The most successful applicants to top-20 colleges understand that academic excellence must come first. But that alone won’t distinguish them from thousands of equally qualified candidates.
The key is becoming “well-lopsided”: developing depth in one or two meaningful activities rather than spreading yourself thin across many. For families targeting elite universities, this means helping your student build genuine expertise and demonstrated impact in areas they truly care about, while maintaining the rigorous academic foundation that serves as their baseline qualification.
For comprehensive strategies on positioning your student for top-tier admissions, see our guide on Top-Tier College Application Tips to Maximize Chances.
What are the best extracurricular activities for college applications?
Here’s a truth that often surprises ambitious families: there is no fixed list of “best” extracurricular activities that will guarantee admission to elite colleges. The type of activity you do matters far less than what you do within that activity and how authentically it reflects who you are.
Admissions officers want to see multi-year involvement, progressive growth in responsibility, measurable achievement, genuine passion, and connection with people outside of your school.
Here are various examples of activities that are looked upon favorably by admissions officers:
Athletics: Three-season athletes may not have time for an extensive list of activities, but they may be recruited for their athletic talent. The commitment and achievement within their sport tells a complete story.
Arts and Music: Students pursuing arts or music programs can develop compelling portfolios through years of dedicated practice, performances, and creative growth, demonstrating exactly the kind of sustained excellence that admissions officers value.
Research and Academics: Students targeting highly specialized programs like aeronautics at Stanford need activities that match their intended major (like participating in aerospace engineering summer programs, building model rockets, competing in Science Olympiad events, or attending space camp year after year). Jamie Berger notes that students admitted to such competitive programs have often been deeply engaged in that field since middle school.
Work and Family Responsibilities: Paid employment and family obligations demonstrate responsibility, time management, and real-world maturity. These experiences can be just as compelling as traditional extracurriculars when presented authentically.
The common thread across all successful examples isn’t the type of activity, but the depth of engagement.
Which is more important for highly selective college admissions: grades or extracurricular activities?
Grades are more important; this one is straightforward. Colleges and universities are academic institutions, and they’re looking for students who excel at academic work. Grades and test scores typically take precedence over extracurricular involvement in the admissions process.
However, at the most competitive institutions, this is only part of the equation. Elite schools seek excellence in both academic and extracurricular pursuits. Only in rare instances will extraordinary extracurricular achievement compensate for academic weaknesses.
As veteran college admissions counselor Jamie Berger explains: “Once you’ve achieved your 1500 SATs and all those APs and all those grades and all that summer internship, it’s who you are as a person that’s going to put you over the bar.”
The critical insight for families is this: Academics get your application through the door, but your extracurricular achievements are what move you to the top of the pile.
How many extracurricular activities should my student have to be competitive for top colleges?
There is no magic number. The quantity of activities matters far less than the quality and depth of commitment each one represents.
Some students sign up for numerous clubs but contribute little to any of them. Others join no formal clubs but dedicate substantial time outside of school to one special pursuit. Both approaches appear on successful applications. However, only the latter approach tends to result in compelling applications to elite schools.
The Common App provides space to list ten activities, but students shouldn’t feel pressured to fill every slot. What matters is the substance of what goes into those spaces: progression over time, increasing responsibility, measurable impact, and genuine engagement.
What does “well-lopsided” mean and why do top colleges prefer this over “well-rounded” students?
The era of the “well-rounded” applicant has passed. Today’s most selective colleges seek “well-lopsided” students. That means students with superior talents and deep expertise in one or two areas, rather than moderate capability across many activities.
Admissions officers at highly selective institutions want to see students with well-defined interests in which they excel and demonstrate leadership. They’re skeptical of applicants who move from one activity to the next without committing meaningfully to any.
Jamie Berger puts it directly: “The great well-rounded kid is not the ideal anymore. Deep dives for four years into activities is what’s most valuable.”
This shift reflects how elite colleges construct their incoming classes. They’re building diverse communities of specialists: students who will each contribute something distinctive to campus life. A student who has achieved regional recognition in debate, published original research in biology, or built a nonprofit from scratch offers more to a college community than someone with surface-level involvement in fifteen different clubs.
When should my student drop an extracurricular to focus on higher-impact activities?
The activities worth dropping are those your student pursues only to check a box. Colleges want to see sustained involvement with increasing depth over multiple years. If a student doesn’t genuinely enjoy an activity, they’re unlikely to develop the leadership or achievement that makes it compelling on an application anyway.
Jamie Berger recommends a natural progression: “Freshman year, try a lot of stuff and then narrow it. Do something in the summer related to the ones you liked, then narrow down to fewer clubs the next year.”
If your student has been involved in something for two years and realizes it’s simply not for them, it’s acceptable to step away, even though four years of commitment looks stronger than two. The alternative is worse: arriving at a selective college committed to a path they never wanted, potentially heading toward the wrong career. Read what tough decisions Isaac needed to make to get into Penn.
However, parents should be thoughtful about activities that serve the student’s overall wellbeing. A student shouldn’t abandon rowing just because it won’t result in athletic recruitment if that activity supports their physical health, sense of community, and personal happiness.
Is it better to take harder courses with lower grades or easier courses with higher grades?
The ideal path is taking the challenging course and earning a strong grade. The higher the academic challenge combined with high performance, the more seriously selective colleges will consider the applicant.
That said, strategic course selection requires nuance. Jamie Berger illustrates this well: if a student earned an A-minus in AP Calculus AB but genuinely struggles with mathematics and isn’t applying to STEM programs, forcing them into BC Calculus simply because peers are taking it may not be the right choice.
The key factors to consider include the student’s intended major and career direction, their genuine aptitude and interest in the subject, their overall course load and stress levels, and how the course fits into their transcript narrative.
A highly capable student might strategically calibrate their course load in one area to excel in another that matters more to their academic and professional goals. This isn’t about avoiding challenge; it’s about applying challenge strategically where it will have the greatest positive impact.
How can my student demonstrate leadership without holding an official title?
Leadership positions strengthen applications, but not every student is positioned to hold an official title.
There are numerous ways to demonstrate leadership through action rather than position. Students can manage a club’s website or social media presence, lead specific initiatives like fundraising drives or community projects, organize events or competitions, mentor newer members, or create something new within an existing organization.
The Common Application provides space for students to describe their involvement beyond simply listing titles. This allows students to articulate how they took initiative, influenced outcomes, and made a measurable impact. These are all qualities that admissions officers associate with genuine leadership.
Achievements and accomplishments within activities also demonstrate leadership qualities: winning competitions, creating original work, solving problems, or driving growth all show the initiative and influence that formal titles are meant to represent.
Do colleges care about what students do during the summer?
Absolutely. Summer activities provide significant insight into who students are when school structure falls away, and they have more control over their time.
However, meaningful summer engagement doesn’t require expensive programs or prestigious-sounding internships. It is completely acceptable and can be genuinely impressive for students to work during the summer.
Jamie Berger shares a compelling example: “I helped a kid get into very selective schools whose main activity in the summers was working at McDonald’s. He became a manager, attended national conferences, and applied to Michigan Business School. He didn’t have illustrious academic camps. The colleges saw someone who knows what they want, who stuck with it and excelled at it.”
What matters is that summer activities demonstrate continued commitment, growth, and initiative. Whether through employment, research, passion projects, volunteer work, or skill development, students should show they use unstructured time purposefully and in ways that connect to who they are and what they care about.
Ready to develop a strategic approach to balancing your student’s academics and activities for top-tier admissions? Schedule a free consultation to maximize your college application success.
