nadira berman

a freshman’s guide to balancing college extracurriculars

no matter which college you attend, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in tons of extracurricular activities. it’s hard to choose between all of them! but it’s very important to make sure you don’t overcommit. try to compromise and strike a balance.

 

decide what you want to do beforehand

find a list of all of the student organizations and decide which ones you want to participate in the most. that way, you’ll know your top priorities, rather than trying to focus on a million different things that you might not even like that much.

 

go to meetings

actually attending a meeting or two will help you figure out which student groups you actually want to be a part of and which ones you can live without. you never know, you may end up hating your number one choice or loving a group you signed up for on a whim.

 

ask about commitments

before making any promises, ask about time commitments. you don’t want to sign up for 4 groups that all have weekly meetings.

if you really want to participate, but don’t think you’ll have the time, find out if you can somehow take a position with less responsibility. for example, sign up to be a staff photographer for a magazine, rather than trying to be a creative director and attempting to run the whole department.

 

be realistic

you need to realize that you also have a full schedule of classes and homework. also, you need to take a break sometimes and get some sleep. so take on a little bit less than you think you potentially could.

 

author

  • nadira berman

    as a summer marketing intern, nadira is excited to help high schoolers prepare for the sat and act. as a freshman at the university of pennsylvania, she is considering studying economics. in her free time, she reports for the school newspaper and styles photo shoots for the school’s fashion magazine. besides fashion and journalism, her passions include bagels, smoothies and netflix.

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