The Hinksey Extracurriculars Playbook

This is the condensed version of our extracurriculars guide: how to choose activities, when to go deeper instead of adding more, how to decide what to drop, and how to describe what you did so it actually lands. Each section links to the full guide where the admissions-office detail lives.

The principle underneath all of it: the goal isn't the longest list. It's spending limited time on things that are meaningful to you, and doing them with intention.

More Isn't Better

The biggest extracurricular myth is that more activities make a stronger application. The admissions offices say otherwise. MIT tells applicants to pick activities that "delight, intrigue, and challenge" them rather than ones that look impressive, and Stanford says exceptional depth in one or two activities may show more than minimal participation in five or six. Three activities you can talk about in depth say more about you than ten you barely attended - so the question isn't "how many?" but "which ones do I actually care about, and what have I learned, built or contributed there?"

Want the deeper admissions perspective? For a closer look at what MIT, Stanford, Yale and Common App say about choosing activities, going deeper and communicating what you've done: Read The Guide to Extracurriculars

What Actually Counts as an Extracurricular?

Your extracurricular life is bigger than the club list. Research, a part-time job or internship, volunteering, an independent project, creative work, a small business, family or household responsibilities, and a hobby you've pursued seriously all count - Common App's Activities section explicitly makes room for them, and applications are read in the context of the opportunities you actually had. An extracurricular doesn't need a membership card or an official title. What matters is how you spend your time and what you do with the options available to you.

How to Choose an Extracurricular

Don't start with "what will look impressive?" Start with "what am I actually curious about?" - then run the candidate through the guide's four-part filter. Interest: would I enjoy learning more about this now, regardless of whether I'll still love it in four years? Opportunity: will I actually get to do something - contribute, build, compete, research - rather than just attend? Commitment: can I give it consistent time without being stretched too thin? Growth: is there somewhere to go with it, a skill to develop or more responsibility to take on? The aim isn't the most impressive activity; it's one worth your time and energy.

You Might Not Need Another Activity

Sometimes the best next step isn't a new activity but going deeper into one you already have. The guide's level-up test - learn, contribute, lead, create - asks four things of a current activity: am I developing a real skill or understanding? Am I doing something useful for the team or community? Could I take responsibility for improving something (leadership doesn't need a title - identifying a problem and taking ownership counts)? Is there something I could build, organise, research or launch?

What Does "Going Deeper" Actually Look Like?

Take a student interested in environmental science. The same interest, in the same club, can sit at four very different depths:

1. Join the school's environmental club.
2. Contribute by helping organise a sustainability initiative.
3. Investigate a specific environmental problem at the school - waste, energy, procurement - and collect real data on it.
4. Create: develop or propose a solution, and get someone to adopt it.

The point isn't an impressive résumé. It's taking an interest far enough that you're doing something real with it.

Should You Keep or Drop an Activity?

Not everything you start has to follow you through all four years - interests change, and that's normal. If you're unsure whether something still deserves your time, the guide's five-question check comes down to this: do I still care, am I still learning, am I contributing something, would I do it if applications didn't exist, and is it crowding out something I care about more? Mostly no? Redirect the energy. Consistency shows commitment, but another year on the résumé for its own sake isn't the point.

How to Talk About What You Did

When application season arrives, don't describe what the organisation does. Show what you did within it. "Member of Robotics Club" tells an admissions officer nothing. "Rebuilt the drivetrain code between competitions, cut our run time by a third, and trained two younger members to maintain it" tells them who you are.

The framework is action, contribution, result: what you actually did, what you personally brought, and what changed because you were there. Results don't need to be awards or big numbers - a process improved, a skill developed, a person helped all count. Specificity beats impressive-sounding adjectives, especially inside Common App's 150-character limit per activity.

Build Your Extracurricular Roadmap

Choose two or three activities that matter most or take the most time, and for each write down why you started, why you still care, what you've actually contributed and learned, one way you could go deeper, and whether you honestly want to continue (the full seven-question version is in the guide). Then look across your answers. Your next opportunity might not be another club - it might be going deeper into something you've already started.

Your Next Move

• "I don't have many activities yet." Explore - try something connected to an interest you genuinely want to understand better.
• "I'm involved in too many things." Choose - identify the activities that actually matter to you and decide where your time is best spent.
• "I like my activities, but I mostly just attend." Go deeper - find one way to learn, contribute, take responsibility or create.
• "I've been doing something for a while." Reflect - what have you actually learned, changed, created or contributed?
• "I'm preparing applications." Communicate - focus on your actions, contributions and results rather than listing titles and memberships.

The Big Takeaway

There's no perfect extracurricular list, and no admissions office is asking for one. The strong approach is a loop, not a list: explore something you're curious about, choose what's worth your time, go deeper, contribute, reflect on what changed, and then communicate what you actually did. That beats building the profile you think colleges want.

Keep Exploring

Thinking about starting a passion project? If you're weighing up how a passion project fits into your extracurricular story, we've written a companion playbook on what makes one strong, the mistakes to avoid, and how to turn an idea into something you can actually finish: Read The Hinksey Passion Project Playbook

Want to take an interest further? If you're interested in business research or AI and want to develop an interest through structured, in-depth work, Hinksey Labs offers small-team programmes where students are mentored by Ivy League and Oxbridge academics while developing independent work connected to real-world challenges: Explore Hinksey Labs Programmes

This guide draws on published guidance from MIT Admissions, Stanford Undergraduate Admission, Yale Undergraduate Admissions and Common App. For a deeper look at the admissions guidance behind these recommendations, read The Guide to Extracurriculars.