Gone are those days when the main way to get into an Ivy league university is by getting amazingly high grades. Universities are no longer looking for just amazing grades, but a well-rounded student who can contribute to their institution across multiple domains. As such, extracurricular activities in high school (and even earlier in middle school!) play a critical role in increasing your chances of getting admitted.

This could range from activities offered at the school, to those in your neighborhood, and now online activities due to the pandemic. It is not surprising that many students and their parents will have one too many choices to pick from and it may get confused with what is the best course of action.

Academic Tutoring: Many students may desire to either explore an activity or subject that is not taught at school, such as coding or another language, and others may desire to have support in a subject they may have challenges with to gain an advantage in getting into the university. Think about what your wants and needs are, prioritize what is absolutely required of you and what will benefit you in the future.

Balance passion with studies: Explore your passions related to creativity (the arts, building a game or robot through coding, etc.), action (sports, physical activity, etc.), and service (community impact, leadership roles, environmental activism, etc), each year. It is a great means to start to build a well-rounded student. Each school term, try to pick one from each of these domains. For example, taking tech classes, being on the sports team, and volunteering would be a solid balance of the three.
This will help you keep going to figure out which is a valuable life skill.

Do Something New: It never hurts to try something new. The key is balance and focus. But changing up one thing each term can also help prevent you from burning out, or getting bored. Additionally, some activities are seasonal. As such, it is not a bad idea to have a few rotations every year to help build a certain attachment towards them.

Continuity: Growing a deep passion through the years is a great thing for you to do – be it getting highly proficient at coding, sports or taking up piano to the point where the results can be used for university credit. Rome was not built in a day, and neither would this level of skill in any domain. Encouraging yourself to stick with something you really enjoy and excel at is a great move. It can prove to you that hard work pays off beyond school.

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