A. ADVICE ABOUT THE CHOICE OF ACTIVITIES
The adMISSION POSSIBLE® Extracurricular Activities Guide 2 discusses in length how to choose involvements that are good for you as a person and will also look good on your college applications. Here are a few things to remember about choosing your activities:

• Many students think that the more activities they have on their resumes, the more desirable an admissions candidate they will be. This is a myth. In fact, colleges prefer students who are deeply involved in a few activities that demonstrate uncommon leadership, accomplishment, or talent. Colleges want a well-rounded student body, not necessarily well-rounded students.

• The content of your activities does not matter, although it doesn’t hurt to have some of your interests be seen as “unusual” or different. For example, if you’re about to choose a sport and you’re not sure which one, why not look into less popular sports such as rowing, pole vaulting or fencing? These sports might be easier for you to enter and eventually stand out.

If you’re a guy who loves to cook, look for ways to excel in this endeavor. Start a little cooking business; attend cooking classes that focus on your favorite foods; enter (and possibly win) a cooking contest.

If you’re a girl who is looking for something interesting to do, pursue areas that are not typically female such as learning how to fly-fish, or taking trapeze lessons, or focusing on a hard science such as physics. Let your imagination run loose. BUT… don’t do any one of the above unless you are really turned on by it.

How about learning to make goat cheese, take up mountain climbing, learn to speak a Mid-eastern language, play an unusual instrument, become an expert about orchids (or another flower species), breed and raise snakes, trace your family genealogy back 500 years? But do these things only if you’re dying to.

• If you are a student who aspires for a place in an Ivy League or other very competitive college, to say that they look for “depth and quality” in your activities and accomplishments is an understatement. Students who are admitted to the most competitive colleges:

• Demonstrate “extraordinary commitment” to community service or other activities with regional or national recognition, and/or

• Show “unusual accomplishment” in a sport or talent, and/or

• Display significant leadership in activities that they have founded or made a real difference in, and/or

• Win significant academic competitions or prizes, and/or

• Demonstrate unusual intellectual depth

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! If you are a student who must work to help support your family or have major family commitments such as child or elder care, be sure to list these things on your activities resume. They are legitimate and important ways of spending your time. More importantly, college ad- missions people want to know about them.