Best STEM Extracurriculars for Ivy League Admissions | Activities That Stand Out

These STEM Activities Crush Generic Clubs — Here’s Why

If you think being president of a science club or founding a coding society makes you stand out — it doesn’t. For elite U.S. college admissions, these activities are generic — a dime a dozen. If you want to find out which activities crush the generic ones, look no further than this.

By the end, you’ll know how to turn the activities you already have into ones that stand out — and you’ll discover 18+ powerful STEM options with clear guidance on how admissions officers judge their value.

So let’s decode what colleges really care about when it comes to STEM extracurriculars for Ivy League admissions — and then apply it across six STEM fields. If you want to skip ahead straight to the meaty part, use the chapters. Otherwise stay on as we set the context about what colleges care about.

I’m Tina Chulet, and on this channel — BlueSkies — I show you exactly how top U.S. universities think about admissions, so you can plan smarter and aim higher.

Section: What Matters in U.S. College Admissions

Top colleges aren’t impressed by how many STEM activities you’ve done. It’s not the number of bullet points — it’s not simply participation.

They care about how far you’ve grown within a field — your depth, initiative, and the real-world impact of what you build. And most importantly, they care about outcome and validation.

Now let’s look at how we measure that value inside the BlueSkies Activity Evaluation Framework so you can evaluate every activity yourself to understand how much it actually means to an admissions officer.

The BlueSkies Activity Framework measures value using five levers:

Difficulty, Impact, Selectivity, Rarity, and Recognition. By ranking these levers from 1-5, you will be able to give your activity an overall rank between 1-4. These five levers help us map activities into four tiers.

It sounds complex but it’s not. If you learn how to use this framework, you can rank every one of your activities and there will be no ambiguity about how valuable it is to elite U.S. college admissions officers. If you want to learn more about the BlueSkies Activity Framework, check out this video linked in the cards.

So now that you know how the system works, let’s put it to the test. There are hundreds of activities under STEM but in this video we look at six different fields and a total of 18 activities.

1. Data Science

2. Computer Science

3. Engineering

4. Artificial Intelligence

5. Robotics

6. Mathematics

   
   

Even if you’re not interested in every subcategory of STEM, I recommend watching each section — it will give you valuable insight into how to evaluate the activities you choose.

Data Science — STEM Activities That Stand Out in College Admissions

Tier 1: Kaggle Grandmaster

Kaggle is the world’s largest data science competition platform, where participants build predictive models using real-world datasets. Becoming a Kaggle Grandmaster means your work beat out professional data scientists.

• Difficulty (1): Requires expert command of Python, ML frameworks, and statistical modeling.

• Selectivity & Rarity (1): Among the rarest recognitions on the planet; fewer than 30 high-schoolers achieve this each year.

• Recognition (1): Instantly understood by admissions officers and professionals alike.

  
  

Tier 1: MIT PRIMES

MIT PRIMES is a highly selective research program where students work with professors on live data projects.

• Difficulty (1): Graduate-level research

• Selectivity & Rarity (2): Competitive; roughly one in twenty get in

• Recognition (1): Strong credibility with top STEM universities

  
  

Tier 2: Data for Good Hackathons (UNDP, World Bank, NGO Challenges)

Team-based events where students apply analytics to social issues — climate, gender equity, or public health.

• Difficulty (2): Moderate

• Rarity (2): Growing trend but still uncommon in high-school profiles

• Recognition (2): Moderate institutional visibility

  
  

Engineering — STEM Extracurriculars That Impress Ivy League Schools

Tier 1: NASA Rover Challenge

A global competition where teams design, build, and race energy-efficient or terrain-adaptive vehicles.

• Difficulty (1): Extremely high — mechanical design + fabrication + teamwork

• Impact (1): Global stage; prototypes often inform research

• Recognition (1): Internationally respected in U.S. engineering admissions

  
  

Tier 2: Summer R&D Internship at Siemens Research Laboratory

Application-based, selective summer placement supporting product design, testing, or applied research.

• Difficulty (2): Advanced technical skills required

• Impact (2): Direct contribution to real projects

• Selectivity (2): Competitive; limited seats

  
  

Tier 3: Solar-Powered Water Filter Project

A self-initiated design project combining sustainability and accessibility.

• Difficulty (3): Moderate

• Impact (3): Community-based; depends on adoption

• Rarity (4): Common science-fair format

  
  

Quick note: This could become a Tier 1 with recognition through awards, publications, or external validation — because admissions officers won’t know from a five-minute file read how strong it truly is. Don’t stop at creating something — seek third-party validation.

Artificial Intelligence — High-Impact Activities for Ivy League STEM Applicants

Tier 1: Regeneron ISEF Grand Award in AI or Machine Learning

The highest recognition for pre-college researchers applying AI to real-world problems.

• Difficulty (1)

• Impact (1)

• Selectivity (1): <1%

• Recognition (1): Most prestigious validation at high-school level

  
  

Tier 2: DrivenData or AIcrowd Global Challenge Finalist

International ML competitions solving real-world challenges.

• Difficulty (2)

• Rarity (2)

• Recognition (2)

  
  

Tier 3: AI for Social Good Project — Tuberculosis Detection Model

Builds an ML model using public datasets (e.g. NIH, Kaggle).

• Difficulty (3)

• Selectivity (3)

• Recognition (3)

Robotics — STEM Extracurriculars That Stand Out in U.S. College Admissions

Tier 1 — World Finalist at FIRST Robotics Competition

A global competition where teams of high school students design, build, and program robots to complete complex, real-time challenges in a live arena.

Hosted by FIRST Global, it involves over 3,000 teams worldwide, and only about two percent make it to the World Finals.

• Difficulty (1): Extremely high — integrates mechanical design, electronics, and programming under intense time pressure.

• Impact (1): Global exposure; success demonstrates elite teamwork and innovation.

• Selectivity (1): Top two percent worldwide reach the finals.

• Rarity (1): Only a handful of teams per country advance this far.

• Recognition (1): Internationally recognized by engineering schools and sponsors.

  
  

Bottom line: A gold-standard Tier 1 activity, and highly visible proof of technical and leadership excellence in STEM — something that genuinely stands out in Ivy League and MIT admissions review.

Tier 2 — NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

A prestigious NASA-hosted event where students design and race human-powered rovers simulating extraterrestrial exploration missions.

• Difficulty (2): High — requires robust engineering design, mechanical precision, and testing cycles.

• Impact (2): Strong — real engineering problems with NASA’s direct oversight.

• Selectivity (2): Roughly 10 percent reach finalist status.

• Recognition (2): Highly respected due to its NASA affiliation.

  
  

Bottom line: Demonstrates advanced problem-solving and real-world engineering ability.

Tier 3 — Founding a School Robotics Club

Starting and leading a robotics club at school — teaching peers, organizing competitions, and guiding younger students through building and coding robots.

• Difficulty (3): Moderate — technical knowledge required but scalable through effort and planning.

• Selectivity (4): Open; achievement lies in initiative and consistency.

• Rarity & Recognition (4/5): Common concept; local or school-level significance.

  
  

In short, Tier 3 reflects initiative without proven influence — you’ve started something, but you have not yet shown that others outside your immediate circle rely on it. Unless the club grows to a regional or national scale, partners with established organizations, wins awards, or produces verifiable outcomes (like published research, large-scale events, or genuine community change), it remains local and self-initiated.

Mathematics — Activities That Impress Ivy League and Top U.S. Universities

Tier 1 — International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) Medalist

The world’s most prestigious high school mathematics competition.

• Difficulty (1): Extreme — mastery of combinatorics, number theory, geometry, and inequalities.

• Selectivity & Rarity (1): Around 0.5% of national qualifiers earn a medal.

• Recognition (1): Immediate and unquestioned prestige across the world.

  
  

Tier 2 — USA Mathematical Olympiad Finalist

Selects top scorers from exams like AMC, AIME, or regional contests.

• Difficulty (2): Very high — proof-based and conceptually complex.

• Impact (2): Academic; strong predictor of future research success.

• Selectivity & Rarity (2): Top few percent.

• Recognition (2): Universally respected across STEM-oriented colleges.

  
  

Tier 3 — Founding a Math Circle for Younger Students

A peer-learning group to mentor younger students — designing puzzles, workshops, and making advanced math accessible.

• Difficulty (3/4): Moderate — requires both teaching and strong subject confidence.

• Selectivity (4): Open; distinction depends on scale and outcomes.

• Rarity (4): Common in concept; rare in consistent execution.

  
  

Section: Final Takeaways: STEM Extracurricular Strategy for Ivy League Applicants

Across every field we covered — Data Science, AI, Robotics, Math, and Engineering — the pattern stays the same. Every Tier 1 activity is generally a nationally or internationally recognized achievement, and it is extremely difficult to achieve.

Tier 3 and Tier 4 aren’t weak — they’re simply earlier stages in that same growth curve. But if you are expecting to apply to Top 10 U.S. colleges, you need to upgrade your activities immediately.

The strongest applications clearly align your activities and achievements with your intended major — and that is why we focused these extracurriculars on STEM pathways. You need to show academic evidence in high school that supports your intended major — proof that your interest isn’t recent, but developed through sustained exploration and real execution.

If you’d like to score your own activities, download the BlueSkies Activity Evaluation Framework — it’s free, and it’s the same tool we use with our top students — or sign up for the newsletter and get continuous free resources.

Don’t forget to subscribe and see you in the next one!