Extracurriculars For College-Bound Students

[Reefgazer]

For those of you who have college bound-students or students who are currently in college, what extra-curriculars did your student do throughout their high school years and did you find them manageable or was it just too much to juggle?  By extra-curriculars, I mean activities that you did not use as courses or for credit. 

 

DD is currently deeply involved in horseback riding and competitive swim during the school year.  During summer, she is on a dive team, recreational swim team, and works part of the summer as a junior camp counselor.  We are giving up the summer recreational swim team so the other 2 remaining activities (Dive team and camp counselor) will be manageable in summer.  But during the year, it seems that swim and horseback riding are too much for us to manage along with a high school course load.  Something has to go because our family rarely even eats dinner together anymore with our activity schedule; even DD finally sees this now.  I am hesitant for her to  give up either horseback riding or swim because I thought colleges like to see something other than academics on the plate, but maybe one activity is enough, I don't know.  Several people on here have previously given me wise advice to cut back on DD's activities.  At this point, I am trying to find out what is reasonable and expected of a high school student who has her sights set on a competitive college?  How much do these extra-curriculars weigh in on a college's decision to admit a student?  I don't really know anything about this, other than we seem to be swamped here with activities.

[Lori D.]

JMO: sports are a major time-suck when compared to other extracurricular activities. When DSs played on the varsity tennis team for the local public high school, that's all we did for the 12 weeks of the season, because it was several hours of daily practices and then 2 matches a week that took 4-8 hours (often having to drive 1-2 hours one way to get to the school, and then 3-6 hours for the matches).

 

I totally commend you for taming the schedule.  :thumbup1:  It is SO hard to do. I did that, too, and it was an uphill fight, as high school just naturally wants to get busier and busier. But it was totally worth it to model *balance* in life, and to be able to have family time to *relax* and *enjoy* one another. High school is NOT all about a push to get to college, no matter how much everything and everyone around you is screaming otherwise. ;)

 

 

I do think sports look good, but because you already have dive team AND past years of swim team during high school, for the remaining years of high school, perhaps consider swapping out that swimming for a different quality extracurricular that only meets once a week, or meets 2x/week but only for an hour or two and for 10-12 weeks. That may even allow DD to continue the recreational swim team over the summer if she's interested -- but even if not, she'd have dive team, camp counselor, x years of competitive swim team, horseback riding, and then possibly some completely non-sports related extracurricular for variety, that shows leadership, responsibility, etc., but more importantly, allows her to pursue a passion or interest .

 

Another thought might be is if swimming is not a passion, or she would enjoy doing it more at a recreational level rather than competitively, is to swap out the swimming for weekly volunteer hours / community service of high interest to her for the last years of high school. Working for a cause that has personal meaning throughout high school is a very valuable activity for a person's own passion, and as a side benefit, it shows dedication and selflessness, for applying for scholarships, and as a talking point in college admission essays and interviews.

 

I think the main thing is to go with personal passion, and stick with it, whether it is just one activity, or several. Not everyone can afford multiple activities each year (time-wise or finance-wise), and I think dedication and commitment (i.e., multiple years at one activity) looks better than multiple activities tried just one time, or minimal service hours put in at various places (which looks like box-checking).

 

I think the key here is what does DD love and want to do as extracurricular activities, or love the most? Maybe work to find a way to keep those in her life and in the schedule, and see how it works out to step away for a season from the activity that she ranks lowest…?

 

Totally just my ramblings, so I don't know that this post helps at all. ;) BEST of luck in deciding what works best for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[creekland]

My kids were heavily involved with their church's youth group and a community (Christian) youth group.  This took two nights per week plus all the extra activities associated with them from fun stuff to mission trips.  Mission trips were both overseas and helping with things like hurricane cleanup domestically. 

 

They were involved in chess.  This took two afternoons per week in the winter competitive season, and then extra time for matches plus additional practice they did on their own.  Middle son ended up winning his division in our state chess tournament.  I definitely think that helped his app.

 

We traveled, geocached, hiked, scuba, and other similar associated things.  The time for this varied from our "family day" one day per week to couple month long trips.  During chess season we cut back on this (mostly).

 

Hubby is an engineer and every boy has learned engineering surveying in order to help him with on-site job needs.  This took time as needed - sometimes once every couple of weeks, sometimes days in a row.

 

We raise ponies and have a garden.  Boys helped with this usually on a daily basis (in season for the garden).

 

Homeschooling, for us, tucked around our activities.  No regrets.  We enjoyed it to be honest.

 

Actually, if there's one regret, I would have let middle son take on some Open Chess Tournaments.  Online he played many with world standings - and sometimes won.  I wonder how far he could have gone had we found more opportunities for him.  At the time, I didn't know these things existed.

[regentrude]

DD rode horses. In 9th and 10th grade, she spent 20 hours per week at the stable. This tapered off a bit in 11th grade, and she rode significantly less in 12th.

She also sang in choir, which was much less of a time commitment, and participated in the English honors society at the local university.

She tutored physics at the tutoring center of the university in 11th and 12th grade and enjoyed that very much.

 

I would never have encouraged her to dial back an extracurricular activity that gave her joy and that she wanted to continue. With the activities, we never looked towards "what colleges want to see". I do not want my kids to choose the activities that are supposed to enrich their lives based on "what is expected". I feel strongly that the high school years are valuable life time and not just a stage when one prepares and waits for college.

 

So, if the teen felt under pressure, stressed, hurried, felt there was not enough time, then I would encourage her to reduce certain activities of her choice as much as she wants. If she wants to "do it all", I would let her as long as she got enough sleep.

If she wants to drop an activity you consider "expected for college", I would let her do that as well.

 

 

[Luckymama]

She should do what bring her joy without thinking about "what looks good on an application."

 

Colleges just want to see that the applicant does something, anything, outside academics.

[klmama]

Each of my dc has time-intensive extracurriculars, often getting home at 8:00-9:00 p.m.  That sometimes means finishing schoolwork late in the evening to work around the activity schedule, which tends to lead to better time management during the day.  I have not insisted that they limit their involvement, as long as they are able to get enough sleep and keep up with their schoolwork.  Each dc has chosen to drop enjoyed activities in order to make more time for their jobs and their passions, but I've left that decision up to them.  It helps them decide what's most important to them, which also helps define who they are more clearly for college admission.  ;)  

 

Letting them be involved in activities does affect family dinner time, but IMHO the point of that is to connect as a family, not to enforce eating at a particular time.  They eat a substantial snack before leaving the house, and they eat dinner when they come home. Sometimes we have a family meal at 8:30 p.m.  Even if the rest of the family has already eaten dinner, everyone still comes together to talk when the others come home.  We choose to spend time together.

 

  

 

 

[happypamama]

My kids were heavily involved with their church's youth group and a community (Christian) youth group.

If, uh, you wouldn't mind sharing more details about the community youth group, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel like everything around here is a well kept secret, like you just have to stumble upon things. As our youngest ones grow out of babyhood, I feel like I don't have to protect our time quite so much and have been trying to branch out a little for our oldest ones, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what the big ones want to do wth their time. (Other than play guitar obsessively, haha.). They might opt for additional martial arts classes/assisting in teaching, or they might want to diversify. I'm interested in knowing what's out there for them.

[Pen]

Unless an activity is specifically something you expect a college to recruit her for--that is, swimming at a top competitive level for a college swim team, I would not worry about what specifically she does for extracurriculars in terms of college acceptance and have her do something she loves as a break from academics, fun, social time, and that works to allow your family to have family time together, or whatever it is that you need in your family.  Camp counselor to me already sounds like it moves into the leadership, and perhaps depending on the camp, community service area, so it sounds like that area may already be pretty well covered.

 

I know people who have gone to competitive colleges with all sorts of different extracurriculars, I don't think it has to be anything in particular. What they don't so much seem to like is perfect SATs, but no extracurriculars, unless there is an unusual reason for that like a student with muscular dystrophy I knew, where I think it was recognized that doing academics to a high degree plus his physical therapies was enough.  

[Jenny in Florida]

At this point, I am trying to find out what is reasonable and expected of a high school student who has her sights set on a competitive college?  How much do these extra-curriculars weigh in on a college's decision to admit a student?  I don't really know anything about this, other than we seem to be swamped here with activities.

 

I strongly encouraged my kids not to think of extracurriculars as things to do in order to get into college, but as activities to pursue because they loved and valued them. We kept track of what they did, but I made absolutely zero attempt to nudge or direct to or away from any particular activity on the basis of how it would look on a college application.

 

My daughter's situation was unusual (because of her age at application time and the fact that she applied to only the one school that had a program appropriate for her needs). Just in case it is of interest, though, her primary extracurriculars included the following:

• Community theatre - She did an average of three shows a year with various theatre groups in town.
• Choir - She was actually in three different choirs, including a few semesters in which two overlapped.
• Anthropological Society - She attended monthly meetings, did occasional presentations, attended lectures and did occasional field trips with the group.
• Editor of the Homeschool Group Newsletter - She did this for one year, gathering submissions from other students, proofreading/editing them, formatting pages and distributing the finished product at meetings.
• Acting classes/Musical theatre camps and workshops - These were mostly during summers.
• Music lessons - She studied piano and classical guitar.
• Church Youth Group - She was a founding member and was very active.

My son devoted the most time and activity to:

• Dance - He took an average of eight to 10 hours a week of regular classes, was a member of the school's competition team (which required extra rehearsals and weekends at events) and was an assistant teacher. He did intensives during the summers, as well as master classes, conventions and workshops throughout the year.
• Choir - In addition to weekly rehearsals and monthly local performances, the group did summer tours to NYC and England while he was a member.
• Theatre - He did a show or two each year with community and youth theatre groups. He also volunteered as a junior counselor for a local children's theater during the summer.
• Science Museum Volunteer - He put in a total of about 200 hours over three years.
• Church Youth Group - He was an officer and helped to start up the group's annual variety show fundraiser.

[wapiti]

I would agree with the others that the purpose of the ECs is interest/enjoyment and self-development.  I would go as deeply as her interests warrant.  I'm hoping my kids are not into athletics at the high school level (I doubt any of them would be sufficiently talented for varsity anyway), simply because of the vast time involved vs. academics.

 

For the purpose of competitive college admissions, you might look at Cal Newport's How to Be a High School Superstar (especially re: time management generally) and the big picture presented in the MIT admissions blog Applying Sideways.

 

They were involved in chess.  

 

Creekland, how extensive is the time commitment for home practice?  My ds12 is upstairs right now playing chess online in lieu of homework and I'm about to go up there to reverse that LOL...  We recently learned that the private high school he will apply to has a small chess team that sometimes places nationally, so if he continues to enjoy it, that may be useful for him (though I have no idea what his skill level is like).

[creekland]

If, uh, you wouldn't mind sharing more details about the community youth group, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel like everything around here is a well kept secret, like you just have to stumble upon things. As our youngest ones grow out of babyhood, I feel like I don't have to protect our time quite so much and have been trying to branch out a little for our oldest ones, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what the big ones want to do wth their time. (Other than play guitar obsessively, haha.). They might opt for additional martial arts classes/assisting in teaching, or they might want to diversify. I'm interested in knowing what's out there for them.

 

I'll send you a pm.  This is a group based in Hanover, but attracting students from the surrounding area including north of us.  They have ps and hs kids from a few different denominations and some who don't go to church at all - or at least they did when my guys attended.  There was a pretty large diversity - something I think was good.

 

Creekland, how extensive is the time commitment for home practice?  My ds12 is upstairs right now playing chess online in lieu of homework and I'm about to go up there to reverse that LOL...  We recently learned that the private high school he will apply to has a small chess team that sometimes places nationally, so if he continues to enjoy it, that may be useful for him (though I have no idea what his skill level is like).

 

My younger two were very active on chess.com and had multiple games going at once as well as simply getting online and playing in their free time.  Middle was into chess the most of my three and would easily spend as much time as he could online playing and chatting.  He'd look up strategies and more.  As long as he got his schoolwork done and helped as needed around here, I let them have as much time with chess as they wanted.  At a minimum I'd say middle spent an hour a day keeping up with chess online.  Whenever he had extra time he gravitated there.

 

It surprised all of us when he got to college that he didn't continue on much with chess.  He went to the club there for his first semester and was quite competitive among the members, but then he opted to get involved in sign language and dance instead, both totally new things to him.  Now he's also into juggling.  We encourage ours to do what they like and try new things, so he has our blessing.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

From about 5th through 11th grade, my oldest took riding lessons and volunteered at a theraputic riding center.  This was her passion, and it is showing up on her transcript as both extracurriculur/volunteer work and as part of her PE grade.

 

My second is participating in NCFCA: National Christian Forensics Communication Association.  This lends itself for high school credit, but it is largely extracurriculur since it is an add-on.  IOW, his priorities are his graduation requirement courses.  

 

NCFCA is a time committment.  We attend weekly meetings and participate in a couple of tournaments.  He works on both speeches and debate for homework during the week.  It is a trememdous organization, and the students involved gain a wealth of experience!