Some Call It Wasting Time, But We Call It Extracurriculars

If you're one of the unlucky souls currently filling out applications for college, volunteer work, or summer internships, there's one area that stands out above the rest in terms of pain and frustration: extracurricular activities. With budgets being cut deeply all over the country, it's tough to rack up a thick slate of extracurriculars even if you wanted to. And let's face it, you probably didn't want to. Otherwise, this wouldn't be a problem for you.

The good news is that since "extracurricular" translates as "outside of school" (it's Latin, trust us), it can encompass just about anything you desire. When you look at it that way, you've done more extracurriculars than you think; you just don't know what to call them yet. That's where we can help. No matter what you did last summer—or last winter, or last night—we can make it look good on an application.

For example, let's say you've spent every weekend for the past two months people-watching at the mall. Congratulations, you just completed Anthropology Immersion Camp.

On the other hand, let's say you couldn't go anywhere because your time was consumed by a futile attempt to get your car running. All that swearing and fist pounding adds up to a Mechanical Engineering Seminar. Award yourself special technology credit for any Internet activity done in the course of your project.

Maybe you spent a lot of time watching telenovelas on Univision and Telemundo. Mark yourself down for coursework in International Media Studies. If you and your friends made up your own English dialogue, that counts as a special Scriptwriting Workshop.

Think your hours of video game play don't count? Wait until the school of your choice reads about your Intensive Interactive Software Development Research Project. They don't need to know that what you were developing was a way to get past that boss battle on level 23.

You can even soup up your legitimate part-time work. You might not raise any eyebrows as a movie theater usher or video store clerk. But who wouldn't want to talk to a Film Archives Curator. Jobs at restaurants or grocery stores qualify you as a Gourmet Facilitator. And that miserable copy store job grants you professional Publishing Experience.

See what a well-rounded and exciting applicant you can be if you look at things the right way? And these same tactics can be easily applied when trying to impress a date.

Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments. After all, your two cents counts as Media Credits when the time comes.