What other activities do i need for college?
May.16, 2010 in
College Tutoring
I currently do a handful of activities at school. I am on the track team and plan on doing that and Cross Country for the rest of high school. I play an IM sport. I am a regular part of a language club. I tutor underprivelged children downtown. I plan on studying abroad.
I used to play on the school soccer team and wrote for the newspaper.
What other activities do I need to get noticed by good universities? I have great grades, I think everything is A and one B+.
May 16th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Eh, you’re good. What you need is an instrument. Just take like three types of instrument good enough to say “Oh yea, I play this, this, and this”
Also maybe a few more clubs and leadership positions will get you somewhere better.
May 16th, 2010 at 11:03 am
You’ll be fine. I go to UC Berkeley and I had about half of what you have in terms of activities and grades. When it comes down to it, the best students aren’t the students who just loaded up with stuff to get into where they think they want to go, the best students are the students who actually care.
There is very little difference in terms of what school you go to, to be honest. Everything comes down to grad school as grad school takes into account how intelligent and accomplished you are, not just what grades or activities you did. Big name schools will look at you, like Stanford and I’m sure some of the Ivy Leagues but you really have to represent yourself well in the essay. Colleges see right through superficial things and like real honest stories, not just those high school essays where you know what your teacher wants to hear so you write that.
Be honest with yourself, do things that you love to do, not because it will get you where you think you want to go but where you know you want to be. As you can imagine, I’m one of those hippy liberal types who just says this kind of stuff all the time but I believe it is true. I’m happy here at school and I have been through a lot. I have learned a lot and thats all that matters because you don’t want your life to be a meaningless string of grades, awards, accolades and such. You actually want to learn when you get to college because it pretty much demolishes everything you know and are comfortable with and you grow up.
Oh, make sure you do well on your standardized testing. It shows how intelligent you are to these people and how variable you are. Anyone can do activities or get good grades but, under pressure, can you do well on a test that is pretty funky?
I’m sure you will do fine anyways, I had a 3.3 GPA unweighted, got into Berkeley with a 2060 SAT and I’m doing just fine here.
Good luck, you’ll get into where you are supposed to go. Just be happy for the rest of high school and make good friends. It is important for later. Peace out homieeeeeee
May 16th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Universities and Colleges are more interested in you doing what you’re interested in and sticking with it then doing activities to get noticed. They love seeing dedicated, well rounded individuals with interests and goals, not students that do things to “look good”. So make your likes and interests top priority, and stick with them!
Some advice, live your life for you, the way that makes you happy, not for other people or to “get noticed”. Everyone, including admissions officers, will be much more impressed seeing you do that, and you’ll do better and be happier doing what you love! Life is more about the people you know and really living and loving what you’re doing then getting in to college. You will learn more than you can imagine there, and enjoying it is the key! Good luck!
May 16th, 2010 at 11:53 am
the only other thing you need, which is very very important, is leadership. You will have to show the admission officers your leadership skills. are you the captain of your teams or the language club. try to get a position, whether it is secretary, treasure, vp or prez.
May 16th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
You might add some volunteer activities./