How to get your kid into a better college
The only out-of-school activity that increased the likelihood of a
student ending up enrolled at an elite college was parental [sic] visits to
art museums.
That is correlation, not causation, but I believe you can thread out the implied lessons. Read more here. How about this?
Two types of participation made it more likely students would end up at
elite colleges: yearbook or school newspapers and “hobby clubs.” …Numerous activities had no apparent impact on whether or not students
will end up in college – elite or otherwise. School plays,
interscholastic individual sports, intramurals, cheerleading, academic
honor societies, public service clubs – no impact is clear from any of
them.
Here is one author’s home page, full of fascinating material. Here is the other guy. What do you all think of these results?