High school is about getting into college.
As harsh as that is, for those high school students who are determined to make it to a college that is one of their top choices. High school is about getting good grades and building your resumé.
Most high school students today are guilty of “resumé padding” or exaggerating the activities they partake in or accomplishments they have achieved when it comes time to apply to college.
Additionally, often the explanation for joining a club or becoming involved with a cause is simply because it is just another thing one can add to the college application.
Aside from the rare few, today’s high school students have become so consumed with creating an aesthetically appealing resumé that they have foregone actually becoming involved in extracurriculars or community service opportunities that they are actually passionate about or interested in.
For instance, there are over a dozen clubs at Laguna Blanca, and many students are eager to join loads of them.
However, as club leaders and faculty advisors often
learn, the number of students who sign up for clubs is radically larger than the amount of students who show up at the meetings and partake in the club’s events.
This is not an accusation, rather a recognition of a common obstacle complicating the college application process–if every other student is saying they were in a club because they simply put their name down at the beginning of the year then you are only hurting yourself if you don’t.
The pressure to collect an impressive line of accomplishments, both academic and extracurricular, has driven students not only to overstate their achievements or involvement in something but also to spread themselves so thin with different activities that they hardly have had time to put effort into any of them.
Everyone, including colleges, seems to prefer when students pick a smaller number of extracurricular activities or community service causes that they are both more excited about and, therefore, generally more involved with.