Most extracurricular activities are table stakes at highly selective schools. One helps applicants stand out.
Picture the ideal extracurriculars for a student aiming at an Ivy League school. President of Debate. Crisis Director in Model UN. A regional award in a Science Olympiad.
Families take years to build this kind of profile. Coupled with a great academic profile — a strong SAT score and GPA — the student above should be a shoo-in at the most selective universities.
They aren’t.
The list above is table stakes, and we have the data to prove it.
We examined the profiles of 383 Empowerly students — 2,298 activities sorted into eight categories across 1,089 acceptances. Then we asked four questions.