Additional Extracurriculars?

C

chromaorsmthn

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Apr 9, 2023
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Hello, I'm currently a sophomore in high school, and while looking at my current accomplishments, my extracurriculars (including sports), seemed a little thin. This is my current list:

  • Freshman Year
    • JV Wrestling
    • MMA (Not school-affiliated
  • Sophomore Year
    • JV Wrestling, season got cut short due to an knee injury which has been completely resolved and marked off by our doctor
    • JV Lacrosse
    • Civil Air Patrol
    • Tutoring at my old elementary school
    • DREAM (Dedicated, Responsible, Enthusiastic, After-School, Mentors)
    • Guitar Lessons (I don't know how admissions looks at instruments if they are not school or band affiliated)
  • Junior Year (Potentials)
    • Everything listed before, and:
    • Continue wrestling and hopefully get a varsity spot
    • Continue lacrosse and hopefully get a varsity spot
    • Apply to Boy's State
    • Apply as senator intern
    • Apply to student government
    • Potentially start a club?
  • Senior Year
    • Hopefully gain a leadership position in lacrosse and wrestling
If there is any advice and other extracurricular ideas you might have, I would love to hear it.
 
Your extracurricular are fine. Make sure you develop them more deeply every year. Become a leader in each of them.

More important to your success in earning an appointment will be your academics. Top grades and especially standardized test scores will be your early gate to becoming competitive. Take the SAT and ACT early and often. Strive for outstanding scores. Once that is accomplished, then the extracurricular activities can add to your resume.

Stealth_81
 
I agree with Stealth_81. 'Lean' into your current sports and activities with strong engagement and a focus on becoming a leader in each one. Volunteer for the responsibilities others don't want to do, look for open opportunities, become a great teammate, etc., as you pursue your goal of becoming a cadet. Best of luck!
 
I agree with the posts above. The only other thing I might suggest is adding some grass-roots community service hours. Something you create, build and take ownership in. You may have some flexibility in the times you devote, and it may not always take up a lot of time on a regular basis.

Examples:
Start a regular and sustained food drive, that requires promotion and recruitment of helpers. Decide in advance how you will donate your collections.
Adopt a park or streach of road in your community to pick up trash once a month, and recruit teammates/classmates to sign up and help you. If nobody else shows up, do the best you can on your own, but persistence in recruiting others to help will show Great Leadership. Where we lived you could get a sign made in dedication of your clean up group. Find someone you admire, possibly to memorialize, for the group name. Or use your school name or team name.
It's all about demonstrating leadership and being of SERVICE!😉
 
Jetbill said:
I agree with the posts above. The only other thing I might suggest is adding some grass-roots community service hours. Something you create, build and take ownership in. You may have some flexibility in the times you devote, and it may not always take up a lot of time on a regular basis.

Examples:
Start a regular and sustained food drive, that requires promotion and recruitment of helpers. Decide in advance how you will donate your collections.
Adopt a park or streach of road in your community to pick up trash once a month, and recruit teammates/classmates to sign up and help you. If nobody else shows up, do the best you can on your own, but persistence in recruiting others to help will show Great Leadership. Where we lived you could get a sign made in dedication of your clean up group. Find someone you admire, possibly to memorialize, for the group name. Or use your school name or team name.
It's all about demonstrating leadership and being of SERVICE!😉
Click to expand...
How much does this help an application?

My son had a ton of volunteer hours through all of his activities like NHS, sports team, etc.
 
If possible, I would add either track or cross country if for no other reason than CFA prep. You need Leadership to go with athletics and strong academics. Team captain, club president, etc.
 
A1Janitor said:
How much does this help an application?

My son had a ton of volunteer hours through all of his activities like NHS, sports team, etc.
Click to expand...
Only my opinion. Nothing wrong with volunteer hours for activities that you sign up for, and participate in. They will certainly go a long way towards building a well rounded kid, and therefore a strong SA candidate. What I'm suggesting, would work in conjunction with other volunteer activities. Could possibly fit into super busy schedules, (because created and managed by the canidate). For example, cleaning a community park almost certainly could be done on a weekend morning, probably once a month. And it would give the canidate excellent things to talk about in an interview, essay, etc....
My feeling is that something that you create, build and take leadership with, might say even more. And, who knows, could be just the thing that creates a bit of separation amongst a field of kids who all mostly have more traditional volunteer activities.
 
Get a summer job. Better yet if it carries over year round. Responsibility, initiative, attention to detail, taking orders, working with others, etc. are just a few positives that will result. May gain some experiences to help during SA intervirews.
 
I commend you for your 4 year plan. It's really excellent to be looking at each year and the progression. Great job!

I think the activities listed - 2 sports hoping for formal leadership role/captain; civil air patrol, and the rest are in the service/misc. hobby bucket.

Think engagement and leadership. Can't really be latter without the former. Agree with finding opportunities within your existing clubs/activities. If you want to be in student government, what will your platform be? Why not gather wresting/lacrosse team and do a fund raiser? Carwash anyone? How about gathering wrestlers and working with DREAM and/or tutoring and adopt an elementary class as big brothers? My DDs weren't national champion. But they did perform at the state level, coached in the summer (for $), and volunteered/raised money (such as for Hurricane Harvey). Do you hit the triumvarite within each major activity, or is it a checkbox?

What about establishing an annual event instead of a club? Shows you can and have done a real project. Why not strategically work "for" your GC now? How about a student led (that would be you) annual program for college-ing? Offer to set up an evening program and gather 4 alumni who are in college so they can come back and talk about college-ing. The program can be something like 4 alum panel, a HS senior panel talking about summer internships/programs, the GC giving a short speech, the English teacher talk about college essays, and....do you see how this is both service and setting yourself up strategically so they know you well by the time you ask for all those rec letters? Of course you'd have to do a lot of leg with the first year - securing teachers, speakers, a room, date, print flyers...mayber ask teachers to give an extra credit point for attending - and then have an attendance sheet so you can quantify how many people you helped! Then do this the next 2 years! And get the PTA to provide snacks!

PS - also think about your SAT/ACT testing schedule. I suggest work backwards to have anchoring scores by beginning of junior year, so study THIS summer, taking tests then and into the early Fall, benefit is a great PSAT as welll. Then you will have that aspect completely done and out of the way. As a rising senior, you will be focusing on attending Boys State and the SA programs, plus preparing for the CFA and awaiting the applications to open.
 
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