Why this matters
More than just keeping busy
Ontario universities use more than your average. Here is exactly where your activities show up in the admissions process.
Supplementary Applications
Waterloo Engineering (AIF), McMaster Health Sciences, Queen's Commerce, and many others require a written supplementary application asking directly about activities, work experience, and leadership. A blank answer is a major red flag.
Tie-breaking equal averages
When two applicants have the same 89% average, supplementary responses and activity records become the deciding factor. Sustained involvement in one or two meaningful activities beats a long list of one-offs.
Time management proof
Competitive programs are intensely demanding. Universities want to see you can manage academics and commitments simultaneously. A student who swam competitively while maintaining 88% shows that proof concretely.
40 Community Hours
Many extracurricular activities count toward your mandatory 40 OSSD community involvement hours — if they are unpaid, outside school hours, and approved. Coaching, tutoring, and volunteering at events all qualify.
Does swimming (or any sport) help?
Yes — in two concrete ways. First, community hours: coaching a swim class, helping at a swim meet, or volunteering at a rec centre aquatics program all count toward your 40 OSSD hours. Second, university applications: competitive swimming or any sustained sport demonstrates time management, discipline, and commitment — exactly what supplementary applications ask about.
The key is sustained involvement over multiple years and a leadership angle — becoming a team captain, coaching younger swimmers, or teaching beginners. A single season barely registers. Three years of competitive swimming plus teaching junior lessons is a strong story for any program.
The key is sustained involvement over multiple years and a leadership angle — becoming a team captain, coaching younger swimmers, or teaching beginners. A single season barely registers. Three years of competitive swimming plus teaching junior lessons is a strong story for any program.
Counts for 40hrs (coaching/volunteering)
Strong for all university streams
Leadership angle = most valuable
Any sustained activity counts — swimming, hockey, volleyball, dance, music, drama, martial arts, debate. The activity itself matters less than what you did within it and how long you stuck with it. Universities are not looking for a specific sport — they are looking for evidence of commitment, growth, and contribution to something beyond yourself.
Schools that use supplementary applications — activities matter most here
Waterloo — AIF
Required for Engineering, Math, CS. Asks about activities, work experience, and why Waterloo. Weighted heavily alongside grades.
Engineering / CS / Math
McMaster Health Sciences
One of Canada's most competitive programs. Supplementary focuses on community involvement, leadership, and personal qualities.
Health Sciences
Queen's Commerce (AEO)
Apply in Grade 11. Requires supplementary package with activities, leadership, and community involvement evidence.
Commerce (early entry)
Western — Ivey AEO
Ivey Business School early entry requires supplementary application. General Western admission is grade-only.
Ivey Business
UBC Personal Profile
Required for all UBC applicants. Activities, community involvement, and personal achievements are explicitly evaluated alongside grades.
All programs
McGill (select programs)
Most programs are grade-based. Education, Social Work, Music require supplementary material. Overall profile matters for competitive programs.
Select programs
By stream
Best activities for your path
Select your career stream to see what universities in that field most value — and which activities count toward your 40 community hours.
FIRST Robotics / VEX Robotics
Most impactful for STEM
Building and competing with a robotics team is the single strongest extracurricular for engineering programs. Waterloo, UofT, and Carleton admissions offices see this as direct evidence of engineering aptitude. Ask your tech teacher — most schools have a team or can start one.
Personal Projects / GitHub
CS / Software Engineering
Build something — an app, a game, a website, a script that solves a real problem. Put it on GitHub. Waterloo's AIF specifically asks about projects outside school. A working project beats any award or certification for CS programs.
Science Fairs & Math Competitions
All STEM streams
Canada-Wide Science Fair, AMC/Cayley/Fermat Math competitions, Physics competitions. Placing well is a strong signal. Participating still shows initiative. Your science or math teacher has info on regional entry points.
Sports / Swimming (with leadership)
Any sustained sport
Competitive sport shows the discipline and time management that STEM programs demand. Upgrade it: become a team captain, coach younger swimmers, or teach beginners. The leadership angle is what universities notice in the AIF.
Ham Radio / Electronics Club
ECE / Electrical path
Amateur radio licence (free to pursue), electronics clubs, Raspberry Pi / Arduino projects. Niche but extremely strong signal for ECE programs — shows genuine technical curiosity beyond coursework.
Peer Tutoring in Math/Science
Easy community hours
Tutoring younger students in Math or Science through your school counts toward community hours and demonstrates mastery. Many schools have formal peer tutoring programs — ask your guidance counsellor.
Hospital Volunteering
Essential for medicine path
Direct patient-facing volunteering at a hospital is the most important extracurricular for any health sciences path. Medical school applications ask about this extensively. Start in Grade 10 or 11 and sustain it — 2 years of consistent involvement beats a single summer blitz every time.
Swimming / Sports + First Aid Cert
Health sciences alignment
Any physical activity is positive for medicine. Amplify it by becoming a swim instructor or lifeguard. Add a First Aid or NLS certification and it directly ties to health sciences. Lifeguarding also pays — it is one of the few activities that earns money and builds a medicine-relevant profile simultaneously.
Mental Health / Peer Support
Empathy + community
Peer mental health support programs, crisis line volunteering, or school wellbeing committees. Medicine programs look heavily at empathy and communication skills — this demonstrates both in a way that grades cannot.
Cultural / Community Health Events
Cultural competence
Health fairs, community outreach for underserved populations, translation volunteering at clinics, South Asian or Tamil community health events. Cultural competence is increasingly valued in Canadian medical education.
Science Research / Fair
Biology / Health research
Canada-Wide Science Fair with a health or biology topic. Contact a university lab about student shadowing programs — uOttawa, Queen's, and Western all run summer research opportunities for high school students.
Peer Tutoring in Science / Biology
Teaching = mastery proof
Running science or biology tutoring sessions for junior students counts toward hours and demonstrates teaching ability — a quality that medical school admissions specifically look for in leadership candidates.
Junior Achievement / DECA
Most impactful for business
DECA (business case competitions) and Junior Achievement entrepreneurship programs are the gold standard for business school applications. Queen's AEO and Schulich supplementary apps ask directly about business experience. Competing provincially is a major differentiator.
Part-time Work / Small Business
Real-world experience
A part-time job in retail, food service, or customer-facing roles demonstrates work ethic. Better still: start something small — lawn care, tutoring, online reselling. Business schools value actual work over theory every time.
School Newspaper / Media / Yearbook
Marketing / Communications
Running the school newspaper, yearbook, Instagram, or website demonstrates marketing, communication, and project management. Taking an editor or lead role strengthens the story significantly for business programs.
Sports Leadership / Team Captain
Team + leadership
Business schools care about leadership. Being a team captain is direct evidence. Organize a swim-a-thon fundraiser and you have combined sport, community hours, and event management into one application story.
Student Council
Governance + leadership
President, treasurer, or event coordinator. Running a budget for school events is real finance experience at a small scale. Business applications ask about organizational leadership specifically.
Personal Finance / Investing Interest
Finance / Accounting path
Paper trading portfolios, following markets, reading financial news. Shows genuine interest beyond coursework — differentiates you on finance program applications where many applicants look identical on paper.
Habitat for Humanity Builds
Most impactful for trades
Volunteering on an actual home build — framing, painting, finishing — is the best community hours opportunity for trades-path students. Real tools, real work, real mentorship from experienced tradespeople. Cornwall, Ottawa, and Kingston all have active chapters.
OYAP Co-op Placement
Ontario Youth Apprenticeship
OYAP lets you register as an apprentice while still in high school. You earn co-op credits and log real apprenticeship hours. Talk to your guidance counsellor in Grade 10 — this is the single most important program for trades students in Ontario.
Auto / Mechanical Hobby Projects
Automotive / Mechanical trades
Helping restore a car, working in a family shop, fixing small engines. Document it — photos, notes, what you learned. Personal projects are valid supplementary application content for college trades programs.
Sports / Physical Activity
Fitness and discipline
Trades work is physically demanding. Showing you are active demonstrates physical fitness and team orientation. Coaching or instructing younger kids converts sport directly into community hours.
Electronics / Arduino / 3D Printing
Electrical / Tech trades
Arduino microcontrollers, basic circuit projects, 3D printing. Many schools have maker spaces — use them. For electrical apprenticeship paths, showing you already understand basic circuits is a genuine advantage going into college.
First Aid / Safety Certifications
All trades — required eventually
Standard First Aid, WHMIS, and Working at Heights are required in most trades. Getting them early shows initiative and saves money during apprenticeship. St. John Ambulance offers youth rates in Cornwall and most Ontario cities.
Build a Portfolio — Start Now
Most important for arts path
OCAD, Sheridan, Carleton Architecture, and TMU all require portfolio submissions. Your portfolio is built over years, not weeks. Start documenting every piece from Grade 9. January-February deadlines mean Grade 12 is too late to start building.
School Drama / Theatre / Improv
Performing arts / Media
School productions, improv clubs, community theatre. Front-of-house volunteering at venues counts for community hours. For media and communications programs, on-stage and production experience tells a strong story.
Music — Instrument / Band / Choir
Music / Media / Arts
Sustained music involvement shows discipline and creativity. Teaching younger students an instrument converts practice into community hours and a leadership credential simultaneously.
Photography / Videography / YouTube
Media / Communications
Creating a YouTube channel, photography portfolio, or social media presence around your creative work demonstrates initiative and consistency. Shooting school events gives you a portfolio and community hours at the same time.
Swimming / Sports
Balance + discipline
Arts programs appreciate well-rounded students. Physical activity alongside creative pursuits shows balance. Swim instruction or aquatics coaching converts sport into community hours and a leadership credential.
Graphic Design / Web / Animation
Digital arts / Media design
Canva, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Blender. Build for real clients — design a poster for a school event, build a website for a local non-profit. Real-world briefs in your portfolio are worth more than personal projects alone.
Debate Club / Mock Trial
Most impactful for law path
Debate is the single best extracurricular for law school preparation. It builds argumentation, research, and oral communication — the exact competencies law school develops. Mock trial goes further: you experience courtroom procedure and case strategy directly.
School Newspaper / Writing
Written communication
Legal writing is the foundation of law practice. School newspaper editorials, opinion columns, and investigative pieces demonstrate analytical writing. Law schools look closely at communication scores and writing samples in applications.
Legal Aid / Justice Volunteering
Direct law exposure
Community Legal Aid clinics, courthouse public tours, volunteering with organizations serving marginalized communities. Law schools look for evidence of understanding why justice matters — not just career interest in the profession.
Student Council
Civic leadership
Law and social science programs look for civic engagement and understanding of governance. Leading a school body is direct evidence — especially strong if you advocate for a specific policy change or represent students in a dispute.
Sports Leadership + Charity Events
Discipline + community
Law programs value balance and community involvement. Organize a charity swim event and you have combined sport, fundraising, and community hours into one application story — it also gives you something concrete to write about in essays.
Model UN / Global Affairs
International / Human rights law
Model United Nations conferences develop research, diplomacy, and argumentation skills — strong signal for international law and human rights law paths. Ottawa schools regularly attend national MUN conferences.
Works for every stream
Universal activities
These apply regardless of your career path — they count toward hours and show well-rounded character to any university.
Food Bank / Community Meals
Easy first activity
Agape Centre (Cornwall), Ottawa Food Bank, Daily Bread (Toronto) — all accept student volunteers with flexible scheduling. Easy to start, reliable hours, and genuinely valued.
Library Youth Programs
Reading / community
Summer reading programs, children's story time, literacy events at your public library. Low barrier, flexible schedule, valued by every type of university program as community involvement.
Faith Community / Parish Events
CDSBEO Catholic students
Parish events, youth group, charity fundraisers, community outreach — all count toward your 40 hours. Familiar environment, easy access, especially convenient for Catholic school students.
Environmental / Clean-up Events
Community stewardship
City of Cornwall clean-up days, park restoration, shoreline cleanup events. The city provides sign-off letters. Easy hours and a genuine story of community contribution for any application.
Ready to map out your courses alongside these activities?
Use the Grade Planner to build your year-by-year course roadmap for your chosen stream.
University Strategy
What actually matters for university admission
Not all extracurriculars are equal. Here's how Ontario universities actually assess them — and what distinguishes a strong application.
⚠️ Extracurricular mistakes that hurt applications
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Starting extracurriculars only in Grade 12. Admissions teams see the grade level of every activity. Beginning everything in Grade 12 signals last-minute effort. Grade 9 is the right time to start exploring.
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Spreading too thin across too many short activities. 12 clubs for one semester each is weaker than 2 activities across 3 years. Depth signals commitment. Breadth without depth looks like resumé padding.
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Counting community service hours as extracurricular activities. The 40-hour OSSD requirement is a baseline — not a feature. Real volunteering goes well beyond the minimum and connects to your interests.