the family to buy things like a metal roof to replace a leaky thatch roof.