Does my hobbies count as an extracurricular if so how much value do they have?

Hi @scholar-_-!

Programming and learning new languages undoubtedly count as extracurriculars (ECs). Any hobby can count as an EC provided that you regularly participate in it and it contributes to your "holistic" development.

Try exploring the clubs at your school or other opportunities available to you outside school and see if anything interests you. It's not too late to start an EC that you like; ECs serve a greater purpose (skill development) than just increasing the chances of getting accepted by a college. However, it is meaningless to get involved in ECs just for the sake of creating a superficial resume. Admissions officers are aware of such things.

If you want to stand out among applicants, remember that quality trumps quantity when it comes to ECs. Significant progress/achievements in fewer ECs are better than mediocrity in a whole bunch of ECs.

Apart from ECs, essays are also a great way to differentiate yourself from others.

Hope this helps!

I'm caught in a similar situation to yours; I love singing and dancing but I don't have space in my schedule to take choir and the dance team at my school is ballet based and I do hip-hop. You could compete with your hobbies? Enter coding competitions? I enjoy writing and don't have a writing club at my school that I know of, so I enter many teen writing competitions, which typically look really good on college applications. Extracurriculars don't have to be exclusive to the clubs in school, do they? Competitions would be awesome to help you boost your college application! With your fluency in multiple languages, you could sign up to volunteer in multicultural events where the languages you speak may come in handy for translating! These two suggestions are the best I've got. Good luck!