GOING OVERBOARD Max Fisher joined a few too many clubs in 'Rushmore'

College admissions officers will be looking closely at your extracurricular activities, so choose them wisely. Your participation in community service, clubs, student government, charity organizations, sports and artistic endeavors (such as band and theater) may reveal as much about you — and what you might contribute to a university — as your marks and SAT scores.

Go for quality, not quantity. Don't flit from the Spanish Club to soccer, piano lessons to play rehearsals. That approach may suggest you have no real interests, that you're chalking up activities to look good on paper. A scattered collection of activities is not as desirable as "a high level of involvement and commitment to one or a few activities over a period of time," says John Young, associate director of admissions at Skidmore College.

It will be much easier for you to stick to something if you choose activities and organizations that really matter to you, rather than ones that fit into your schedule for a semester or simply seem cool. Better to be the second fiddle in the citywide youth orchestra for four years than to play the tuba once at half-time during a football game.

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Think, too, about areas in which you can excel (with luck, they will be the same activities that interest you). Linda Miller, associate dean of admissions at the University of Virginia, says she looks for not only the degree of commitment and time spent but also a "level of achievement within an area." Jim Bock, director of admissions at Swarthmore College, appreciates applicants who show "commitment and passion," and those who have "excelled." One lackluster year on the JV bench won't do it.

Commit to others and to the community. Most schools like students who have been involved in community service. You might assist at a local day-care center, organize an AIDS walk or join Amnesty International. Bard, Hampshire, Colorado and Boston colleges, as well as Wittenberg and Lawrence universities, pay particular attention to students who have volunteered and shown commitment to worthwhile causes. Colleges with a religious affiliation, such as Loyola in New Orleans, and those with campus ministries specifically appreciate students who have participated in outreach programs, like those helping the underprivileged, older people or children.

Be creative. Do something unusual. While no one expects you to have reorganized a food cooperative in Appalachia or taught the elders of a remote Arctic village to use the Internet, college admissions officers appreciate an original activity. Creating a pet therapy club that visits hospitals, producing a respected 'zine or forming your own business, for example, are atypical activities that may appeal to a college admissions committee. Colleges will definitely notice "unique experiences and activities," says Matt Bonser, the assistant director of admissions at Colorado College.

Choose activities that show you are a potential leader. A club with a serious purpose that gets you involved with the world outside school, like Students Against Drunk Driving, will make a better impression than participation in the Dawson's Creek Fan Club. Paul Killebrew, Dartmouth's senior associate director of admissions, looks for "leaders and risk takers who are active in politics and who participate in multicultural activities that attempt to create diversity awareness and bridge gaps in the community."

Keep practicing that oboe. Thank your mother for nagging you to practice your instrument or sing in the choir. Many schools, particularly those with choral groups and orchestras, love a musician or a singer. Bard, for example, pays attention to students whose musical skills would tune into its orchestra. Lawrence University has a conservatory that welcomes new musicians. Mount Holyoke College is well known for its concert choir. At schools that focus on the arts, such as Juilliard and the North Carolina School of the Arts, your most important extracurricular activities will be those reflecting your artistic interests and abilities.

Don't sleep through summers. Christy Veitch, an admissions counselor at Hampshire College, says while the admissions staff members recognize your involvement in basic group activities like sports and in community service, they are also interested in what you have been up to during the summer. Maybe you built houses with Habitat for Humanity. Or played Puck in a Midsummer Night's Dream. Perhaps you took off for an Outward Bound expedition or basketball camp. You may have written poetry in a summer workshop. It's not just what you've done during the school year. Even if you need to earn money for college, try to find some summer activity that will tell admissions people that you stayed engaged in learning.

Find an activity or club you enjoy, and stick to it. Act as a team player, a leader, a risk taker and an individual. All that will be taken into account when it comes time for the college admissions officers to decide whether you've got the right stuff.

Source: TIME/The Princeton Review's The Best College For You 2001