10 Ways your Co-curricular Activities can Lead to Post-college Success

Keeping your grades up and keeping your nose in the grindstone is important for every graduate but it’s not the only thing that ensures post-college success. More colleges are focusing on the all-round growth of a student where you have the chance to excel inside as well as outside the classroom.

To some co-curricular activates seem like a distraction from course work and an unnecessary one at that but others find it essential to stay active in various clubs and after school programs.



Here are ten ways in which your co-curricular activities can boost your post-college success:

1.  Keeping yourself open to extra-curricular activities will ensure that you have the opportunity to explore a new interest. It may lead you to develop a new passion.

2.  Being part of a club ensures you learn new skills which could help you in your career.

3.   The new friends and connections you make while participating in extra-curricular activities may prove invaluable to you after you graduate.

4.  Interaction with people from diverse cultural, religious, political, ethnic, philosophical backgrounds can help you understand a lot about other people and yourself.

5.  Keeping up with school work and balancing co-curricular activities will give you excellent practice in time management. You’ll learn to maintain a good work-life balance from the start.

6.  Skills such as communication, negotiation and conflict management can only be strengthened by participating in activities outside the classroom.

7.  Employers who are looking to hire someone in a leadership role would focus strongly on your co-curricular record rather than your GPA. Studies show that those involved in co-curricular activities typically exhibit greater leadership skills and are more ethical in their decision making process.

8.  Being involved in such activities gives you a sense of community and a habit of giving back to society from an early stage.

9.  Students who had a good co-curricular award are known to be more emotionally independent from their parents and were better able to handle their emotions – a very important trait in a professional.

10. Student-student interaction not only encourages leadership but you also tend to develop a purpose, lifestyle planning, and life management.

Above all, participation in co-curricular activities gives you an edge in your job application. It keeps you grounded and happy throughout your college experience and teaches you a lot more than can be learnt within the four walls of a classroom.