500+ Extracurricular Activities & Examples for High School Students - PrepMaven (2024)

Bonus Material: Extracurricular Activities Worksheet

Extracurricular activities are an essential component of competitive college applications.

When college admissions officers read your application, they’re generally on the lookout for three things:

1. Character & Personal Qualities
2. Academic Achievement
3. Extracurricular Distinction

Many of our students ask us how they can achieve extracurricular distinction.

What extracurricular activities should they pursue? And how do they earn distinction within a specific activity?

To answer these questions, we like to start by first defining what actually counts as an extracurricular activity (hint: more than you might realize!).

Then we point students to this list of 500+ examples of activities worth pursuing within the categories that appear on the Common Application.

We also give readers access to our Extracurricular Activities Worksheet. This is a valuable FREE resource for students needing extra guidance in choosing activities likely to suit their interests and lead to a solid college application. Grab this below.

Here’s what we cover:

• What Is An Extracurricular Activity?
• 500+ Examples of Awesome Extracurricular Activities
• Bonus: PrepMaven’s FREE Extracurricular Activities Worksheet

What Are Extracurricular Activities?

Extracurricular activities can seem pretty straightforward. Aren’t they just activities you pursue outside of the classroom?

Generally speaking, yes.

But extracurricular activities aren’t limited to what your school offers. Nor do they have to be associated with a specific program or organization. They can be much broader than that.

Here is how the Common App, the platform many students use to apply to college, defines an extracurricular activity:

To reiterate, an extracurricular activity can be:

• A personal pursuit, interest, or hobby
• Athletics
• School-based (or related)
• Community-based (or related)
• Online-based
• Employment
• Family-related and
• Anything else that has been meaningful to you!

Extracurricular activities can be associated with clubs, organizations, programs, teams, or other groups. They can be entirely independent. They can also be activities that you start or initiate outside of your usual classroom obligations as a high school student.

So what’s the secret?

Consistency.

We define an extracurricular activity as one you pursue outside of the classroom in a consistent fashion.

We like to add that particularly rich extracurricular activities from a college admissions standpoint often have at least one of the following qualities. These activities

• Build or maintain specific skills
• Prepare you for a future career
• Demonstrate your interest or passion
• Provide relevant context
• Say something about you and what you care about and/or
• Have impact of some kind (on you personally, others, or your community)

How We’ve Organized Our 500+ Examples of Extracurricular Activities

The Common App requires applicants to categorize each of their activities when reporting them. They also ask other questions about your role within an activity, organization name(s), and recognition or achievement.

Here are the categories the Common App uses to organize extracurricular activities:

• Academic
• Art
• Athletics: Club
• Athletics: JV/Varsity
• Career Oriented
• Community Service (Volunteer)
• Computer/Technology
• Cultural
• Dance
• Debate/Speech
• Environmental
• Family Responsibilities
• Foreign Language
• Internship
• Journalism/Publication
• Junior ROTC
• LGBT
• Music: Instrumental
• Music: Vocal
• Religious
• Research
• Robotics
• School Spirit
• Social Justice
• Student Government / Politics
• Theatre/Drama
• Work (paid)
• Other Club / Activity

We’ve organized our list of extracurricular activities below according to these Common App categories.

We want to emphasize that this list is not exhaustive! But it is an excellent resource for students looking for the kinds of activities likely to make their applications more competitive.

That’s why we also strongly encourage readers to download our Extracurricular Activities Worksheet, a self-guided worksheet that helps students choose and plan the right activities for their time in high school.

500+ Examples of (Awesome) Extracurricular Activities for High School Students

Academic Activities

Academic activities include any programs, groups, or activities that have a strictly academic focus. These include college courses and programs, honor societies, school clubs, competitions or contests, and other academic programs or interests.

Art

Art activities include any personal interests, hobbies, clubs, groups, programs, or competitions/contests with an artistic or creative emphasis.

Athletics

Athletics include personal interest, club, intramural, team, and JV/Varsity sports and athletic pursuits.

Career-Oriented Activities

Career-oriented activities emphasize professional skills and/or job preparation , often within a specific field. They can be clubs, programs, groups, or other activities.

Community Service (Volunteer)

Community service or volunteering activities are any that involve offering your time to others without compensation. They can be clubs, programs, or self-directed activities, and these can be school-based, community-based, or organization-based.

Computer/Technology Activities

Computer/technology activities can be clubs, programs, groups, competitions, or personal interests that have an emphasis on computers and/or technology.

Dance

Dance activities are clubs, teams, hobbies, competitions, programs, or events that involve some form of dance or movement.

Debate/Speech

Debate/Speech activities include clubs, teams, competitions or contests, personal interests, or other programs that have an emphasis on debate, speech, or speaking.

Environmental

Environmental activities emphasize anything related to the environment, often in the context of protecting, supporting, or understanding it. They can be clubs, programs, contests, personal interests, or other activities.

Family Responsibilities

Family responsibilities entail any obligations or duties specific to you within your family. We recognize that every family situation is unique and has its own set of responsibilities, so this list is by no means exhaustive.

• Childcare/babysitting of siblings or relatives
• Care of a family member with a disability
• Care of a family member with terminal illness
• Care of a family member with a medical condition
• Care of an elderly relative
• Assisting a single parent
• Employment to support family
• Religious obligations

Culture & Foreign Language Activities

Cultural and foreign language activities focus on a specific culture, language, and/or cultural practice, and can involve clubs, student-led groups, study abroad programs, and others.

Internship

Internships give high school students a period of (typically unpaid) work experience, often within an organization. The sky truly is the limit when it comes to possible internships for high school students. We’ve included a sampling of what’s out there below.

• Internship at local hospital
• Job shadow internship
• Laboratory internship
• Law firm / legal internship
• Healthcare internship
• Media internship (newspaper, magazine, T.V., publication)
• Anthropology internship
• Environmental / Sustainability internship
• Political science internship (campaign work, for example)
• Community health internship
• Theatre/drama internship
• Research-based internship
• Artist internship
• Non-profit sector internship
• Teacher’s assistantship / internship
• Other internship

Journalism/Publication

Journalism and publication activities are any related to the world of publishing and journalistic writing. They can be a school-led club or group, like the school newspaper, program, internship, or other activity. They can also involve actual publications of your writing in any genre, including scientific research and creative works.

Junior ROTC

A federal program, the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) introduces high school students to military customs, elements of leadership, and much more. We’ve also included other military-related extracurricular activities below.

• Junior State Police Academy
• Junior State Highway Patrol Program
• Junior ROTC
• Civil Air Patrol
• Marine Fitness
• Youth Cadet Law Enforcement Program

LGBTQ+ Activities

LGBTQ+ activities are any that are related to the LGBTQ+ community and/or its rights and interests. They can be clubs, programs, acts of service, or other groups, and can also involve advocacy efforts.

Music: Instrumental & Vocal

Music activities are any that involve the practice and/or performance of music, instrumental or vocal. These include hobbies, clubs, groups, programs, and competitions.

Religious

Religious activities are any associated with a religion or faith tradition. They can be school clubs, church groups, or community programs. They can also simply involve any consistent engagement within your church, such as acting as a Sunday School teacher or church greeter.

Research

Research activities refer to any that involve dedicated research of a certain subject over a period of time. These can be programs, summer experiences, internships, and independent projects. The sky is the limit when it comes to possible research opportunities for high school students. We’ve included a sampling of what’s out there below.

• Summer Research Program
• Independent research project
• Research for course credit
• Research-based internship
• Assisting faculty members with research
• Personal interest-based research

Robotics

Robotics activities include anything related to the creation, exploration, and/or study of robots and robotic technology. They can be school clubs, programs, competitions, or other activities.

School Spirit

School spirit activities are any that emphasize support for your school and its student body.

• Pep Band
• Campus Tour Guide or Representative
• Cheerleading
• Spirit Squad
• Student Council
• School Spirit Club
• Student Event Coordinator
• Other School Spirit Club, Program, or Event

Social Justice

Social justice activities have an emphasis on fairness and equality, especially for the marginalized. These include clubs, organizations, movement, advocacy efforts, programs, and more.

Student Government/Politics

Activities in this category are related to political and governing systems, politics, and/or student government. They include clubs, groups, competitions, programs, and much more.

Theatre/Drama

Theatre and drama activities emphasize performance and all of its genres, aspects, and forms. They include clubs, programs, events, competitions, and personal interests.

Work (Paid)

Paid work refers to any employment for which you are financially compensated over a period of time. There are many different kinds of employment opportunities out there for young people, so this list is not finite.

• Yard or landscaping work
• Housesitting
• Camp counselor or assistant
• Service industry work (restaurant, café, etc.)
• Administrative work (receptionist, office assistant)
• Assistantship
• Paid internship
• Paid research
• Child care
• Construction work
• Grocery store clerk
• Retail position
• Copyediting or writing
• Graphic Design
• Other paid work

Other Club or Activity

You might encounter extracurricular activities that don’t fall under the Common App’s categories.

Some examples include:

• Meditation Club
• Health and Wellness Club
• Mental Health Advocacy
• Chess Club or Chess Competition
• Horticulture or Gardening Club
• National Model Railroad Association
• Other Special Interest Club or Hobby

How to Choose Extracurricular Activities

With so many options to choose from, how do you make sure you’re picking the right activities for your interests? What’s more, how should students plan their activities so that they can have a competitive college application?

We’ve got some great advice for choosing the best extracurricular activities for you and your college aspirations. You can find all of this advice in our self-guided Extracurricular Activities Worksheet, which you can download for free!

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Simple and effective exercises
• Insight into what’s important to you
• Questions designed to help you choose meaningful activities
• A copy of the 500+ activities in this post

Greg & Kevin

Greg and Kevin are brothers and the co-founders of PrepMaven and Princeton Tutoring. They are Princeton engineering graduates with over 20 years of education experience. They apply their data and research-backed problem-solving skills to the test prep and college preparation process. Their unique approach places a heavy emphasis on personal development, character, and service as key components of college admissions success.