Extra-curricular activities can play an incredibly important role in a student’s educational journey. Scholarships are hard to get, especially those that are fully funded and prestigious. Some prestigious scholarships aren’t just financial aid but also considered awards. Academic excellence, recommendation letters, and ECAs are some of the main factors in consideration for one’s scholarship. Extracurricular activities(ECAs) are a game changer in both college admissions and scholarship grants. ECAs can help students stand out from the crowd. For almost all of the scholarship programs, the grant committee looks for students who participated in activities outside the classroom curriculum.
Lots of things can be considered extracurricular activities like:- leadership roles, sports, clubs, games, debates, Arts, languages, etc. Doing these kinds of activities as just a hobby will not show your dedication to it. Your ECAs should be more than playing catch with your friends. If you are passionate about cricket you may consider joining your local cricket club or join the school cricket team, participating in competitions.
If you are interested in chess, don’t just play with your computer; play online, play rated games, and teach yourself the book. If your school or college has a chess club join them. It’s better if you play in the FIDE-rated chess championships in your country. Likewise with any sports and games.
But ECAs don’t always have to be traditional these days. Programming, hard skills, Journalism, content making, social works, marketing, Robotix, playing, and streaming top online games can also be considered ECAs.
Even so, you might want to choose wisely which activities to do. Choosing the things that can align with your interest and career, can be highly beneficial. If you are aiming to become a Computer engineer, you should look for opportunities like joining a coding internship or a coding society or working on some personal projects.
After you choose your activities you should document your involvement. Save your certificates, recommendations, or any documents these will work as proof. And you also need them when writing your scholarship essay. When writing essays mentioning your ECAs the authority must be provided with your proofs and documents. If you have done an internship, they should provide you with a certificate. If you used to run in marathons at school or played in any club, ask them for a letter of recommendation.
Extracurricular activities are not just a means of enhancing your high school or college experience; they are powerful tools that can open doors to numerous scholarship opportunities. ECAs are also fun as well as beneficial in life. According to research, it has been found that students who are actively engaged in ECA are more likely to have higher educational ambitions. It also improves leadership and interpersonal skills. You will also learn teamwork, communication, volunteerism, confidence, and other soft skills along the way. The hidden value of ECAs lies in their ability to demonstrate your well-rounded character, leadership skills, and commitment—qualities that scholarship committees highly value. With good grades and well-rounded ECAs, scholarships can be easier to get and the rest depend on luck.
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Writer,
Md. Mashrafi Alam Nafi
Intern of Content Writing Department
YSSE