What Extracurricular Activities Matter Most—and How We Help Students Find Them
What Should High School Students Do for Extracurricular Activities?
“What should my child be doing for activities?”
It’s one of the most common—and most misunderstood—questions we hear from families eager to give their child the best chance for strong college admissions outcomes. Our answer? It starts with understanding why activities matter in the first place.
Activities aren’t about checking boxes or following someone else’s formula—they’re about helping students develop a deeper understanding of themselves. And because every student is different, there’s no single right path. Many families assume a student must play a sport or log a specific number of community service hours to stand out. In truth, the best activities are the ones rooted in genuine interest—whether they’re common or surprisingly unique. That’s why we focus on reflection and growth, rather than ticking boxes.
We see activities as more than just preparation for college—they’re how students discover who they are and grow.
What Colleges Really Look for in Extracurricular Activities—and How Students Can Stand Out
Contrary to popular belief, when it comes to activities, colleges aren’t looking for prestige, perfection, or quantity. They want students who
Grow over time
Show clear direction and evolving interests
Take initiative
Make a lasting impact—whether on others or themselves
Colleges are not seeking automatons or achievement machines who choose activities to “look good” to admissions officers. Instead, they prioritize depth over breadth, authenticity over obligation, and student-driven choices over resume-building.
Activities students genuinely care about—especially those that follow curiosity and initiative—reveal who they are beyond academics. Ultimately, colleges aren’t just admitting accomplishments—they’re admitting students who think deeply, grow intentionally, and bring a unique perspective to campus.
While meaningful activities can enrich a student’s application, they’re just one part of a bigger picture. Strong academics and rigorous coursework continue to be the foundation of admissions decisions.
How Activities Build Self-Knowledge and Strengthen College Applications
We don’t give students a list of activities—we guide them through a process to identify purposeful activities.
Through our work with students, we look for patterns in where their energy, interest, or joy naturally arises and help them explore and build on those areas. We can’t create a passion for a student, but we can help them see and grow what’s already there.
Our philosophy centers on activities as a path to self-understanding and growth—the foundation for meaningful, authentic applications.
The goal isn’t to do impressive things, but to become an interesting, thoughtful person. That’s what makes students stand out—not just to colleges, but in life.
We can help you identify and develop your passions.
How We Help Students Choose Meaningful Extracurricular Activities: Our Tools and Approach
We provide students with a personalized structure for reflection, exploration, and growth that evolves with each student’s interests. Here are a few of the key tools we use to help students discover and deepen their extracurricular paths:
Passion Discovery Workbook
We created a Passion Discovery Workbook to help students explore their interests, values, learning styles, and sparks of curiosity. Once students complete it independently, we review it with them, asking thoughtful questions and encouraging them to think more deeply about their responses.
From there, we suggest next steps: activities to explore, projects to pursue, books to read, and other resources like podcasts, YouTube videos, or articles to spark further curiosity and learning. The goal is to help students translate curiosity into impactful action aligned with their unique interests.
Reading tailored to a student’s interests builds knowledge, inspires new ideas, and strengthens the critical thinking and writing skills colleges value.
STEM Activities Catalog
For students interested in STEM, we offer our own carefully curated catalog of extracurricular opportunities including:
Summer and year-round programs
Math and computer science competitions
Hackathons, coding boot camps, and workshops
Independent research opportunities
Game and app development
Maker portfolios and technical skill development
This catalog is designed to help students find experiences that truly align with both their interests and developmental stage.
College Matchpoint’s i4 Framework
We also use the i4 Framework, developed by College Matchpoint, to guide students in understanding how their interests can grow into meaningful impact:
Identify: What sparks your curiosity?
Involvement: What can you learn or explore further?
Initiative: What can you create or contribute based on what you’ve discovered?
Impact: How does your work affect others and the world around you?
This framework complements our Deep-Fit™ approach, which encourages reflection to support authentic, compelling applications, while fostering the confidence and agency critical for thriving in college and beyond.
With these tools, students are empowered to pursue activities that genuinely reflect who they are and what matters most to them—building genuine experiences that not only facilitate personal growth but also strengthen their college applications.
Your work in the community matters—and we’ll help it shine in your college applications.
Supporting Students Who Struggle to Discover Their Interests: When the Workbook Doesn’t Work (Yet)
Not every student knows right away what excites them. Some are so achievement oriented that they’ve never paused to reflect. One truly exceptional student we worked with struggled to answer the questions in our Passion Discovery Workbook. While she had earned outstanding grades in a rigorous academic program and perfect SAT scores, she had little practice asking herself: What do I actually enjoy?
We told her that colleges are not looking for output machines—they are looking for insightful, reflective human beings—so engaging with these reflective exercises would be more valuable for her applications than another “impressive” activity or achievement.
We created a personalized reflection guide for her. It was simple and low-pressure—an invitation to notice what made her feel focused, joyful, or curious over the summer. There were no assignments, deadlines, or outcomes—just space to pay attention.
Our hope is that this shift from output to observation will help her begin to recognize her own patterns of interest leading to more authentic choices, engagement, and, ultimately, stronger college applications.
What About “Passion Projects”?
Many families come to us seeking a “passion project.” It’s a common phrase—but often a misleading one.
We believe passion grows naturally—it can’t be manufactured. Instead of asking, What’s a good passion project? we encourage students to ask, What am I genuinely curious about? or What do I want to understand better or share with others?
The most meaningful projects don’t begin with a goal of impressing colleges. They begin with interest, inquiry, and initiative. Whether it’s building a backyard obstacle course (see more on this cool project below!), researching local climate data, starting a book group, or writing a blog—these efforts become powerful not because they’re polished, but because they’re real, often starting as a simple spark worth following.
Are Expensive Programs “Worth It”?
Families also often ask whether investing in costly programs—especially those offered by prestigious universities—will improve their child’s chances of admission. The answer is no: attending an expensive or prestigious program in and of itself doesn’t guarantee admission success.
What matters is what students learn from these experiences, how they engage in them, and how those lessons translate into their applications.
Get guidance to powerfully share your experiences in your college applications.
Real Student Stories: How Unique Extracurricular Activities Build Insight and Impact
Not all meaningful activities involve formal leadership roles, official programs, or structured awards. Some of the most powerful stories we’ve seen come from students who followed their own quiet interests or responded creatively to the world around them.
Natalie maintained a two-person book group with her sixth-grade teacher throughout the pandemic. Over many months, they read fifteen books—each one written by a woman and featuring a powerful female protagonist. The experience gave her a deep, personal lens into the lives of women across time, geography, and genre, and created a regular space to explore ideas and values.
Stephanie, passionate about both photography and local history, began photographing historical barns across New England. She donated the photos to a local historical society, which displayed and sold the pieces to benefit their preservation efforts. Her project wasn’t designed to change the world—but to make a real contribution to her local community. That kind of quiet, local impact is often more authentic, more sustainable, and more meaningful than short-term efforts focused on faraway causes.
Authentic, community-rooted efforts often build deep relationships with mentors and teachers—connections that can shape a student’s growth and support their future goals.
Passion Can’t Be Prescribed: How Genuine Curiosity Drives Standout Students
A parent once asked me, “Can you tell my child what to do to get into Stanford to study computer science?” My answer was simple: The child who gets into Stanford to study CS doesn’t need me to tell them what to do. They have it within themselves.
The students whose applications stand out at the most selective colleges don’t check boxes. They pursue ideas because they’re curious, creative, and fully engaged. Their activities often begin informally—with a question or an early fascination that turns into something real.
One student we worked with had always been interested in powerful physical activity. She was a black belt in karate and leader on her rugby team. As a child, she imagined a home filled with monkey bars and treadmills. That vision stuck with her, and years later, she decided to build a large-scale obstacle course in her backyard, inspired by American Ninja Warrior.
She didn’t do it to impress colleges. She did it because the idea captured her imagination. She designed and built the structure with her dad, solving real-world challenges and adapting as she went. It turned out that the result wasn’t just a physical space where she could challenge herself athletically—it was a working prototype of a larger idea: that people of all ages should be able to play.
Her story became a memorable part of her college application, and her personal statement remains one of my favorites to this day. To read her essay and learn more about how unique activities like this can fuel standout applications like hers, see How to Write a Standout College Essay for Computer Science (CS) Applications.
Learn how to showcase your creative problem-solving skills in your college application.
Personalized College Counseling: Supporting Students and Families in Building Strong Activities and Applications
At Lantern College Counseling, we do much more than help students build activity lists—we build self-awareness, direction, and confidence. Because our approach is highly personalized, we get to know each student deeply, which helps us spot patterns, notice sparks, and make meaningful connections from their experiences.
We start by asking thoughtful questions: What excites you? What do you want to explore more? Where do you feel alive or challenged? From there, we help students take small, purposeful steps—experimenting with new activities, revisiting old interests, or creating something uniquely their own.
For an example of how students can find meaning in seemingly ordinary experiences—and turn them into compelling, reflective applications—see How to Write a Standout College Essay for Engineering Applications.
We support both students and families throughout, guiding parents who often feel pressure to optimize their child’s path toward what truly matters: growth, independence, and long-term well-being.
How Deep-Fit Extracurricular Activities Boost College Applications and Student Success
Activities aren’t a means to an end. They’re central to how students become who they are.
The most powerful extracurriculars aren’t chosen to impress colleges. They’re chosen because they matter to the student. Our Deep-Fit process helps students know themselves and reflect on their values, forming the heart of authentic, compelling college applications.
This process not only improves applications, but also positions students for stronger admissions outcomes and supports thriving in college. See How Lantern College Counseling Helps Students Thrive at Deep-Fit Colleges. Also see Deep-Fit College Counseling: An Investment for Life.
For a step-by-step guide to the college application process and timeline, see: The College Application Process: How to Apply to College (With Timeline).
We can help you share the impact you’ve made on your community.
