Extracurriculars guides
Activity strategy, narrative, summer projects, leadership, research, and how to present them.
Colleges read activities for evidence of sustained commitment, not for the length of the list. These guides cover how to shape a coherent activity narrative, what leadership and research realistically look like at high school scale, how to spend a summer well, and how to describe any of it inside the small space the Activities section allows. They are written for families deciding what to keep, what to drop, and what is still worth starting, usually with less time than they would like.
6 guides.
- 01
Extracurriculars: Foundations and Frameworks
An extracurricular activity is anything a student does outside of required academic coursework that involves consistent effort over time.
31 min read
- 02
Extracurriculars: Strategy and Narrative Architecture
A spike is not invented; it is identified and cultivated. The starting point is recognizing what a student already gravitates toward — the thing they read…
42 min read
- 03
Extracurriculars: Types and Categories of Activities
Athletics are among the most common and best-understood extracurricular categories. Admissions readers distinguish between two very different tracks: the…
49 min read
- 04
Extracurriculars: Presentation on Applications
These fields together constitute everything the admissions reader sees about each activity.
45 min read
- 05
Extracurriculars: Summer, Projects, and Research
The summer months represent the largest block of discretionary time in a high school student's year.
53 min read
- 06
Extracurriculars: Parent Playbook
The student has to own their own activities. This is a non-negotiable starting point. Activities the parent chose, runs, or manages invisibly are visible to…
67 min read