Yeah I totally was better than them…yeah…that’s the ticket… 
I did drama is HS, spent a summer at a college drama camp. It loved it, made some great friends. It was all the benefit with none of the painful aspects of a team sport. So, I worked at it, had fun, and met new people. Never a real career option for me, but I can see no downside. It sure wasn’t a waste of time or effort.
Edit: Although I mentioned it on my college apps, that wasn’t why I did it, and it probably made no difference in my being accepted. I was a legacy.
The point of these activities is not have a life-changing experience but to try a bunch of stuff to find out what you like. Finding out that you think choir is a waste of time is not a waste of time–it’s an important discovery. Just don’t keep doing something year after year if you don’t love it.
It’s like Edison said–his experiment didn’t fail, he just found another way that doesn’t work.
A waste in what regard? For your own enjoyment or edification? To get into school? The answer is it depends.
I tried everything available to me except journalism, choir and theatre. I went to a very small high school and all 3 of these programs were almost nonexistent. So they seemed like a waste of time to me personally. Anything I didn’t enjoy, I only did for one season but I don’t think any of them are a waste for people who enjoy them.
I played in band in junior high but not high school. I don’t really remember why (it was a long time ago;). Probably had something to do with marching. I do remember that walking with a clarinet in your mouth is no fun.
I played club volleyball in the winter for 2 years. I think that’s the same as a traveling team? Every Saturday and most Sundays for 3 or 4 months. It was $300/season. My parents paid for this. The deal in our house was that parents would pay for school and sports. This was kind of an exception but my parents knew I was very serious and really enjoyed volleyball. They probably figured it would keep me out of trouble and it may have been a christmas present. But they never went to a practice or tournament.
If I could advise my teenage self, I would probably suggest not playing volleyball year round. It screwed my shoulder up pretty bad. I don’t think it’s a good idea to do the same thing physically all the time a a child or teen. But it was so much fun, made me so much better and I believe it helped teach me many life skills.
But prom committee and homecoming float committee, yeah, total waste of time,
Virtually the only reason to do extra curriculars to is to pad your college resume. In this aspect, anything works. My friends who went to top tier colleges were on math team, bowling team, etc. The second main reason is to get a scholarship. Youth symphony is big in my area, so orchestra and band were great ways to get college money. Like any other job, if you have talent you can easily get scholarships for hard to find skills, e.g. male cheerleaders.
If you aren’t trying to get a scholarship, then all extra curriculars are a complete waste of time. Except for sports experience which can lead to coaching jobs, there’s no reason to put in the kind of time involved. I played baseball one year, and they wanted a 6-7 day commitment, 4-5 hours a day, 3pm after school to 11 pm at night some nights. They also expected to see you in the weight room during “free time,” which was usually lunch period.
Hm, swimming is good because it can save your life [or someone elses] so I would actually recommend it for everybody. Most other sports on an organized basis is crap - any benefits are probably outweighed by the parents acting like assholes. What would be beneficial is a general playground with access to sports stuff for the kids to organize themselves - sort of a whole park pick up game of whatever the kids decide to do that particular day. The big thing that todays kids are missing out on is the unorgnized FUN of deciding to play tag football or baseball or warball, or build a fort and have a snowball fight. Don’t overthink things, let the kids actually play - organization is way over rated.They get enough of that in school.
I agree with aruvgan on a lot of points and probably never would have joined a single activity if after school and summer games of pickup football and ghost in the graveyard were still options in highschool. However, my parents never acted like assholes and weren’t even there for any game that didn’t take place at school. They certainly didn’t disrupt the rest of the family for any of my activities, even tho I got lots of support from them and even some extended family.
If the real question is What is a waste of time if you just want to get into the right university?
Then I don’t know. I don’t regret anything I’ve enjoyed. I do wish someone would have advised me in highschool that I could have gone to a private university for less than I paid for state. At least I had figured that out by the time my little brother was ready to apply 4 years later and could advise him. He went to private school for almost free while I’ve just paid off my loans almost 20 years later. And I applied for almost every scholarship available and got many. My first year was paid for.
I thought that a degree was a key to a career. I was wrong. I sincerely hope that today’s graduates are not as naive as I was.
Oops! I guess I got a little bitter there! I just hope that kids do what they enjoy, try to get good grades and don’t put too much emphasis on trying to get in a good school that they will pay too much for and still not have a guaranteed job. Childhood is too short. Life is too short, but not so short that you will outlive those loans.
Some sports and activities can be done for life. For example golf, tennis, hockey, and basketball. You dont see adults playing football or wrestling even though those are fun HS activities.
And doing those sports, one can make alot of adult friends and even business networking opportunities. Alot of business is done on the golf course.
Other things:
Debate - good for learning how to argue.
Theater - one always has to “act” in life.
Karate - everyone needs to learn to be able to fight.
Dance - to me, seems like a fun outlet to learn but to go on to higher levels seems is a waste. My wife liked doing tap.
My niece has been doing dance for a year; Mom was at the “end of year show” this same week.
When the kid started, Mom thought it was completely stupid. I pointed out that if there is one person in this family who might actually “do” something with dance it’s The Kidlette, whose mother was an aerobics teacher for eight years and who has inherited my family’s super-strong legs.
The child’s having fun, it’s good exercise, she spends time with kids from other schools… so she probably won’t make a living from it, so what?
Dance can also be a good hobby plus make some part time money.
Unless you grow up in a particularly rough neighborhood, I question the requirement that “everyone needs to learn to be able to fight”. And even if that were true, then a couple of years of casual karate class aren’t going to help against people who seriously train how to fight.
I thought having to take trombone in elementary school was a waste of time for me. Everyone (or maybe it was just kids in the advanced placement classes) had to take either choir or band and I got stuck with the trombone. I freakin hated carrying that stupid thing back and forth on the bus.
+1
I continued with drama/chorale all the way through college and even beyond (I was a member of a local theatre group well into my 20s; ditto for a community glee club). The skills I picked up with the student newspaper (IIRC I was the only one on the student newspaper staff who didn’t take a journalism elective) still serve me to this day. I’ve been in the retail/food business for over half my life now, and the theatre training still comes into play because my work area is essentially a “stage”. I have no fear of public speaking. And I still sing, albeit off key, in the back room 
I don’t own a piano.
My hand cramps if I play my violin too much.
I don’t keep bees any more, although my parents have picked it up recently.
I’m not a farmer (4H for 8 years).
I don’t have a garden, or even houseplants.
I don’t play soccer or baseball.
I no longer referee soccer (AYSO volunteer during highschool).
It’s been years since I’ve gone rock climbing.
I’m never going to make a highschool yearbook again.
That covers a good chunk of my youth activities. I can’t say any of them was a waste. I would have liked to have fit in some more. Drawing, sculpting, computer design, programming.
I don’t know if anything helped me get into college, but I can tell you my college classmates didn’t fill their time outside of high school classes with video games and McDonald’s jobs.
But in the spirit of the OP, if I have to pick something to have left out, I suppose I’ll choose the dabbling in tennis. I didn’t get much out of that, but mostly because I didn’t put much into it due to prioritizing other activities; kids only have so much time.
Parents only have so much time too. You have to actually get your child where he or she needs to be if public transportation isn’t available. Fortunately costs are pretty minimal for most activities. With the taxpayers coughing up $11k+ per kid per year, and only for part of the day and part of the year, I should expect to allocate a few thou each to round off the incomplete education they get in school. Or just not have kids.
I did drama tech all through high school. Most of what I did was construction of the sets and I learned a lot about carpentry.
Reported
How about The 4-H club? Wish my folks would have steered me in that direction. But we were city folks and it was a long time ago.
“With a rich history and an expansive network reaching every corner of the country, 4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization. More than 6 million 4-H youth in urban neighborhoods, suburban schoolyards and rural farming communities stand out among their peers: building revolutionary opportunities and implementing community-wide change at an early age.”
Sounds good to me. Anyone out there participate when they were a young’in?
I did. It was great. We mostly focused on crafts. I even did a golf unit. The only agriculturalish stuff I did was beekeeping (which I had started separately) and showing rabbits.
Beekeeping? I wish I knew what you know Ruken. Do tell. Whatja learn? I’m serious.