Extracurricular Activities

Events It's Not Too Late to Make the Most of Summer 2024 DATE AND TIME On Demand Free Watch Now ABOUT THIS EVENT Summer is just around the corner, but it’s not too late to plan for a productive break! From conducting an independent project to attending a summer program at a university campus, there are several ways for students to fight summer brain drain and stay on track with their college admissions goals! Join IvyWise college admissions counselors and a member of the Summer Discovery team as they explain the importance of having a productive summer and share suggestions to identify the best activities, courses, and programs for your interests and goals.

Events Extracurricular Activities Brainstorming DATE AND TIME On Demand Free Watch Now ABOUT THIS EVENT Are you participating in the right extracurricular activities? Gaining admission to top colleges and universities is incredibly difficult for even the most academically qualified applicants, and soft factors, like activities, are often the dealmakers today. Join IvyWise college admissions counselors as they demystify what admissions officers are looking for when evaluating activities and how they factor into your overall student profile.

Given how high stakes the race for admission to top schools feels nowadays, with a surfeit of qualified applicants often selected on the unique attributes they’ll bring to a university’s student body, high schoolers are always looking for ways that can help them stand out from the crowd.  This is where independent projects come in! There has been an explosion of interest these past few years in pursuing a project of a student’s own accord outside of school, demonstrating both their passion for a topic and their commitment to advancing their own learning.

We know that in the college admissions process, there can be a big emphasis placed on extracurriculars. When an applicant meets the academic expectations of a university, the admissions officers then turn to the student’s list of clubs and activities to learn more about them and understand the impact they’ve made on their communities. In fact, it’s often the extracurriculars that set applicants apart.

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Chances are that if you are reading this, you, or someone you know, would like to improve their writing. Indeed, writing competently is a key strength, and mastering it will certainly pay dividends. The effort invested in this skill offers a whole host of rewards, both in the short, medium, and long term.

What do Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg have in common? Aside from their remarkable commitment to their causes, both started to work to build the society they want to live in before they turned 20. And they have a lot of inspiring company among young changemakers!

Summer can be a time for sleeping in, seeing friends and family, and almost forgetting you were a student for a bit. But it’s also an opportunity to work on projects you didn’t have time for during the school year. The real question is how to balance the summer with relaxing and being both personally and academically productive.

Most U.S. colleges and universities use a holistic review method when reviewing applicants for admission, considering various aspects of a student’s academic and personal record.

Passion. People die for it, poets write about it, colleges look for it. Yet, it’s so easy for passion to get lost in the flurry of assignments and deadlines.

We all know that grades and test scores are key factors in college admissions, but activities outside of the classroom are also very important. Schools are looking to build a class of specialists, so it's important to hone in on a few interests you're really passionate about and develop them. One activity that allows you to learn, document your experience and demonstrate knowledge of a particular field or interest is blogging.

It’s a new year, a new semester, and the perfect time for students to reevaluate their extracurricular activities and whether or not those activities are really helping them better explore their interests. Students often overlook community service as a way to explore their interests because they tend to have a one-dimensional view of what community service entails. If they’re not collecting cans at a food drive or serving dinner at a local homeless shelter, what other community service is there?

It is widely acknowledged that demonstrating interests through extracurricular activities is a critical element of a robust college application, but students and parents are often unsure which process to follow. I encourage students to identify an interest and use it to build an extracurricular project plan. Projects should be selected based on fit, have a mix of milestones ranging from easy to difficult, show a clear link to each other, and incrementally increase in independence & difficulty.

Summer will be here before you know it, and with time off of school, students should pursue activities and programs that align with their interests instead of coasting through their school break. A productive summer break can help students stand out in the admissions process — while also helping them to explore their interests and gain a better understanding of what they want to do with their college education. The key to a productive summer break is to plan ahead!

When applying to college, the goal of most students is to “stand out.” They want to know what they can do to differentiate themselves from the thousands of other applicants they are competing against to win a spot at their top-choice college. Some students think a stellar essay will separate them from the pack.

Is the study of history – history? In recent years, only about 1% of college students graduate with a degree in history. In fact, between 2008 and 2017, the latest year with available data, the number of history majors has plummeted by nearly 30%.

When watching the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, I was in awe of the high school-aged kids like Chloe Kim and Red Gerard on Team USA. How do they balance their intensive training and extensive travel schedules with homework and school commitments? Surely being an Olympic athlete is impressive, but how do sports affect the college admissions process for regular students?

Do you play the violin or clarinet? Sing? Are you a freestyle rapper?

While it can be tempting to simply count down the days until summer break, spring semester is a prime time for high school underclassmen to prepare for the college admissions process, and for college-bound seniors to close out the year on a high note. Believe it or not, seniors, you are not off the hook just yet! Here are some tips for high school students to ensure a productive and successful spring semester.

IvyWise counselors Victoria and Christine break down the college admissions rubric and discuss examples of different hard and soft factors that admissions officers evaluate on the college admissions podcast, giving listeners expert insight from former admissions officers. Listen Now! When making admissions decisions, colleges and universities in the US don’t just look at grades and test scores.

Across the country, high school seniors are making plans for life after graduation. For many colleges is the obvious choice, but not for all. Gap years, where students take time off between high school and college, are becoming increasingly popular in the US.