Post-college Activities for B-School Admissions. Please advice!

You are in a great position -- your adult life right now is a blank canvas, and the only thing that limits you is your imagination. Don't worry about what you did or did not do in college, as it's in the past. Furthermore, it's not really going to matter as much as you may feel right now (because college just happened; think of it this way - remember when you were in high school? What aspects did you think were soooo important then that seem far less important now? That is what you will likely feel about college a few years from now).

Furthermore, 3-5 years from now is a lot of time for someone who is just out of college. You will change a lot as a person in these years, so I wouldn't assume that you'll be in the same situation years from now, whether financially or otherwise.

So when it comes to what you choose to do outside of work is only limited by your imagination. Resist the temptation to follow some recipe that you feel others (adcoms, future employers, etc) may value, because oftentimes there isn't a recipe. What do you enjoy doing? What are you curious about? And if you don't know, then that should be your aim - to continually search for that.

The only thing to AVOID is to shut yourself off or to kill that curiosity. You'll find quite a few of your work colleagues will end up that way, because it's easy to fall into a routine and then to simply waste your free time just sleepwalking, or to stop learning about new things. Too many people end up becoming zombies - too tired from working full-time that they don't bother doing anything else (and as hard as it is to muster that energy to stay busy outside of work, it's essential). It's real easy to just default to leisure as a drug: spending all your free time just hanging out, drinking, eating, smoking, playing casual sports, and simply killing time doing fun but not particularly meaningful stuff. Again, nothing wrong with going for beers with the guys and watching football, but if that's all you do, then your world will only get smaller and smaller, and you will lose whatever curiosity you had.

A good way to figure out how to have an active life outside of work (and to make it more dynamic, don't call it "extracurriculars" - call it "having a life") is to focus on what you want to LEARN. Maybe it's a new language. Or some skill you've always wanted: getting your pilot's license, getting involved in a political party, performing improv, playing an instrument. The more you want to learn something, the more you'll like it (or even love it), and the more you'll stay involved, which will put you in a better position to earn some meaningful leadership experiences.

Again, I'm not saying that you shouldn't volunteer at non-profits helping the poor or tutoring kids - but I'm willing to bet that most pre-MBA types who do that do so out of obligation (it looks good on a resume), and as such at times it can be tedious to do so because of how little time is actually being spent involved in the activity.

If you don't have an burning desire that you know of, then the first step is to simply look for activities that you are a beginner or near-beginner, but that you are curious about. And continue to try different things.

Furthermore, it's even more essential you do it now, assuming you don't have kids. It's near impossible especially with young kids to have much time for anything else.

Now, to make this more tangible, do this as a start:

Book your Saturday mornings. It will suck to have to wake up early after a long week at work, but it'll be worth it. If you force yourself to sign up for an organized activity every Saturday morning (class, volunteer job at an org, etc), it will lead to other things - and if anything, it'll get you in the good habit of making the most of your weekends (and you'll still have plenty of time to socialize).