system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do American high schools put so much emphasis on extra curricular activities?
gpt
Because getting into colleges -- especially if you're looking at specific programs, really prestigious schools -- is a competitive progress.  

Let's take Harvard, for example.  You're this massive ivy league school with endless in applicants.  Let's say 10,000 of them have 4.0 GPAs (the highest grade you can get without honors classes/weighted GPAs).  Well, you can't accept 10,000 students as an incoming class of freshmen.  So how do you differentiate the students?  By the stuff they did outside of school.  Do they show motivation and interest in succeeding outside of the classroom?  What of your character can you see but what they've been doing?  Who has already proven to some extent that they can be successful out in the real world?