Is ‘All-Rounded’ Extra-Curricular Profile ‘Perfect’ for Top US Colleges?

By Hubert Ho | Head of Admissions Consulting Services, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

When talking about student’s profile, most of the students and parents will refer to the extra-curricular resume immediately and try to build up a ‘perfect’ invincible one to showcase how ‘all-rounded’ they are. For tier two US colleges and boarding schools, this strategy might be working. However, it is guaranteed to be failed for US top colleges and top boarding schools. Let us have a look at what extra-curricular activities mean.

Extra-Curricular Activities consist of 2 main parts and 5 main components. The main parts refer to in-school activities and out-school activities, while the 5 main components consist of QUALITY, COMMITMENT, OUTCOME, CHALLENGE and REFLECTION. We all know that there is not much space for you to list out all your activities and there are only 10 spaces for you at most. So, you may want to ask me a question. “How can I find an activity that can fulfil all 5 components in one go?” I will say it takes time to build up. Imagine, you will not be able to be a house captain just because you suddenly feel like you want to be. Nobody will help you on this. As a result, you need to plant some seeds in previous year or years to harvest.

Back to the ‘all-rounded’ idea, top colleges always say they welcome ‘all-rounded’ students but those students are the one who will not receive any offers from them. Why? You will get the answer from their website. Who are they looking for? They are looking for a specific type of global leader who can help building a better world in the future. Will an ‘all-rounded’ student be able to do that? Possible but not guarantee. Remember one extremely important rule. Top colleges are using a student’s 4-year high school life to predict how successful the student can be. You can treat the whole journey as a game, but with no ‘CONTINUE’ mechanism. You are required to have a very detailed planning on every single step to build up your profile to shine and get admitted.

Need more information on how to get accepted into elite school? Come and speak with our Admissions Counselor: https://bit.ly/3teynbI

Mr. Hubert Ho

Head of Admissions Consulting Services, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
Associate Member of IECA, Member of NACAC and AEE
MCom (Finance), UNSW
BCom (Management & Marketing), University of Wollongong

• 10 years+ of experience in education industry
• 100% of his students got admitted to Top 3 choices & Top 50 US National Colleges and G5 UK Universities
• Proven track record helping students gain admission to US prestigious colleges including Yale University, Stanford University, Cornell University, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, New York University, Boston University

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