Your child will need to complete a student resume of all of their extracurricular activities. This student resume will also help your child to get organized as they ask for letters of recommendation. Here are tips for helping your child highlight things that look good on a college application.
Brain Dump
To get started, they are going to do a “brain dump.” Click here for a free workbook to get started on the resume.
So what are some of the things that look good on a college application?
There are many different categories to consider. These include school-based activities like clubs, sports, school politics, or the arts. Colleges are also interested in students who demonstrate a commitment to community service. If your child has been providing childcare for younger siblings while you have been working, they also need to highlight that. Also, work experience or internships might be another arena to highlight.
What about any special interests, hobbies, or pursuits?
Have they done any travel? Remember that it is much better to show a high level of commitment to one activity rather than a limited interest in many activities.
How to do the Brain Dump
Get a blank sheet of paper and ask them to take a moment to reflect on all activities that they have participated in since grade nine and list them. Pay no attention to length at this point. You just want your child to get them all down on paper. This exercise will be beneficial as they begin to think about responses to the required college essay. Moreover, having all activities in one place will make it easier to get strong letters of recommendation.
There are a couple of different ways that they can approach the brain dump activity. First, they can list the activities that are of most interest to them, indicate which grade years they participated in them, including the time commitment, and note any leadership positions, honors, or awards. The other way to deal with the brain dump is to go through activities chronologically. If you fear that they may leave out some possibly important activities, this is the better strategy.
They should essentially go through and construct a timeline of activities that they have engaged in since grade nine. It should take about an hour to do this brainstorming activity.
Now, they need to organize their brain dump. There are two things to keep in mind as they go through this process. First, make sure that they list their activities in order of importance for them. This is required for many applications, so it is best for them to just organize their materials in this way from the beginning.
Get Organized
Next, they will reorganize their activities into six categories:
1) School-Sponsored Activities (clubs, political positions, newspaper, the arts)
2) Employment (paid jobs or internships)
3) Community Service (volunteer positions)
4) Sports (differentiate between community and school sports clubs)
5) Travel (any domestic or international travel experiences)
6) Special Interests/Talents (hobbies, pursuits, special circumstances).
More Is Not Better
In all likelihood, they will not have activities for all six categories. Really, that is not a problem because there are so different things that look good on a college application. The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate their interests and passions in a few key categories. More is not better.
Admission committees prefer evidence of leadership rather than just membership in a ton of different clubs. If their sports team was highly successful, explain the level of competition that it faced. If their newspaper won an award, include the particulars. Your child should be super specific with this list of their activities.