How To Fill Out The Activity Section

Matthew Bilik
Sep 6, 2018 · 5 min read

The activity section is an extremely important part of the Common App. Knowing what and what not to put on it can be really challenging. Although the majority of universities appreciate well-rounded students who are engaged in a balanced range of activities, admissions officers at top schools prefer students with an apparent theme (an established interest) in their activities, being attributed mostly to building a diverse, and well-rounded student body as a whole. The “well-rounded student” craze among top universities may have been the norm back in your parents day, but so were perms — so don’t take their word for it.

(Courtesy to Stranger Things)

I feel like I haven’t done anything!

Even if you may not have dabbled in many things, there are always places to look for for leadership. For example, you may have helped students in class and played a large role in teaching them new material. You might have rallied together teammates in a certain sport. You may lead the youth choir at a local church. These are all things that you could put on the activities section. Even if you had to get a job to help pay bills or stayed at home to take care of your younger siblings or sick family members, make sure to communicate your commitments. Unless you sat under a rock for all of high school, you will have done something that goes beyond your required school work that demonstrates inventiveness, talent, or dedication. And even if you can’t fill in all ten spots, then that’s ok. What matters most is that you’re showing off to colleges that you do something important beyond going to class.

I’ve done so much! What do I include?

Schools love students who pursue things that they are passionate about. If you focus on a set of activities that show extreme dedication to one subject (an example of this is a prospective engineering student to be engaged in engineering summer camps, Physics Club, science research competitions, robotics, Comp Sci Club, and other similar activities that relate to the interest).

Choose to include activities that relate to your main interests, that you have leadership experience in, and that you have been involved in for an extended period of time. Make sure to include a balance of activities from in school and out. If you are intentional with which activities you describe — and are strategic with the order you put them in — then you’re revealing more about yourself to admissions officers and are far more likely to be accepted than if you show that you’ve dabbled in everything for a short amount of time and list many different things to appear well-rounded.

  • If you’ve been part of something for a year or less, you probably want to put something

you have done for the entire duration of high school instead. Summer programs and other such programs with set beginning or end dates are fine as universities are aware of the fact that they end once summer does.

  • Include activities that are meaningful to you
  • Use concise and precise sentences that convey the effort you have put into the activity and how said effort and dedication has had a positive benefit on you and the extracurricular.
  • Add activities that you’ve won awards for so that you can mention them along with this section and save a slot for the awards page!

10 activities? What do I do to get around it!

The ten activity restriction can feel suffocating, especially if you have a lot that you want to share.

  • Resumes: resumes for college admissions can be a few pages long and are a great way to get around the ten activity limit. Most schools have this option on the Common App and some allow you to upload one onto your admissions portal or to email one to your admissions counselor
  • Letters of Recommendation: you can always ask a teacher to specifically highlight some of the activities that you have participated in. You can request for your teacher or counselor to do this in a survey or letter to them where you might list your achievements and activities so that they know more about you. Make sure to include activities that are especially relevant to the teacher (like if they’re the club sponsor or coach) so that they can be more vivid when describing them and your role!
  • Your School/Counselor: Check if your school or counselor sends in a report listing member/officer lists for club activities to universities. If so, you should only include clubs that you were heavily involved with on the activities section and focus on out-of-school extracurricular activities.
  • Additional Information: Refer to the Writing Section of the Common App where you have 650 words in space where you can add more details about activities or can list activities that go beyond the 10 in the activity section
  • LOCI: If you’ve been deferred or waitlisted or simple want to update your application, a great way to include more extracurriculars is through a letter of continued interest (LOCI), which is a short letter that can boost your candidacy for admissions

Example

  • The Common App allows you to choose the category of the activity (performing arts, sports, debate, social justice, political engagement, etc.); the time of year in which you’re engaged (“summer,” “school” (during the school year), or “year” (all year long)); grades of participation (9, 10, 11, 12), hours per week, weeks per year, the name of the organization and your leadership positions (like president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, webmaster, etc.), and a description of your involvement.

Consider how you’re wording your titles. Make sure to avoid abbreviation for activity titles and make sure to list the grades for each leadership position.

  • Instead of putting “Hackathon Creator,” for example, put “11 to 12- Founder and President of the Hackathon Club.” This description is similarly applicable and paints a better picture.

When describing your position/involvement, use specific language and reference what you accomplished while you were in the club

  • If you were a tennis team captain, you might explain that you were “Responsible for organizing tryouts, weekly practices, and matches for 50 JV and varsity players. Won the Regional Championship and secured tennis camp scholarship for low-income teammates.”

Peerlift

We connect high school students to opportunities that make college possible.

Matthew Bilik

Written by

I’m a student entrepreneur, avid programmer, and machine learning enthusiast from NYC with a passion to learn.

Peerlift

Peerlift

We connect high school students to opportunities that make college possible.

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