Whatever is making you hesitate about getting involved in the college community beyond the classroom, consider the benefits below. Engaging in extracurricular activities is a great way of getting the lay of the land. Here are a few things to consider about getting involved. Pursuing a degree is the main goal when you enroll in a program, but the collegiate experience is about more than just what you learn in the classroom or discussion boards.
Connecting to the community, forming a group of friends and building relationships that go beyond the classroom are important to fulfilling your need for communal ties. Signing up for extracurricular activities is a way to find friends who share common interests, are pursuing the same degree or whom you enjoy hanging out with. If you already have a career or job advancement in mind following graduation, then consider how participating in extracurriculars might help you out.
Activities through clubs, opportunities to attend a conference, volunteering your time or induction into an honors society can help open doors. Additionally, you'll notice that extracurricular involvement adds some gas to your academic tank as you go through your degree program.
Attending meetings allows you to interact with an organized group, may offer the chance to try your hand at event planning, practice communication skills and can be a road to leadership development. With a challenging schedule of lectures, discussion board posts, exams and so on to juggle, you will have plenty of tasks to fill up your day.
Activities can be divided into four tiers , with Tier 1 representing activities that are unique and exceptional and Tier 4 representing the most common and frequently seen extracurriculars. The greater the role you take in an activity, the higher the activity tier.
For top 20 schools, you should aim to have at least a few Tier 1 and 2 activities. Gaining leadership positions and entering and winning competitions will increase the value of your activities, as well as boost the impressiveness of your profile. How does your extracurricular and academic profile compare with those of other college applicants?
Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get started. What Are Extracurricular Activities? Benefits of Extracurricular Activities 1. They help students explore their passions and career interests. Students develop real-life skills by participating in extracurriculars. Extracurriculars strengthen your college application. They provide a break from school. Participation in extracurriculars is linked to higher academic performance. Calculate Your Chances for Free. How to Build Your Extracurricular Profile 1.
Start by exploring a variety of interests. Virtually all students in public schools reported that a core of extracurricular activities was available to them, including sports, performing arts, publications, and honor societies; and all but a small percentage had access to academic clubs and student government table 2. Furthermore, despite concerns about scarce resources in schools serving poor students, no important differences in availability of extracurricular activities in relatively less affluent and more affluent schools 2 were found.
Similarly, regardless of whether the schools attended were large students or more or small less than , in rural, urban or suburban settings, or served large 20 percent or more minority or small proportions of minority students less than 20 percent , almost all students reported that extracurricular activities were available to them data not shown in table.
Table 2. Percentage of public school seniors reporting availability of selected extracurricular activities, by affluence of school, Students Reporting Availability of Activity percent All Less More public affluent affluent schools schools schools Any extracurricular activity About four of every five seniors said they participated in at least one extracurricular activity in Although a range of extracurricular activities was available to almost all students, students differed markedly in their choice of activities table 3.
Sports either individual or team had the widest participation, involving 42 percent of seniors in , followed by performing arts and academic clubs.
Honor societies, publications, and student government, which by definition have more limited memberships than other activities, each still drew 16 to 18 percent of seniors. Although differences in availability of extracurricular opportunities between less affluent and more affluent schools were small or nonexistent, students of low socioeconomic status SES were less likely to participate in activities than were high SES students 3. Almost three-quarters of low SES students participated in at least one activity, compared with 87 percent of high SES students.
The participation of low SES students was consistently lower than that of high SES students in each type of activity, with the exception of vocational or professional clubs, such as Future Farmers or Future Teachers of America, in which low SES students were almost twice as likely to participate.
Some researchers have suggested that the social context of the school might have a positive or negative influence on student behavior, depending on whether the individual student is in the relative minority or majority in the school Karweit, Low SES students, for example, may be more likely to participate in schools where they are in the majority and less likely to participate in more affluent schools where they are in the relative minority.
These data include, however, that regardless of their socioeconomic background, students' participation was not related to the social context of the school--low SES students participated at the same rates whether they attended less affluent or more affluent schools, and so did high SES students. If individual socioeconomic factors, rather than school factors, account for differences in participation, what is it about individuals, particularly those from lower SES families, that makes a difference?
Researchers have identified several barriers to student participation, ranging from the more tangible, including family or work responsibilities, limited resources for equipment or other expenses, and transportation or other logistical difficulties, to the more complex, such as lack of interest in or alienation from school and its activities Kleese and D'Onofrio, Table 3. Discussion Although it cannot be known from these data whether the relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and success in school is causal, and although degree or intensity of participation is not measured, it is clear that participation and success are strongly associated as evidenced by participants' better attendance, higher levels of achievement, and aspirations to higher levels of education.
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