Study skills author Cal Newport has an interesting take on what it takes for a high school student to become impressive in college admission terms. From his blog (his book that he references is here):
One of the big ideas in the book is that exceptionally impressive accomplishments are rarely planned out in advance. They instead usually come from the following cycle:
1. the student chooses something that seems interesting,
2. the student follows through and completes the pursuit,
3. the student surveys the new opportunities this makes available, then he or she repeats step #1.Follow this for strategy for a year (or even less!) and you’ll likely end up somewhere quite impressive (at least, by college admissions standards), without having to stress yourself out with twenty activities or attempting to become a world-class musician.
I don’t necessarily agree with everything in his book, but the premise here is a good one–don’t choose an activity because you think it is impressive. The most impressive accomplishments are the results of the initiative and work that it takes to achieve them.