Extracurriculars That Count

Undergraduate B-schools have a message for college applicants treating extracurricular activities like an all-you-can-eat buffet: Stop gorging.

In the increasingly competitive application process for business programs, extracurriculars have become essential for students to distinguish themselves from the pack of eager, over-committed applicants. Some hold down jobs, from computer repair businesses to service jobs at McDonalds. Others attend out-of-school conferences and camps, such as DECA, an international program teaching students about marketing, managing, and customer service. But when it comes to high school clubs and other outside-the-classroom activities, admission directors from top undergrad business programs agree that the key is depth, not quantity.

"The level of commitment is much more important than the specific activity," said James Dewey-Rosenfeld, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Babson College. "The common application shows when students are trying to pad their résumés. We can tell."

Be a Person, Not an Activity

That might sound like standard advice, but Dewey-Rosenfeld sees plenty of students who assume participating in a marketing or investment club will clinch their acceptance. Admissions officials from some of the nation's top undergraduate programs -- such as Penn, Emory, Washington University and Virginia -- agree that students targeting clubs they consider prestigious are largely wasting their time.

Nanette Tarbouni, director of undergraduate admissions at Washington University in St. Louis, said the range of student interests is so vast that no extracurricular activity guarantees admission. "It's not that one thing that will get them in. We want to get to know them as a person, not just as one activity," she said.

Undergraduate B-school applicants should not consider specific activities -- even business clubs -- "more valuable" than other high school extracurriculars, said Rebecca Leonard, assistant dean for undergraduate student services at the University of Virginia.

•	Extracurriculars That Count BusinessWeek.com, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 Byline: Derek Thompson