For most colleges/students, it wont' make a difference. Your child should just be involved in something he genuinely likes. Grades, challenging courses, and standardized tests are still the key requirements, then EC's and essays, etc. in college applications.

For kids aiming for the most selective schools, I would give that answer but qualify it a few ways.

1) Outside as good or sometimes better than school activities are better than school activities if they show unusual interests and talents.

2) Both inside and outside ECs are quite useful if by their nature they enable your child to win some recognition outside of school -- debate teams, model U.N., Intel competition, etc.

3) Summers are good too. Same sort of guidelines

4) Sometimes certain activities will look better than others, but they need to make sense. Taking pictures for the yearbook shows a math wiz is well rounded. Doing the same thing for the a future art history major can take on a different interpretation that fits into his/her future major interests. The key is for whatever the ECs to show some commitment and show how they fit with the kid. Joining 5 clubs that require little effort will produce little mileage. So rather than focus on how things look, focus on what really gets your child excited. If he loves something, he'll stand out more.

5) honestly, from what I hear now community service is so widely expected it has been very diluted in its significance at more selective schools. If your child loves kids and loves to tutor, and wants to perhaps be a teacher, that makes sense it will be probably very respected. But an hour a week to be a good citizen for future business or lib. arts major is nice and a good thing to do, but don't expect it to garner much weight in college apps. I would put most sports in that same category. Kids should do them for fun and health. But unless they are going to try to play at the college level, they will not usually be viewed as anything special in looking at most selective schools. But again, if he loves a sport he should do it and don't worry about how it looks. It will shine through if its really special to him. On the other hand, if it takes 20 hours per week and that leaves no time for anything else, that may require a closer look unless he wants that to be a big part of his life realistically for years to come (e.g., Olympic athletes, etc.) .

6. FWIW, sometimes kids don't discover what they like until high school (or later) -- especially if the realm of more academically related ECs such as the school newspaper, foreign language/cultural things, debate, etc. There is a wide range of academically oriented summer programs that can open new doors too offered by pre-college groups and universities.

Good that OP is thinking about his, but don't worry about it. Your child is young (but FWIW, if he has any interest in music at all I agree learning an instrument is always a valuable asset)..
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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc is in middle school, and already discovering how difficult it is to get into school-based extracurriculars. He has tried out for the school play, applied for yearbook, and tried out for science Olympiad. He made none of them. I know that extracurriculars are a big part of college applications, but are activities outside of school just as valuable on an application? Are community theater, club sports (for sports not offered at our local high school), community service, and summer academic programs just as valid?

What MS is this? Only Science Olympiad was like this at my boy's MS and that was just for the "Varsity" team. Theatre in HS has options backstage. Does your DC play an instrument? Is he interested in Boy Scouts? There are still some no cut sports- cross country is one- again only the top X runners compete, but everyone practices. Football is usually no cut. Is he interested in Model UN?

It's a FCPS middle school. He doesn't play an instrument, is very involved in a sport that is not offered at our high school, and hopes to tutor through a local organization as soon as he meets the age requirements. I'm sure he'll be plenty busy... I just didn't know if it mattered if his activities were school-based or not.

Anonymous wrote:My dc is in middle school, and already discovering how difficult it is to get into school-based extracurriculars. He has tried out for the school play, applied for yearbook, and tried out for science Olympiad. He made none of them. I know that extracurriculars are a big part of college applications, but are activities outside of school just as valuable on an application? Are community theater, club sports (for sports not offered at our local high school), community service, and summer academic programs just as valid?

What MS is this? Only Science Olympiad was like this at my boy's MS and that was just for the "Varsity" team. Theatre in HS has options backstage. Does your DC play an instrument? Is he interested in Boy Scouts? There are still some no cut sports- cross country is one- again only the top X runners compete, but everyone practices. Football is usually no cut. Is he interested in Model UN?

I think those are all great options. In my admittedly limited experience, colleges just want to see that the student does something with their time other than school. Any of those activities would show what sort of things your son is interested in, prove that he can balance schoolwork on top of other things, and possibly give him valuable experiences to talk about in essays or interviews. Community service is especially highly regarded, I think, as long as it's genuine service -- not just a bought & paid for experience that doesn't really benefit anyone -- and even more so if the type of service or the population served allows your dc to point to his work as an example of appreciating diversity and working well in a multicultural group environment.

My dc is in middle school, and already discovering how difficult it is to get into school-based extracurriculars. He has tried out for the school play, applied for yearbook, and tried out for science Olympiad. He made none of them. I know that extracurriculars are a big part of college applications, but are activities outside of school just as valuable on an application? Are community theater, club sports (for sports not offered at our local high school), community service, and summer academic programs just as valid?