Colleges loved these extracurricular activities from the class of 2027

Along with their announcement of this year’s acceptances, Boston University and Johns Hopkins University also shared examples of the types of extracurricular activities that their class of 2027 admits engaged in.

What is most striking is how wide-ranging the activities are and that they were mostly pursued independently of the high school.

Some of the activities involved complexity and required specific STEM knowledge, like that of the media lab intern and some of the activities were simple, like working at Krispy Kreme, while other activities reflected the pure passion of the applicant.

What we can be very sure about is that every one of these applicants embodied the qualities that the elite colleges value as they pursued their extracurricular activities. The top colleges want applicants who have been willing to stretch outside their comfort zones or who have made an impact on others.

Whether its Boston University, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale and any of the Ivy League and other highly selective colleges, these colleges seek applicants with unique and authentic profiles.

These profiles are in line with what we have been advising our applicants on the types of extracurriculars they should pursue to stand out in their applications.

To stand out above the rest, applicants must engage in unique activities or undertake projects not easily replicable by others. Which is why it is very difficult to stand out when an applicant has only engaged in structured school-related activities, even if they held leadership positions. The primary exception here is sports, when an applicant is a strong enough athlete to be recruited to an NCAA team at college.

You can sign up for our Guide to The Eight Qualities that Elite Colleges Value HERE.

Boston University

Boston University provided a sampling of the extracurricular activities pursued by successful applicants to the class of 2027. The examples include 2 high-achieving athletes on national teams who were not athlete recruits as they engaged in sports not offered at Boston University’s NCAA programs.

Here are the examples of extracurricular activities:

• Worked in a media lab prototyping a brain-computer interface-controlled VR program that uses generative AI to develop environments based on the user’s emotion in real time

• Is a team USA junior figure skater

• Did over 50 pro bono tax returns for senior and low income families and was recognized by the Mayor of Boston

• Obtained a national patent for creating an automatic garbage sorting bin

• Is a professional Tetris player and placed second at the Tetris Masters in 2021, as well as set the world record for consecutive million point games

• Was employee of the month at Krispy Kreme Donuts

• Founded their own non-profit and completed 2,700 hours of community service with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

• Was a research intern at Power Clean Water, and built a bike-powered water pump

• Is an internationally-ranked Irish dancer

• Worked for Ocean Alliance as a research intern, and created a 3D printed whale song

• Published a civil rights book through the BookCreator Institute

• Developed “Carbonet,” a carbon footprint calculator

• Is a member of the Turkish National Sailing Team

• Earned the 2022 national title of Candidate Master in chess, and is working toward the National Master title

• Created and co-founded the Prison Math Project TX chapter, which works with a current US prison inmate to help tutor other inmates in Mathematics

• Has been fire dancing since the eighth grade

Johns Hopkins University

You can see from this list of extracurriculars for the class of 2027 that Johns Hopkins values innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and leadership in its applicants.

• A high schooler who was selected for a college mission rocket-building team and is in the process of becoming a commercially licensed pilot

• A climate activist and photojournalist who partnered with the Korean government

• A co-founder and chief technology officer of a company that makes eco-friendly sanitary pads from dragon fruit peels

According to Johns Hopkins:

“Students admitted to the Class of 2027 in this cohort have developed apps and founded startups, launched a nationwide anti-colorism campaign, and designed a pair of optimized lenses that account for varying conditions of color deficiency glasses. They have also authored books, appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, and created a charity that distributes magic kits to children internationally.”

You can read more about How to Stand Out in College Applications HERE