Do Colleges Care a Lot About Extracurriculars?

Parents and teens often put way too much emphasis on extracurriculars for college applications when the truth is, they’re not as important as they’re made out to be! Today we dive into a discussion on whether or not colleges care about extracurriculars. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about the importance of choosing activities based on passion and interest and not for the sake of applications, why unique activities are overrated, why the reason for selecting extracurriculars is more important than what is selected, and the negative effects of selecting curated summer programs for teenagers. We delve into why a college resume is not as important as you may think it is and why your actual transcript is far more important before we discuss anchoring decisions about activities based on values. Finally, we break down some examples of purpose and value-based extracurricular activities teenagers have come up with to inspire you. To hear all of this invaluable advice and wisdom, press play now!

Key Points From This Episode:

• [0:04:28] Why extracurriculars are not as important for college applications as people think. 
• [0:06:05] The danger of doing activities for the sake of college applications and not based on passion.
• [0:11:42] Why you need to abandon the concept of trying to find unique extracurriculars to do for your college application.
• [0:12:34] Extracurricular activities being more about the ‘why’ than the ‘what’. 
• [0:18:38] The danger of pre-packaged curated extracurricular programs.
• [0:23:35] The college resume: not as high-stakes as parents and teens make it out to be. 
• [0:28:20] Why you should anchor decisions surrounding extracurriculars in your values.
• [0:30:08] Examples of value and purpose-based extracurriculars teenagers have come up.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

The College Essay Guy Presentation 

Sh*t Your Teenagers Won’t Tell You

Sh*t Your Teenagers Won’t Tell You on Instagram