Help for Extracurriculars and uniqueness (if that's a word...)

Answered

Hello! I'll list some extracurricular ideas off my head for different interest groups, but I could also expand in a certain area which fits your PERSONAL interests.

✨Art: visual and literature ✨

- Create a non profit (or for profit) art company where you can sell original pieces, copies of original pieces, stickers, cards, etc. and donate a percentage of profits to a certain cause.

- Research if your city has an art fair or something of the sort where you could set up a gallery, sell some art, and communicate with customers (this could also fit under marketing)

- Awards: Enter work into the Scholastic Art & Writing competition. It is, I believe, $7 dollars per submission and you can win awards, scholarships, and just overall recognition.

- Write for your area's local newspaper or your school's newspaper. These can be very straightforward to get involved in and are lots of fun if you are a writer.

✨Business: ✨

- Join your school's DECA chapter! Most schools have them and if they don't, you can start one. Try to become an officer your senior year. You can go into competitions, win awards, and get tons of business experience.

- Not too correlated to business, but joining MUN can help with debating and public speaking skills, which can really help in the business world. Try to become an officer for senior year.

- This is a big one, but maybe start a business? Maybe one explained in the art section? See if your area has a business fair for advertising purposes.

- I think this is okay to talk on this website... INVEST IN STOCKS! Okay so maybe this one isn't too much of an extracurricular but it could be used in an essay. Investing in stocks, especially when you are young, is so beneficial. If you are able to consistently invest money monthly, your stock value could fuel your retirement fund. Not only this, but it gives you financial knowledge for future business practices and an ability to analyze the stock market (ANALYZE, not predict - sadly, not even Warren Buffet can predict the stock market). You can turn this into an extracurricular by even writing a finance book? Just an idea. :)

✨Math/Science/(STEM): ✨

- Shadow a profession. Let's say you want to be a veterinarian, see if there's a junior veterinarian in your area and ask for a shadowing experience, which is more of a learning and hands on way of exploring your field.

- Get an internship. This really applies to any field, but they really stand out on an application and look great in the long scheme of things when you are applying for a job. I was lucky enough to get a yearlong internship as a freshman through connections I had and couldn't be more grateful. It even landed me a job in the same company. Internships are probably my choice of the most beneficial extracurricular in the long run - unless you're planning to create another Microsoft, then that might be slightly better. :) there is a internship resource below

- Enroll at a University's summer program. Try to go for prestigious universities, but any is really fine. You can take classes relating to a major you want to pursue (if you have decided on one yet, no pressure to choose) or just a casual interest you may have. However, you should really do research and weigh the pros and cons. One thing to note is that, let's say you're applying to UC Berkeley and did a summer program at UPENN. UC Berkeley might question your interest in them since you didn't do a summer program at their school. This probably won't significantly influence whether you get accepted or not, but try to do a summer program at your dream school or another school you will be applying to. These programs can also be pricy, but depending on the school and program you might be able to earn some credits.

- Conduct your own independent scientific research

- Find some mathematics competitions in your area

- Become a member and possibly officer (or start) your school's robotics, math, STEM, or coding club.

✨History or Law: ✨

- Join MUN

- Offer to tutor kids in your area who are struggling with history

- Look into your state's elections - maybe you can earn a position with a person who is running and get an inside look into the process as well as some job experience. This could also be good for essays.

- Start a history blog or history club in your school to stress the importance of history. While I am not a history fan, I'm sure there are so many in your school that would love to join.

✨Other:✨

-Look for jobs or work experience in your area. This could be at a restaurant, Starbucks, a local pool to be a lifeguard, etc.

- Volunteering. Normally this is an overused extracurricular that I would never recommend, but if you could get on the board or leadership community of a small to medium-sized volunteering group, this would be worth it.

- Sports. This is another one that I would never recommend for the sake of standing out. However, if you love sports, you can totally put it down. What would help this activity is if you were a team captain, have been doing this activity for 7-10 years, or have won very admirable awards.

- Music. Similar to the sports one. I wouldn't recommend this to benefit your application if you just do this for fun, but if you were... lets say a violin player. You could hold concerts (virtual or in person) to benefit certain causes.

- Fitness: Let's say you are super passionate about staying healthy during these times. Start a blog! Maybe even a YouTube channel taking about the importance of healthy eating, exercising, and mental health weekly.

✨Resources: ✨

Internships (basically an internship searching website that does a lot of research for you): https://internshala.com/easiest-ever-july21

I hope this helped! I probably forgot about some areas of interests as these were just off the top of my head, but please reply if you have a certain interest area you'd like me to expand on.

One last note: getting into a college does not solidify your future. I know you have probably heard this before, but given the immense stress society puts on us to get into a college so we can be seen as successful is unfair and pointless. Someone close to me is a director at a company. They went to a college with maybe an 80% acceptance rate, didn't have stellar grades, and most certainly did not have many good extracurriculars. Yet, they still make more money than most people and even oversee the jobs of many Stanford and Harvard graduates. This is, if you see money as success but actual success is so much more than that. Companies look less at where you come from (because the college process is so unbalanced between the rich and poor it's crazy) and more about... okay what opportunities did you have and which did you take? I could honestly go on for hours about this topic but I'm assuming you don't want a whole research paper. :')

Anyways, good luck on the new school year! You got this.