What Kinds of Extra-Curriculars Do Colleges and Highly-Ranked Universities Like to See on Applications?

Answered

Hey,

I am a university student at Northeastern but also applied to schools similar to those you listed (Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern, UPenn, Yale, Georgetown, Wake Forest, NYU, Fordham, and BU).

I did not apply to Cornell nor did I get accepted at Harvard and etc so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt, but I was given this advice from a friend of mine who was accepted at Stanford and MIT (he is much smarter than me).

One thing I found really helpful is just having various extracurriculars. It would be spectacular if you were amazing at one specific thing (like being an Olympian or winning a national math contest etc.) but if you are not one of those 0.1% then you should use your extracurriculars to demonstrate your wide range of interests.

Now I would not recommend just putting random stuff that you do not have much involvement with or do not care much about because most schools will see straight through you if you try and BS them. I would narrow it down to 5-10 significant activities that demonstrate different interests and the unique skills you will bring to campus.

I think for you personally, I would combine the mission trips and volunteer hours into one sort of "community service segment". If you become the team captain for debate you can put that into your "academic prowess" category, and rowing goes into your "sport" category.

Some examples...

My extracurriculars were as listed:

Internet Personality (Over 200,000 followers and over 100 million viewers)

Track and Field Athlete (Recruited for D1, competed at international level, Captain)

Swim and Dive Athlete (3-time state champion, team captain)

Academic Tutor for College Board (Tutored underprivileged kids for SAT and ACT)

Self-Published Author (Self-published compositions on a variety of topics)

Wake Forest Summer Investment Challenge Winner (part of SIP)

Online Courses through EdX throughout high school (courses from MIT & Cambridge)

General Assistant at local IT Firm (assisted in CS and IT problems)

National Merit Qualifier (passed on pACT (I think?))

Other extracurricular examples I stole from my friends who also attend T1 colleges:

Eagle Scout

Enrolled in courses at a local college during high school

Valedictorian

Salutatorian

Varsity Lax Captain

Recruited for lax (d3)

Varsity Football Captain

Recruited for football (d3)

+1,000 hours of community service

Softball recruit (top 100 in-country)

Founded nation-wide nonprofit

National Merit Finalist

Peer2Peer Tutor

Internship at Deloitte

Online courses at GT

Online courses at Harvard

I applied for a major in Finance with a minor in Data Science, and I was also heavily recruited for track and field. I think my activities represent not only my interest in my intended major, and showcase my athletics, but also demonstrate the kind of things I am interested in.

My friend listed above applied for Finance, Chemical Engineering, and Biology.

Anyway, I hope this was helpful, It looks like you have a really good foundation and I wish you well wherever you apply. I'd also recommend applying to some Boston Schools (Harvard, Northeastern, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts) it is an amazing city.