Guide A Student’s Activity Plan

We talk a lot in our i4 framework about how important it is for students to take the initiative during their high school years. Demonstrating initiative usually involves starting with an idea, then taking steps to make it a reality. Traditionally, when it comes to initiative, we think of things like founding a club or starting a new school program—but taking a formal leadership role associated with your school isn’t the only way to show initiative. 

The key is to turn ideas into actions, no matter the context. Here are a few examples:

• Proposing a service project to fellow club members—like planting trees or volunteering at a food bank or homeless shelter—then reaching out to the relevant service organization to coordinate student service

• Making a new playlist and dance routine to add some fun into the daily team warm-up

• Organizing a study group for a particularly tough AP exam, with a weekly agenda to keep everyone on track

• Graduating from journal-writing to starting a creative-writing blog

• Creating a neighborhood summer camp for kids

• Stepping up to a leadership role in your faith-based youth group

• Working with a teacher to create an independent study project

• Coaching or refereeing a sport you love

• Organizing a cheek-swabbing event for the local organ-donation charity

Take the following steps to create an activity & leadership plan that works well for you:

STEP 1: KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS

Follow your aptitudes; explore what you’re interested in; capitalize on what you can already do well. Are you a people person? Consider running for student government. Do you write poetry? Apply for a job on the literary magazine.

STEP 2: GAIN EXPERIENCE

Be willing to pay your dues. Before you can be the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, you'll have to do significant work as a reporter. As a sophomore, you still have plenty of time to do that hard work before taking on leadership roles in junior or senior year.

STEP 3: WORK WELL WITH OTHERS

Good leaders have strong interpersonal skills. Be a team player. Listen to other people with openness and curiosity, ask them questions to learn more, and fulfill your responsibilities to gain their trust.

STEP 4: TAKE ACTION

Leaders are ready to walk the walk. Set concrete goals, then take the steps necessary to achieve them. Anyone can have a great idea, but not everyone can turn a vision into a reality.

STEP 5: RESIST THE URGE TO PAD YOUR RESUME

Don't join a club or team unless it genuinely interests you—you might get bored and make only a feeble contribution to the organization, which a waste of time for everyone involved. College admissions committees can usually tell spot a padded resume. Instead of a laundry list of activities, they’d rather see meaningful and sustained participation in a few areas. Long-term involvement and responsibility in one or two organizations will strengthen your application, whereas being an onlooker in ten groups may not help you much.

Help Determine A Student’s College List

The first step in the college application process is deciding which schools to apply to. There are hundreds of schools that might fit the bill—and even more factors to consider when creating the list—so we urge parents and students alike to keep an open mind and not to be swayed by name recognition alone.

A college may be perfect for one student and completely wrong for another. That's where the idea of a college match comes in. College match refers to how well a school fits with a student. We're talking about things like academic and social fit, a geographic location that suits the student, and a financial aid package that works for the family. Students should determine what's important to them and then start to develop their college list based on those criteria.

One of the most exciting parts of college is deciding what you want to study or what your major will be. If you already know what you want to study, make sure the colleges on your list offer that major, and also be sure to research those specific programs at each school. If you're still relatively undecided—and that’s okay!—take some time to be sure the colleges on your list have a wide enough variety of offerings that you're not pigeonholed into a major you don't love.

Form The Core of Their Essays And Application

A student’s first-choice major becomes the lens through which a file reviewer evaluates each item in an application. Demonstrated academic fit for major is one of the most important aspects of UT Austin’s holistic review, as well as many other competitive schools. Each application item should provide evidence to support the student’s first-choice major selection. By selecting an appropriate first-choice major and putting equal effort into each part of the application, students will have a leg up in the application process.

Students interested in competitive majors should take the most rigorous courses that fit their schedule in high school—and do well in them. This is especially important for math and science courses, but showing a well-rounded course load is a plus.

It's not enough to have a solid course load, great grades, and high test scores in subjects aligned with competitive majors. A student who wants to major in a competitive area needs to show their interest outside of academics. Extracurricular activities are a great way for students to highlight their passion for an area. That means taking initiative at their school and in their community to learn about the different fields available

Request Your Copy of Our Guide To Exploring College Majors