High school extracurricular activities: signaling quality to colleges
One of the reasons high school students engage in extracurricular activities is that they believe these activities will improve their college admissions prospects. This is a form of signaling -- participation and accomplishment in extracurricular activities signals information about the applicant to the college admissions officer.
If this information distinguishes the applicant in a positive manner from other applicants in the pool, it improves the applicant's college admissions prospects. The flip side is that if the information fails to distinguish the applicant positively, or even worse, distinguishes the applicant negatively, this hurts the applicant's college admissions prospects.
KEEP IN MIND: This page specifically looks at high school extracurricular activities in the context of signaling quality to colleges. There are many other motivations for and benefits of engaging in extracurricular activities. For a bird's eye view, please see our summary of factors to consider.
Sources of evidence
We relied on the following sources:
- College statements about extracurricular activities
- Extensive off-the-record phone discussions with admissions officers at numerous colleges to understand what they are looking for.
- Discussions with high school students to understand their current environment.
- Cal Newport's How to Be a High School Superstar that advocates a specific strategy related to high school extracurriculars.
- Discussions on College Confidential forums (not initiated by us).