Close your eyes for a moment and think of what hobby you’re most interested in — what brings you the most joy? Now look at your day-to-day life. How does that hobby fit in? Do you prioritize spending time doing that hobby? “I have too much schoolwork,” you may say. Now look again at the clubs that you are involved in: are you involved because you’re genuinely interested and passionate? Or are you doing it just to craft that perfect profile of extracurriculars to show off to colleges? If it’s the latter, you’re not alone. Most of us fall victim, even if it’s just a little bit, to this endless chase of that elusive dream college acceptance letter. But it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be this way. We should not give up everything in high school because we think it’ll help us become more “competitive” applicants to colleges. For one, it may not necessarily help, and besides, our high school years should be about so much more than just a college acceptance. Instead, we need to shift our mindset, to start viewing high school as a safe space for exploration with endless possibilities rather than one tied to the single outcome of getting into college. 

While sacrificing personal interest in favor of crafting a “superior” application may seem like the most effective way of getting into a dream college, doing so may not actually help; it may even be harmful in some scenarios. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges have significantly altered their admissions review process. Most have re-branded their evaluation criteria as “holistic,” claiming to look at the applicant as a whole, including their distinctive values and personalities. Instead of focusing primarily on the “what” — the achievements and test scores — colleges now value the “why” — why did the student pursue an extracurricular or enter a competition? Because of this change in admissions’ focus, following a clearly defined path will not work as well as it used to. Rather, the most success would be found in the pursuit of one’s own passions, trailblazing one’s own path, and offering one’s own unique take on the high school experience. According to Jin Chow, a journalist specializing in education reporting for Forbes, even top schools like MIT, Brown, and Stanford have turned their attention to students’ sincerity and commitment to their passions, calling the trait “intensity, curiosity, and excitement,” “intellectual risk-taking,” and “intellectual vitality” respectively. In a world where everyone is biased to some degree, it could be true that admissions officers start off favoring an applicant who pursued one extracurricular as opposed to another. Regardless, they still need to be able to demonstrate their “authenticity” in their respective passions. So considering the current college admissions landscape, pursuing a hobby just for the sake of how it “looks” to colleges is neither beneficial nor effective.

Besides the ineffectiveness of this common strategy, it is also unreasonable. From the beginning, the idea of following a template of what seemingly “works” is unreasonable to expect from high school students. Let’s take a rather extreme, but sadly increasingly common example. Sarah Bernstein, a writing coach and college admissions counselor, claims that nowadays, there exist college counseling courses that advise students to have high school, college, and even their future careers planned out by the time they enter high school! How can you expect a 14-year-old to decide their whole future with the mere 14 years of lived experience they’ve had? These plans tell students to market themselves as “personal brands” to colleges, asserting that distilling themselves down to a few catchy attributes would be the most effective way to showcase themselves. This entails that students will have planned not only their entire high school life from awards to clubs but even beyond, before they even finish ninth grade! Not only is the pressure from this enormous but the whole process is structured in the complete opposite of what would be most helpful to the personal growth of the student: it is simply impractical when considering the true motivations behind everything school-related — helping a student get the best education they can get. While these courses may seem extreme, we all, whether subconsciously or consciously, may do something similar when picking out classes and clubs for the new year. Which classes look the best to colleges? What clubs? What extracurriculars? By following this train of thought, we restrict our ability to freely explore our interests through trial and error, a skill we need for life. We’re already told exactly what to do every minute of those six hours of school every weekday, so extracurricular activities are one of our only chances to decide for ourselves what to do. Yet we still fall prey to the temptations of building up that shiny college profile. 

So what can we do? Think carefully about the “why” behind every extra club, class, or activity you do. Ask yourself some of the following questions. Does it bring you joy? Is the time you put into it worthwhile? Will your future self look back and view it positively? Then, most importantly, consider the activities you may have been too scared, busy, or tired to get involved in. Don’t be afraid to try it out. In the worst-case scenario, you’ll quit. Even then, you’ll have realized that maybe you don’t like speaking in front of hundreds of people or that you’re not interested in science — but at least now you know. 

What about in the best-case scenario? Taking the step to try out a new club, team, or activity could be pivotal in your life. You could discover a talent for something you didn’t know you could do, meet new people, or even find a passion for a subject that later drives your career! The possibilities are endless; you just have to be willing to step a little outside your comfort zone.  

But why now? “Why during high school; why not after I get into my dream college?” You may ask. I, for one, asked this very same question. Think about this: if we focus our entire high school life on getting into college instead of taking the time to fully explore our interests, besides getting a pat on the back from the universities themselves, what else will we have achieved? For many of us, high school is the last time we can safely experiment with our interests — after all, we still have the support of our teachers and families. Before we go off to college and experience both the thrill of freedom and fear of the unknown, we must first learn how to pick ourselves up after we’ve attempted something for the first time, something that can only be gained through the self-exploration that so many of us have neglected. Perhaps Bernstein puts it best; “When it comes to building a life, however, this kind of knowledge [from self-exploration and introspection] has more value than any accolade.”

We will only be in high school once. This awkward adolescence that we are still battling through will only happen once. College and the life beyond it will come, whether you want it to or not, so take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to really explore what you want to do, not just what may seem best to do.