Your Top Hack for CS Success: 8 Great Computer Science Extracurriculars for High Schoolers

The number of students pursuing computer science degrees is surging, making admission to top CS programs increasingly challenging. To stand out, high school students need more than just stellar grades — they need to demonstrate a genuine passion and commitment to the field. This blog post explores how engaging in high-impact extracurricular activities can help give aspiring computer scientists an additional edge. From coding clubs and hackathons to internships and game design, discover eight essential extracurriculars that can enhance your skills and strengthen your admissions profile, setting you on the path to CS success.

CS degree programs and related STEM majors have been ballooning in popularity for the past decade. I found some data for the University of Michigan, for example, showing that since 2014, the number of active CS majors at the institution has essentially doubled (a 100% increase), rising from 785 students to 1,470.

The University of California, San Diego resorted to imposing a lottery system in 2017 to cap the number of CS majors, after a GPA-based strategy they tried failed to provide the needed relief. 

Today, at Columbia, one of the top Ivy League universities, computer science is now the most popular major and plagued with overcrowded classes.

At many leading US universities, from UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Purdue, to USC and UCLA, the acceptance rates for computer science majors are far lower than overall acceptance rates.

How CS Extracurriculars Can Help You Stand Out

All of this highlights the importance of going the extra mile if you’re charting a path to CS studies at a leading university. One way to add shine to your CS application is with the right extracurriculars.

By making CS-related extracurriculars a priority, you’ll showcase a strong and genuine interest in CS innovation and career paths — a strategy that will help you stand out when you're applying to top CS programs.

High-quality extracurriculars can also sharpen your CS interests and goals by exposing you to a broader mix of CS-engaged peers, challenges, and learning environments. This way, when it's time to fill out university applications, you'll be able to speak more authentically about your unique CS skills and about the CS concentrations that most interest you and why.

By pursuing computer science extracurriculars such as coding clubs, hackathons, or robotic competitions — or even designing an original app — you'll ensure that your high school extracurriculars directly align with your CS goals and add depth, breadth, and coherence to your CS profile when you apply to college!

8 Great CS Extracurriculars for High Schoolers

1. Coding Clubs, Codefests, and Hackathons

Joining a coding club or participating in hackathons might seem a bit intimidating at first, but it’s kind of like immersing yourself in a manic burst of creativity, innovation, and problem solving.

These activities sharpen your CS skills while giving you chances to collaborate with other students — learning from them and with them, and making new friends, perhaps from around the world.

Some hackathons and App Dev events invite participants to escape into a world of creative imagination, while others push teams to create code, designs, or digital tools for tackling real-world problems.

Events like CodeDay or Major League Hacking hackathons are super popular, and often emphasize practical problem solving and design skills. This means you'll have a fun way to build coding skills and can really boost your resume and CS creds before you apply to college.

2. Building Apps, Websites, or Open-Source Contributions

Here the focus is less on contests and competition and a good match for those with an entrepreneurial spirit and up for the challenge of taking on a longer-term, innovative project.

Creating your own apps or websites forces you to learn about and apply a more holistic set of skills as you try to take an idea and turn it into something replicable and useful.

This kind of extracurricular is a great way to develop tangible proof of your computer science skills and creativity, while also demonstrating important attributes, such as perseverance and resilience, initiative-taking, and entrepreneurial passion.

If you do develop something that benefits society, it could propel you on your college journey and open doors to much more as well!

3. Robotics Clubs

Robotics clubs are typically organized within schools and around school-based teams and interscholastic competitions coordinated by a larger organizing body, such as First Robotics or Vex Robotics.

Members of the Emoner Robotics Team (Turkey) at a First Robotics Competition, 2024, Berkeley High School, USA

Being on a robotics team will give you exposure to the life-like challenges and thrills of iterative design, redesign, and development work that’s all part of a continuous improvement process that’s crucial for engineering success — in this case spurred on by an urge to win interscholastic competitions. This is why robotics is an ideal extracurricular for CS majors with interests in coding, software design, and hardware engineering.

You’ll gain cutting-edge CS insights and collaboration skills all while having a blast — tackling tough design challenges with your collaborators in addition to enjoying the fervor and excitement of being ringside as you put your CS skills to the test with your teammates at rousing robotic contests!

4. STEM Competitions & Fairs

STEM competitions and fairs are a great way to focus your innovation talents around an organized event engaging a broad array of STEM fields connecting computer science and data analysis with engineering.

Competitions like the USA Computing Olympiad, HPE CodeWars  or the Intel ISEF Challenge push you to think critically and creatively in order to solve complex design and analysis challenges.

Whether or not you win any prizes, you'll be learning how to work as part of a team, think on your feet, and get a feel for how computer science skills are essential to innovation across a wide range of STEM challenges.

5. Computer Game Design Programs & Activities

If you love gaming, why not try making a game, some gaming graphics, or action-focused game components? Joining a game design club, enrolling in a game design program, or landing a game design internship can help you learn the basics of coding, design, and storytelling.

You might start by immersing yourself in game design courses and workshops — of which there are many to choose from.

Some great examples are Carnegie Mellon’s National High School Game Academy, the Online Intro to Video Game Design for high school students at the University of Rochester, or the Video Game Development fundamentals pre-college program at USC, among many others.

Although instructional designs, intensity, and duration vary, all of these programs have the potential to elevate dramatically both your CS foundations and your university applications.

These programs could also help equip you to launch your own game design club at your high school — an undertaking that will consolidate your new knowledge while demonstrating a high level of initiative, commitment, and organizational skill.

6. Online Coding Courses & Challenges

Online coding courses and challenges, like those you can find at LeetCode or Codewars among others, are a great way to test your skills across a range of coding applications and concepts.

Sequenced learning modules in online courses are easy to access anytime and can often provide lots of flexibility if you have lots of other commitments to juggle. They also enable you to easily assess your skills, identify gaps in your knowledge, and track your progress.

Challenge events, on the other hand, are an opportunity for having fun, putting your skills to the test, and for getting motivated tod build new skills.

Finally, some coding bootcamps also help prepare participants for job interviews in the tech industry, with coding challenges sometimes modeled after real-life tech company interview questions.

Clearly, excelling at challenges that can help you qualify for a tech job should also give you an edge for getting into an excellent CS university!

7. CS Bridge Courses and Pre-College Programs

Pre-college CS programs and workshops give you a taste of university-level coursework while boosting your skills. Whether it's a summer coding camp or a bridge program at a local two-year college, these opportunities can help you methodically build foundational knowledge and skills and get a head start on college.

What makes this approach even more appealing is how many kinds of opportunities are out there for high schoolers with different skill levels (including beginners), so you can pick what’s right for you, based on your skills, interests, and availability, with options such as:

• Taking foundational courses at a local community college or technical college
• Enrolling in an intensive pre-college residential summer program at a top CS university, like Carnegie Mellon, USC, UC Berkeley, Columbia, or many other destinations
• Accessing any number of online pre-college programs that match with your CS interests and ability level

8. Internships or Part-Time Jobs in Computer Science

Securing an internship or part-time job at a tech company or IT department can provide you invaluable real-world experience and opportunities to network with actual CS professionals.

For aspiring CS majors, this can be a great way to get an up-close view of how people use their CS skills in real workplace settings.

Keep in mind that finding these kinds of opportunities may be challenging for high school students.

Consider checking with local businesses or reaching out to someone in your community that works in a computer science or IT role and request an informational interview where you can ask for some suggestions on how you might find the right opportunity.

How CS Extracurriculars Impact University Admissions

By prioritizing CS extracurriculars you can demonstrate a range of personal qualities, deepen your academic foundations, and end up with a more coherent and compelling profile and application narrative when it's time to apply to be a CS major.

By participating in at least one (or more) CS-related “supercurriculars” — extracurriculars with more robust levels of instruction and skill development — you should have an additional edge when it's time to apply to college.

Demonstrating Key Personal Attributes

Your extracurriculars will also shine a light on important personal attributes and aptitudes for thriving in a CS program:

• Showcasing innovation and problem-solving
• Demonstrating strong personal interest in the major and career track
• Showing initiative and follow-through

Higher- and Lower-Impact Extracurriculars

1. CS-Focused Supercurriculars for Higher Impact

• Pre-college CS summer programs
• Sustained self-directed projects
• Organized robotics competitions
• Skill-building CS internships.

2. CS-Focused Extracurriculars for Moderate Impact

• Membership in CS clubs
• Learning coding languages online
• Informal internships

3. Non-CS-Focused Extracurriculars (Less Impact)

Final Thoughts

Despite the surge in students applying to Computer Science programs at leading universities, a strong extracurricular strategy can give you an admissions edge.

By planning ahead and pursuing extracurriculars and “supercurriculars” well aligned with your academic focus, you’ll reap many intrinsic rewards academically and in terms of personal growth, while laying a foundation that can help you stand out as a top applicant.

If you want help identifying and learning more about bespoke extracurricular and academic enrichment opportunities designed specifically for students aiming to apply to selective universities, joining the Crimson network is an excellent way to get advanced insights and tips from an experienced strategist.

Crimson students are 7x more likely to get accepted to selective schools, so why leave your college journey to chance?

If you’re ready to find out how much of a difference our expertise and personalized approach can make, let’s talk about your CS goals, top CS programs and schools, and more. Just click on the link to schedule your free feedback session today — it only takes a minute!

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