What extracurriculars should a senior highlight for UC Berkeley engineering applications?

For UC Berkeley engineering, the best extracurriculars to highlight are the ones that show sustained technical engagement, real problem-solving, and impact, not just membership. In your case, robotics, tutoring, and a personal coding project can all be strong if you describe what you actually built, solved, led, or improved.

Robotics is probably one of your strongest activities if you can make it concrete. Focus on your role, such as designing a subsystem, programming controls, troubleshooting failures, managing testing, or leading part of the team.

Your coding project can also stand out, especially because self-directed technical work signals genuine interest. What matters is not whether it became a huge app, but whether you identified a problem, built something functional, iterated on it, and learned from the process. A small project that solves a real need or shows creative thinking can be more compelling than a generic club membership.

Tutoring is valuable too, especially if you connect it to engineering habits of mind. If you taught math, physics, or coding, it shows communication, mastery of technical material, and the ability to break down complex ideas.

For you, that likely means robotics, the coding project, and tutoring. In the application, prioritize specifics like time commitment, initiative, challenges solved, leadership, and outcomes rather than trying to sound broadly impressive.