Did you know the average high school student gets a 3.0 GPA. I don’t know about you, but that was the bare minimum I could happily receive during my high school years. The only class I’m happy with a 3.0 GPA is calculus. Everything should be an A or I need to work much harder. These days it seems like everyone going into college has a high GPA, but what stands out to colleges is your community service, clubs, sports, and any other extracurricular a high schooler might be involved in.
Being a three sport athlete throughout high school, I didn’t have much time to do community service other that my hours for NHS, but that doesn’t mean my extracurriculars aren’t strong. I have played three sports a year all four years of high school, and excelled at all of them. I was voted first team all conference for soccer, I am currently on a 13-1 basketball team, and plan on going to college to play golf. All the time I put into these activities help my case for strong extracurriculars, but they aren’t enough for a lot of scholarship opportunities. That is why I take every chance I get to help out at events around my community. Over this past summer I worked at my church for vacation bible school week working as the lead media coordinator, officiated middle school and younger soccer games throughout the whole summer, and work at several basketball tournaments during the winter. Some clubs I participate in include my school’s chapter of NHS, ACT prep nights, and several others. I believe all of these extracurricular activities shaped me into the person I am today, and I hope every high schooler is trying their best to be involved in their school as well as their community.
It seems like every person going through this phase of senior year has the same experience. They got accepted into the school they wanted to go to, they’ve taken all the required credits needed to graduate, and now they’re just waiting to go to school and see how many scholarships they won. But there are so many students just like them. A high gpa, in a robotics club that they’ve put all their time and effort into hoping to win a $1,000 scholarship. Don’t get me wrong, a $1,000 scholarship would be amazing and could help me reach my goals in life, but I’ll still have to take out student loans and worry about how I’m going to pay all that. I believe if students expanded their, interests and put time into several extracurricular activities they could possibly earn more scholarships and more importantly, expand themselves into a better, more well rounded person that can help change the world.
I believe more extracurricular activities is far more important than a high GPA. Extracurriculars help expand interests, earn scholarships, and most importantly you can have fun while doing them.