Curtis WestbayI believe that being able to trace a logical thread through a student’s activity résumé can be a powerful thing.
This thread is one that tells a story of adaptation, continuity, resilience, and interest. Even if a student can’t hang their hat on any achievements they would consider noteworthy, even if a student never finds tremendous competitive success, the activity list means something in a student’s college applications.
And this is good—everyone can’t win competitions or get their work published or what have you. If everyone could do this, these accomplishments would cease to carry weight in the college admission process. As top colleges become ever more selective, I understand why students are so concerned with achieving these things that indicate their own elite academic potential. It’s just not in the cards for every student, or even for many students.
So then, how can a student stand out on the basis of their activities, even if they don’t boast accolades like these?
Interest
Colleges are places of learning. Though a student’s future is in no way set based on their intended major, successful applicants should be able to present evidence of their academic potential. That academic potential doesn’t need to be confined to one neat major category.
If a student can show how their interests have evolved over time, an activity list that isn’t heavy-laden with top tier academic activities can still be considered strong by an application reader. The path of curiosity leads the student from one engagement to the next, and it becomes clear to the reader that those activities came from a place of personal interest for the applicant.
Continuity
Imagine an activity list that seems incoherent, or even one that has a major thematic turn. There might be a few math competitions in G9 and G10, and then an abrupt heel turn to sociology. It could be the case that a student took academic coursework which turned them on to a brand new interest—in this case, this would be evident from the transcript. If this is not the case, however, what drove them to make this sudden change?
Sure, a student might have just discovered something new and resolved to explore it all of a sudden. More likely, in the mind of the application reader, the student has probably chosen a subject they think will be easier for college admission.
In the applications for many colleges, students will have the opportunity to explain their academic interests in a supplemental essay. If there is no such essay, it will be of great benefit to a student if their process of exploration has a feeling of continuity that can be seen clearly in their activity list.
Resilience and Adaptation
I’m sure that, as parents, you have all encountered a situation in which your student felt like giving up on something. You may have allowed them to quit an activity, or you may have forced them to see it through to completion. There’s no one right or wrong approach to this circumstance, as the answer depends on situational context. If a student can’t seem to finish out an activity, to pursue something with consistency from one year to the next, it may call into question the student’s capacity for resilience.
Sometimes, it’s not the right choice for a student to keep doing something when it ceases to bring joy to their life. What it was that drew them to that activity, though, matters a great deal. If a student genuinely loved something, what would make them quit doing it all of a sudden?
If a student’s activity list lacks continuity, it may paint a picture of a student who does things because they wanted to pad out their résumé. At the first sign of resistance or failure, they abandon an activity in favor of something else that is, in their mind, a more cost-effective use of their time. Colleges probably don’t want a lot of students like this, whose decisions are driven entirely by credential accumulation and not by joy, passion, curiosity, interest, etc. If a student does choose to discontinue their involvement in an activity, where they go next may be of interest to an application reader. Did they quit something for the sake of pursuing something else that they have come to appreciate and value even more? Or did they quit something because they feared they couldn’t be the best, and being average at something wouldn’t help their candidacy for college?
If a student can’t be resilient, they will probably struggle in college, and the story of how they choose to stop doing something may exist between the lines of an activity list.