Expert: Todd Johnson - 3/13/2011

Question
Hi, my son is a freshman in high school and we are starting to think about the college application process.  I know that colleges look at extra curricular activities, but I'm not sure how they evaluate them.

He loves sports and has played different sports his whole life.  He has always been a pretty good player on teams, but never a star.  He tried out for the high school soccer team and tennis team but was cut from both.  He might make the tennis team next year, but probably will not make the soccer team as they are very competitive.  Do colleges only consider clubs/teams affiliated with the high school?

For example, would they view the following as extra curricular activities for admissions criteria:

*playing soccer in the local rec council league (not affiliated with the school)
*taking tennis lessons, member of local tennis club, playing tennis with friends, but not on a tennis team. (not affiliated with the school)
*joining the high school ski club, which skis together about 8 times per year, but not a competitive team.
*part time job

Thanks for your help!

Answer
Scott,

Extracurricular activities do not need to be school based activities. Sports are fine as an activity but they are no better than any other activity.  The more selective the college the more that colleges are looking for students that have a particular passion. For instance, if he is interested in tennis then it would be good if he did league tennis and when possible played for the high school. For a part time job he might try to find something in a sports store where he can use his interest in tennis. He may also want to volunteer teaching young students tennis. He would be the "tennis" kid.

What the activity is doesn't matter but having a focus or passion is the important thing. For less selective colleges this is not as important but it can still be helpful.

If his passion is sports in general vs a particular sport he will want to relate his job and any volunteering to sports to make himself a stronger candidate.

I hope that helps.