This summer I’m planning on doing a research project with a professor from a university who will advise me, so when I apply for college would that count as an extracurricular?
They definitely do! Though this may not be an official extra-curricular in which you go on state-level competitions etc., you still will be developing yourself as a person.
Here was one of my answers to a recent post that relates to this question :
Question: What kind of extra curricular can I do to impress my college?
My answer to that person :
I think it's great that you're spending time on this, but I believe you have to change your question slightly; how can I exercise my passion this summer?
As much as colleges want you to do extracurriculars, they also want you to follow your passion. So if for example, computer science is your passion, learn some coding! Sure, it doesn't qualify as an 'extracurricular' but this WILL help you, as you'd be developing yourself as a person; colleges like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, etc., all of them want a wholistic well-rounded person.
I'm not saying "Don't do extra-curricular" at all, but most of what you spend your time on should be in an area that interests you.
So here what you can do :
Find your hobby/passion.
Research what you can do with it and how you can develop it.
If there is a club for it, go join!
If not, use the power of the internet.
Most of all, stop trying to impress a college and start trying you develop yourself.
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Hope that helps! :)
Cheers!
Tharun
Absolutely! Will let the longer post from @TharunkumarAR suffice -- exactly the kind of response I would have loved to have written myself -- but just remember that pretty much anything you do outside of your high school academics is an extracurricular. Strength of extracurricular in question, of course, is a completely different matter (ie, how invested are you to that EC and how much have you achieved), but there are no activities that are disqualified from being seen as ECs.
of course!
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