“Should I even apply to Harvard?” It’s a question that we often hear from nervous students. These students routinely have over a 4.0 GPA and at least a 34 on the ACT but are still worried about getting in. They understand that with only a acceptance rate, it takes more than just excellent grades to get in. Harvard uses a holistic admissions process, meaning they look at all aspects of your application. A large part of that is your extracurriculars. You may ask yourself, “Well, what should my extracurriculars look like?” Let us break it down.
Dartmouth Extracurricular Guide
Columbia Extracurricular Guide
UPenn Extracurricular Guide
UPenn is looking for a lot when it comes to admissions. They want to see students who can do it all inside and out of class. So yes, while grades and scores are paramount, Penn really cares about your extracurriculars. With a sub-6% acceptance rate, they can afford to be picky. In fact, they have to be picky.
Best Extracurriculars for Prospective Political Science Majors
Political science is, of course, the study of the science of politics, but not science like the biology kind. Instead, students in political science programs study the way governments, public policy, and the political world in general work from both a technical perspective and a more humanities-minded perspective. Students who major in political science often go on to work in policy analysis, for government agencies, as political consultants, and basically any field that interfaces with politics or government in any way.
Brown Extracurricular Activities
You have a 4.3 and 1590 on the SAT. You might be asking yourself, can I get into Brown? We hear this question all the time and the answer is… maybe? Having great grades and scores is only the first step for elite colleges like Brown. You need more than that. One of the most important things you will need is great extracurriculars
Best Extracurriculars for Philosophy Majors
In the United States, annually graduate with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Only one-tenth of that, , graduate with degrees in philosophy. Philosophy, or at least some form of it, is one of the original university programs dating back to the very origins of universities as we know them today. Universities were fundamentally guilds of scholars and teachers, and philosophers made up a sizable chunk of that. Compared to its origins, philosophy today is a tiny fraction of the university ecosystem.
Best Extracurriculars for Prospective Foreign Language Majors
If you’re a language person, you’re a language person. Some people aren’t language people, but those who enjoy learning languages, and who thrive in other cultures, should consider majoring in a foreign language in college. Mastery of a foreign language can lead to jobs in policy, in government, in education, in journalism, and even internationally.
Yale Extracurricular Activities for High School Students
So Yale is your dream school, but will you get in? A lot of our students are very nervous about their chances at schools like Yale. And we get why: it takes more than great grades and scores to get into Yale. If you are dreaming of Yale, you also need to have great extracurriculars. It isn’t always obvious what that might look like, so we wanted to break it down and give a real example of what the kind of student that gets into Yale looks like.
Best Extracurriculars for Prospective Environmental Science Majors
With climate change becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, studying environmental science in college has never been more popular among students who want to make a difference in the world. If you’re interested in becoming the next great environmental scientist, or even saving us from global warming, you’ll need to think carefully about how you present yourself in your college applications.
The Best Extracurriculars for Art History Majors
Art history is, unsurprisingly, the study of the history of art. It’s also a popular college major offered by nearly every university. Despite the popularity of art history at the collegiate level, very few high school students have access to studying art history beyond a course or two (if that, even) in high school. This leaves students in a tough position — how do you differentiate yourself from other applicants when there won’t be much on your transcript to show your interest in art history?
The Best Extracurriculars for Business Majors
An increasing number of students we work with are even interested in majoring in business in college. It’s been a steep enough uptick that it’s impossible to ignore. Once upon a time, students interested in STEM wanted to go on to get a secure job at a big company. These days, that’s simply not the goal. Young people would rather work harder days and longer hours — but for themselves. And to give themselves the best chance of succeeding they know they need to understand the mechanics, economics, and even the psychology, of business.
How to Get an Internship in High School
You’ve probably heard about college students getting internships, but did you know that high school students can too? Internships provide you with exposure to a field of work, and give you access to people who want to help teach you. Jobs do both of these things too, obviously, but high schoolers typically can’t access a job where they will spend significant amounts of time, learning from and shadowing alongside experienced people in a field you may be interested in studying in college or pursuing professionally. This is what internships can provide, and this is why we encourage them.
The Best Extracurriculars for English Majors
If you’re thinking of becoming a teacher, writer, journalist, academic, or researcher, or even just love reading, you may be considering majoring in English in college. Since you’ve been taking English classes since practically your first day of school, you may be thinking you don’t have to do much to make yourself look like a strong applicant. Get good grades, take additional classes, and read an extra book or two — right? Well, we wish it was that simple. The ubiquity of English courses is actually what makes standing out as a prospective English major quite difficult. Everyone is studying nearly the same topics and reading nearly the same books, so it’s hard to colleges to differentiate you from anyone else unless you do something to stand out beyond the confines of your in-school curriculum.
The Best Extracurriculars for Anthropology Majors
Anthropology is the study of cultures and customs in context, and anthropologists have helped us gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, those around us, and those who came way before us. Archaeology is, after all, a subset of anthropology! So, whether you are curious about ancient cultures or one not too far from you, a major in anthropology may be a great fit. Before you press submit on your application, though, there are some things you should do to make yourself stand out.
MIT Extracurricular Activities for High School Students
We often hear “My kid has a 4.0, can they get into MIT?” It’s not an easy question to answer, mostly because it’s not the right question to ask. Yes, having perfect grades is the absolute floor if you want to get into MIT, but it’s far from the only thing you need. So when we hear this question, we usually have to respond with a question, “What do their extracurriculars look like?”
The Best Extracurriculars for History Majors
History is one of the most popular humanities majors at American colleges and universities, and many colleges have subcategories under the ‘history’ umbrella focused on specific regions, cultures, countries, or communities. If you’re thinking about studying history in college, it’s important to go into the application knowing that it can be tough to stand out as a prospective student even if you have exceptional grades. Because there aren’t a ton of extracurriculars specific to potential history majors, and more high schools don’t offer a wide array of options for history electives, making a splash with your application takes some strategy.
English Major Strategy: How to Stand Out
Fun Fact: English is one of the most popular humanities majors for students to list when applying to college. It has also been the default major for students who don’t know what they want to study, aren’t STEM-y, and don’t want to click “undecided” (which, by the way, is something you should never do). So, there are a lot of people selecting it and, if you truly do want to study English, it is important that you make yourself stand out from the pack. Here are some things that you can do before writing your application and in your application itself to ensure your application makes a serious impact.
The Best Extracurriculars for Economics Majors
Economics is a social science that brings together political science, statistics, sociology, mathematics, engineering, psychology, history, and more — basically everything — within the overarching umbrella of money markets and value creation (or destruction, depending on the circumstance). While it is a social science, economics has some major quantitative components that mean it’s nearly as much a STEM field as a humanities field.
Transfer Extracurricular Club Strategies
Given that you’re reading this post, we’re going to assume that you are thinking of transferring colleges. While transferring to a different college isn’t a ‘big deal’ — it’s fairly common and we help many students navigate the process — orchestrating a ‘successful’ transfer does require significant planning. We should also explain what we mean by ‘successful.’ Most of the students we work with want to transfer to a college that they either didn’t get into when they applied to colleges as a high school senior, or that didn’t even seem like a possibility, so they hadn’t tried to apply. This means that they need to be a better applicant than they were as few as 10 months earlier. And a least three of those months were summer break. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to improve your application, so this whole process takes some strategy if you want the best possible outcomes.