Patriot Ambassador or SGA. Track and field or lacrosse. Newspaper or yearbook. This school offers hundreds of clubs, extracurricular activities and internships and field experience outside school. Which of these makes you stand out among the colleges you’re applying to? What extracurriculars should you join?
According to College and Career Info Coordinator Jennifer MacDonald, it’s not so much about what clubs you are a part of but your contributions to it. “It’s less about which ones versus how involved you are and whether you get to a point where you’re doing some leadership. Some of the kids that I helped this year, for instance, were able to demonstrate that they were with a club, and that itself maybe doesn’t sound that impressive, but some of them grew the club’s social media presence from just a handful of people to hundreds of people. That is something that you could show to a school like, I took charge of this one; I came up with a plan, I instituted the plan and this was the payout, I think that’s important,” MacDonald said.
In a competitive environment like this school, standing out among peers doing the same extracurriculars can feel challenging. “If there’s a club with many people in it, it might be harder to stand out, but there are still opportunities you can take, like being on the board of clubs, which is really helpful. But it’s important to seek new opportunities and stand out to colleges,” senior and Newspaper Editor-In-Chief Claire Lenkin said.
MacDonald said that joining honor societies is beneficial. “Wootton is a unique place where people are focused academically, so they qualify more frequently for different honor societies. So we sometimes have to zoom out a little bit out of Wootton. If you qualify for one and can maintain the qualifications, I think there is no reason not to join,” Macdonald said.
Lenkin herself tried to participate in a wide variety of extracurriculars, most of which correlated to what she wanted to continue to do in college. She is one the EICs of this school’s newspaper, Common Sense, a board member of JSU and Patriot Ambassador and a member of the English Honors Society. “The advice I got is to have a mix of activities but still try to have it skew in one specific direction. I’m interested in doing advertising and communications in college, so I wanted things that reflected that,” Lenkin said.
Cohesiveness helps students stand out to college admission readers. “I get the opportunity to go around to conferences and meet with admissions representatives from a wide variety of schools and that is something that comes up a lot. They talk about wanting to see what they say is a ‘through line’ – an applicant’s total package. So whether that’s the classes you take, the extracurriculars, the internship, research, or anything that shows that you always had a passion for a particular thing,” Macdonald said.
A cohesive application can help but it is not a deal-breaker if you can’t show that. “I’m so torn because if my job is to give advice to students about what college admissions reps are looking for, I’m telling kids if they want to be a doctor, join this club, do this activity, or get this internship. Still, at the same time, I feel like you never get the four years of high school back, and that’s the time where you should be exploring different things,” Macdonald said.
Senior Charles Freedman has done a multitude of extracurriculars throughout his four years at this school, including being the co-president of DECA, cross country, mock trial, founder and president of the Photography Club, Patriot Ambassadors and more. “These clubs and activities have helped me stand out because they show colleges that, in addition to my schoolwork, I can manage my time to participate in sports and academic areas outside of my classes. I believe that colleges understand how much time and effort outside of school you have to put into these organizations to keep them running and the members engaged and on track for activities, especially in a club like DECA that has over 140 members and competes at the state and international level,” Freedman said.
Going into high school, Freedman didn’t know what he wanted to study in college, but joining different clubs this school offered helped him. “At first, you may not know much about business, law, journalism, or a particular sport, but these extracurriculars will help you gain that knowledge, and it really can change your entire life. I knew nothing about business when I joined DECA, and now I am excited to study finance at The Ohio State University,” Freedman said.
The consensus seems to say students should focus on what they enjoy doing and don’t worry about how other people will perceive it. “Don’t not do something just because you’re worried it won’t look good for college. Some of these other experiences might lead you to what you write about for your college essay, and that might be so persuasive that the college is like, ‘Wow, this person is amazing,’ even though it’s not what you want to major in. Maybe you didn’t get leadership, but it had a profound effect on you as a person and your development,” Macdonald said.
