A few weeks ago I had a great opportunity to talk to students at a local high school about school clubs, activities, and extracurriculars. It was voluntary; students weren’t forced to go and listen. That meant I had a good crowd, eager to listen and ask really good questions. This is a summary of the things we talked about.

Before we even begin thinking about the activities list on your college applications, it’s really useful to understand why colleges ask about your activities at all. And to be clear, many of them don’t really care that much. Many public universities (and some private ones) use basic formulas for GPA, rank and/or test scores to give automatic acceptance, regardless of your extracurriculars. The activities list really matters most when schools use holistic review for applicants, whether that’s a school who uses holistic admission for everyone or a school that uses holistic admission just for the student who don’t meet their initial formula for auto-acceptance. And of course what you do with your time matters to you and those around you, regardless of college applications.

Colleges ask about your activities for two reasons: they’re interested in making their community as vibrant as possible, and because what you do in high school is the clearest indicator of what you’ll do in college.

Universities aren’t just honor societies for students who did well in high school. They are actual people working together toward common goals, not just walking-and-talking GPAs working toward their own individual goals. Colleges want people who are going to be active and make the campus a community. They want people who are going to do interesting things outside the classrooms, people who are going to join groups and people who are going to be leaders. They consider their campus a community, and they want people who will contribute to that overall wellbeing of the community.

And how do they know if you’ll contribute to their community? They don’t, but looking at how you contributed to your communities in high school gives them a pretty good idea. So asking you to explain what you currently do with your time outside of the classroom is how they try to predict what you might do outside their classrooms. It’s not a perfect predictor, but it’s the best they’ve got.

Understanding why they ask about your activities goes a long way to knowing how to choose and explain your own activities in high school. It’s not about making yourself look good or seeming impressive. It’s about being an interesting and interested part of your community.

So here’s some advice.

Anything you do just because “it looks good to colleges” is a waste of time. Don’t fall for this mindset. It’s unhealthy for you, because it encourages you to think of yourself as a product or brand to be marketed, not a whole person. And besides that, it doesn’t really work. For one, these admissions professionals have seen lots and lots and lots of applications. They can spot a faker. To be fair, spending 20 hours doing something you don’t care about is probably better for your application than doing nothing. But spending those 20 hours on something that is important to you is better for you and better for your application. They’re not looking at your activities list without context: they’re looking at it in the context of the rest of your application and your high school context. If you do things that are interesting to you and challenge you, that will look good to colleges. One-off activities or hollow honors don’t help anyone, they just waste your time and work against your own development.

Quality is always better than quantity. One club where you really do interesting projects, spend quality time with other people, and make yourself and others better will always be better than three clubs where you show up for meetings and do little else. The same goes for volunteering, organizations like Scouts, athletic teams, and religious organizations. The Common Application allows you to list up to 10 activities. Don’t think of 10 as the right number, just the maximum number.

If you are a member of an honor society, that’s great. But it’s not necessarily important. Focus on what you do as a part of that society. If your school’s chapter of an honor society doesn’t really do much except take on members and give them a stole to wear at graduation, feel free to not join that honor society. Don’t worry that you’re not being “impressive.” Doing something productive and interesting with your time is always more impressive than an empty certificate. However, if your school’s chapter is really active and enriches the school or greater community, then join with pride.

Think in terms of verbs. When it comes to activity, you necessarily have to think about action. When choosing activities, ask yourself what you want to do and what you need to do. When describing your activities, lead with the verbs and describe what you actually did. For so many high school students (and adults as well), the full extent of many activities is simply “attend.” No matter how long or seemingly impressive your activities list is, if you have trouble coming up with verbs beyond “attend” and “participate,” then it’s hard for anyone else to tell if you did very much.

Think back to all the activities you’ve been involved in, both in and out of school. Chances are, the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, played out: 20% of the people did 80% of the work, and 80% of the outcome was based on 20% of the input. Your goal isn’t just to try different activities, or even take leadership positions. Your job is to aim to be in the 20%, whatever that requires. Look for strong and interesting verbs when choosing what to do, and don’t forget to use strong and interesting verbs when you describe what you do. This takes you back to quality versus quantity: you probably can’t be in the active 20% of many groups, and it’s better to spend your time on those than be in more groups where you’re in the inactive 80%. Founding a brand new club or organization where little happens ins’t nearly as important as being an active and productive member of the club or organization, even if you didn’t start it.

(The high school that invited me to come and talk to students? Two different administrators told me this is a problem at the school. Too many students trying to start new clubs that nobody participates in, because they think being a club founder will be impressive on college applications. Lots of founders and presidents, very few members. Too many activities, not enough action.)

Remember that everything counts. Your activities include official clubs and extracurricular activities that take place at school. They also include organizations and activities you’re part of outside of school. They include jobs and internships. They include working for pay. They include working without pay at a family business. They include caring for other family members like younger siblings or older relatives. They include volunteering a little or lot, even if it’s not a Volunteering Project.

I can’t tell you how many high school students have told me that they don’t have any activities to list, or not many activities to list, even though they spend a lot of time doing interesting and challenging things. Those students just thought that the things they spent their time doing “don’t count” because they’re not organized through school. They count! When choosing how to prioritize your time or which activities are the most important to list, let that be your guide: what have you done that’s the most interesting and challenging? Those are the things colleges would like to hear about, even if it’s not sponsored by a school or other major organization.

In fact, once you realize that quality counts more than quantity, and that everything counts, you may decide that school-sponsored clubs and activities may not be the best way to do what you want to do. That’s fine.

When it comes to time to explain your activities on your college applications, explain them well. You’re not just filling in some blanks and checking some boxes. Use as many of the 150 characters allowed possible to describe what you did. Think about your verbs, and don’t be afraid to use common abbreviations. 150 characters isn’t much, so work hard to get the full extent of your activities into those spaces! And focus on the verbs, did I mention that?

Bonus: talking about high school activities always reminds me of the “Yearbook Montage” from Rushmore. Enjoy!

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