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Extracurricular Activities: What Admissions Officers Want To See in Your Applications
28/04/2025•11 minute read
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What Are Extracurricular Activities?
Why Extracurricular Activities Matter
How to Build Outstanding Extracurriculars
What Admissions Officers Look For
What's the meaning of the word "extracurricular"? What does it mean for university applicants?
Extracurriculars make up about 30% of your university application's weight, so perfecting your activity list and extracurricular profile is important for top universities.
In this blog, we'll explore 5 different ways to build outstanding extracurriculars. We'll also take a look at what admissions officers want to see in your extracurriculars.
What Are Extracurricular Activities?
Let’s start with the simple definition of the word. An extracurricular is virtually any activity that isn’t required for high school credit. The word comes from “extracurriculum” — anything you do beyond the required academics.
Extracurricular experiences help convey who the applicant is beyond their academics. They help Admissions Officers determine the applicant’s fit and how the Australian student will contribute to the university’s community.
There are so many examples of extracurriculars, but a few common ones include:
- Awards or student competitions
- Clubs or student organisations
- Paid work or internships
- Independent research
- Sports teams
Extracurriculars include activities completed during high school, at school, or outside of school. They can be online or in-person, and formal or informal.
Why Universities Care About Extracurriculars?
When admissions officers review your university application, academics are the first aspect they consider.
While excellent grades and test scores can help your application pass the initial review by admissions officers, your personal brand (including your extracurricular activities, leadership roles, and personal experiences) is what truly distinguishes you from others!
Extracurricular make up 30% of your uni application
The chart below outlines the typical weighting of different components in a U.S. college application:
5 Ways to Build Outstanding Extracurriculars
Talents and Interests
The simplest way to build outstanding extracurriculars is through your talents and interests.
You already need extracurriculars, so you might as well do something you're already good at and/or love! Your commitment to these activities will quickly and easily demonstrate your personal qualities and your dedication to excellence.
So, what talent or interest are you passionate about? Perhaps you're an athlete or a musician? Business owner or a Twitch streamer? Leverage what you already love doing to help tell a compelling story about yourself to admissions officers!
However, if your portfolio shows a limited range of extracurriculars, we recommend finding small ways to increase the variety of your activities to show other sides of yourself beyond that one talent or interest.
Community Service
The second way to build outstanding extracurriculars is through community service. Why? Well, community service is exactly as it sounds — how are you serving your community?
The trick here is making sure you're taking initiative and going above and beyond what is expected of you.
Ask yourself:
- Are you a demonstrated leader?
- Do your community members ask you to take on additional responsibilities?
- Have you helped expand the programme or initiative you're involved in?
- How are you leaving this community better than you found it?
Admissions officers love to see community service in an application because it demonstrates two important qualities: impact and passion.
Capstone Projects
While this may sound intimidating, a capstone project is an independent project you can undertake during your high school years. Capstone projects are superb at showing your leadership, innovation, and diligence––all qualities that admissions officers highly value in applicants.
This is different from the regular activities you might engage in once or twice a week, because these are larger, more intensive initiatives you commit to for several months, even years. It's a great way to ‘dive deep’ into a topic, cause, or organisation you’re passionate about, while helping you stand out from other students with similar academic achievements.
Capstone examples:
🎗 Organising a charitable event
💻 Building an app
📁 Creating a business
🎯 Developing a product or service
Research & Competitions
Participation in research and/or competitions demonstrates exceptional scholarly abilities and a commitment to academia beyond the classroom.
Engaging in a research program or collaborating on a research project shows initiative and intellectual curiosity. It sets you apart as a serious prospective student for your intended major. In most cases, academic research opportunities within the high school curriculum are limited, so it is important to connect with an academic network outside your community to explore what’s possible.
It's also important to pair your research with competition. Achievement in competitions shows your level of expertise and proficiency in your subject and your readiness to succeed in the rigorous academic environment in college.
Internships
An internship is a role you can undertake to gain more insight into the industry you are interested in. Unlike community service or volunteering, internships are focused on providing practical, workplace-related experience.
Completing an internship during high school can give you a competitive advantage when applying for university programs, as it demonstrates your commitment and passion for a particular field.
For example, if you’re considering a career in medicine, an internship at a hospital can help you stand out as a strong candidate and also allows you to gain a better understanding of the field and apply that knowledge to your studies.
Ideal places to find internship opportunities:
- Small businesses in your community
- Non-profits, social service sectors, and charities
- Personal connections (family members, family friends, etc.)
- Online initiatives (blogs, social media, etc.)
- Dedicated secondary school internship programmes
What Do Admissions Officers Want To See in Your Extracurriculars?
Leadership
Simply put, admissions officers are looking for leaders who are already making a significant impact in their field and communities.
Leadership shows that you went beyond passive involvement with an organisation or project and took on a higher level of responsibility voluntarily.
Examples of Leadership Activities
| Institutional | Innovative | Independent |
|---|---|---|
| Student Government Organisation Ambassador Club Leader Newspaper or Yearbook Editor | Startup Founder Organisation Director Leading a campaign Launching an app Launching a competition | Starting a successful blog Research Internships Writing a novel Marathon fundraising event |
Impact
Beyond merely holding a leadership role or title, there’s also the question of what you accomplished with that responsibility.
When discussing your activity, you only have 150 character descriptions. It’s a limited number of characters to work with, so you’ll need to be concise.
Quantify your impact as much as possible. Did you increase membership? By what percentage? Use numbers so admissions officers know exactly what you achieved in that activity.
Focus less on the organisation and instead, talk about what you did. For example:
- Raising $5,000 for new library computers
- Leading a tutoring club with 30 tutors supporting 100 peers.
Include your most impactful activities first. The activity list is ranked by order of importance; start with what's most impressive, what you want to highlight first!
Authenticity
There are numerous options for extracurriculars to include in your activity list. It could be obvious things like investment societies, model united nations, UNICEF and other volunteering activities, school clubs, etc.
These all make sense. These are the things people think of first when they consider activities that go on the Common App.
But what goes on there can be unexpected. Family responsibilities can be included as activities, for example. Do you spend a significant amount of your time caring for a family member at home? That counts as an activity!
What admissions officers want to know is how you spend your time outside of class – that’s what makes your extracurricular activities impactful. So, be sure to really look at how you spend all your time. Think about all the activities that you engage in that could go on your activity list.
Final Thoughts
Extracurriculars are a significant part of your application, make sure you perfect them!
Understand what extracurriculars are, why they matter, and how to maximise their impact on your university application. Knowing what admissions officers want to see is the best way to understand how to showcase them effectively.
If you're looking to submit the perfect application, our expert strategists are here to help. Australian Students working with Crimson strategists are 7 times more likely to gain admission to their dream university.
What Sets Crimson Apart
About the Contributor
Brice O'Connell
Brice has worked as a Strategist for over 7 years, helping hundreds of students gain admission to top universities such as MIT, UPenn, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, UChicago, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC and many more! He holds a degree in Global Political Economics from the University of Wisconsin and lived in South Korea, Thailand, Myanmar and Shanghai all before settling in the US.
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