The Activities section is just one of several components of the Common Application ("Common App," for short), which is the shared platform used by more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities for first-year admission. Admission officers are likely to spend only one or two minutes reviewing -- perhaps even skimming! -- your list. And your activities alone are unlikely to determine whether or not you are admitted to college.
Yet, the Activities section is an important opportunity to showcase what you did in high school: Common App explains that “reporting activities can help colleges better understand your life outside of the classroom.” The Activities section also shows admission officers how you might get involved in, contribute to, and make a difference at their colleges and universities. A thoughtfully crafted list of your out-of-classroom engagements – together with clear and concise descriptions of your responsibilities, accomplishments, and impact in those activities – can help you convey your interests and stand out in a pool of similarly qualified applicants.
Writing your Activities list should NOT be stressful, but it will take time and energy. Here is an overview of the Common App Activities, followed by expert tips for crafting a thorough, thoughtful list that will help differentiate you from your peers.
What to Know About Common App Activities
The Activities section is located in the part of the Common Application received by all of the colleges and universities to which you'll apply using this application system. It appears after the Education and Testing sections, in which you’ll share your high school GPA, courses, academic awards, future plans, and standardized test scores (if you choose to submit them). The Activities section is immediately before the Writing section, which contains the Personal Essay.
In the Activities section, you can add up to 10 extracurricular activities. You don’t need to fill all 10 spots, but it’s a good idea to list as many activities as you can.
You should include high school activities only -- ways in which you spent your time in grades 9 through 12. You may include activities that you started before high school and have continued in high school.
The Activities section is for outside-of-class experiences, with the possible exception of academic experiences outside of your high school. For example, if Wind Ensemble is a class that you take during the school day (and is therefore on your high school transcript), you should not list it as an activity. However, if you take flute lessons, play in a community ensemble, and/or play with the pep band at football games, you may include those as activities, either together or separately. If you attended an academic enrichment program (not private tutoring) that is not affiliated with your high school, you may include it in your Activities list, especially if you did not receive academic credit for the course(s) you took.
Activities DO NOT have to be organized, official, or affiliated with your school, a community group, or any other organization. Independent projects count as activities (and are sometimes the most interesting and unique activities!). For example, if you created and maintain a website or YouTube channel, you may include it in your Activities. Other self-directed activities may include babysitting or lawn-mowing work, independent research, hobbies (such as baking, crafting, and exercise), and significant responsibilities at home, such as preparing family meals and caring for younger siblings.
Activity descriptions will be very short. Limits in this section are in characters, not words!
For more information about Activities, take a look at the AXS Companion to Common App.
6 Tips for Standing Out in Your Common App Activities
Consider ALL Possible Activities
Before you choose which 10 activities to include in your application, make a long list of everything you spend time doing outside of the classroom. What do you do after school? On the weekends? During summer and other school breaks?
Consider activities that are both organized and independent. Do you spend hours reading biographies? Planning Student Council events? Taking apart small appliances in the garage? Volunteering at your local women’s shelter? Training for basketball?
Write it all down so you can make an informed decision about which 10 activities will show admission officers how you choose to spend your time – and how you are likely to spend your time as a college student on their campuses.
Include Activities that Highlight Your Interests, Strengths, Leadership, and Initiative
For highly involved students, choosing which activities to include can be one of the most agonizing decisions they make in the college application process. Ultimately, the activities you choose to share with admission officers should be the activities that are most significant to you. Often, those are activities that meet the following criteria:
Activities on which you spend the most time or in which you have participated the longest (demonstrating long-term commitment or sustained interest and involvement)
Activities that are most related to your intended college major or future career plans (which demonstrate your interests in tangible ways)
Activities in which you have had the most positive impact on others
Activities that “can help colleges better understand your life outside of the classroom” (a direct quote from the Common App instructions)
In general, you should worry less about impressing admission officers and more about showing them who you are in concrete examples of how you choose to spend your time. Remember that activities that don’t make the cut in this section of your application may find a home in a different section. For example, National Honor Society and other high school honor societies are sometimes a better fit for the Honors list within the Common App Education section – especially if you didn’t spend much time actually participating in honor society events.
Use Activity Descriptions to Demonstrate Your Interests and Strengths
One way to demonstrate your interests in your college applications is to include activities in which you have explored those interests directly. For example, if you are applying to college as an Art major (or expressing interest in Art as your primary area of academic study), you should include activities directly related to art, such as your high school’s Art Club, art enrichment classes taken outside of school, independent art projects, and art-related jobs, internships, or volunteer experiences.
Another way to demonstrate your interests is to emphasize responsibilities in which you contributed your interest-related skills and expertise, even when the activity itself was not directly related to that interest. For example, if you are applying to college as an Art major, you should consider ways in which you used your art skills or knowledge in non-art clubs and activities. Maybe you drew the posters for a church youth group event, or managed set design for your high school’s theater productions. Emphasize interest-related contributions to demonstrate the depth of your interest and experience, even when you’re involved in a wide variety of activities.
Choose Your Words (and Characters) Wisely
For each activity, you have only 50 characters to describe your "Position/Leadership," 100 characters to name and describe the organization in which you were (or still are) involved, and 150 characters to describe what you did in the activity, "including what you accomplished and any recognition you received, etc." Here is what this looks like in the application itself:
Once again, your descriptions are measured in characters, not in words! Because of the character limits in this section – and because admission officers read very quickly anyway – you should write your descriptions in clear and concise language.
Here are a few important rules of thumb for maximizing space in your activity descriptions:
Use the Organization Name field to explain anything about the organization that you think admission officers need to know (and may not know already).
Focus the Activity Description on what YOU did to contribute to the organization. For group activities, what were YOUR responsibilities, and what did YOU accomplish to contribute to group efforts? (The Activity description is for documenting YOUR contribution and impact to the larger group, while the Organization description is for explaining the larger group’s objective or mission).
You do not need to use complete sentences! Short, precise phrases are sufficient and encouraged.
Use action verbs (like the ones in this list) to pack as much punch as possible in a small number of characters. Examples: “Facilitated group discussion”, “Planned and executed weekly one-hour lessons”.
Abbreviate (within reason!). Use common abbreviations to your advantage, such as “&” instead of “and” and numerals instead of numbers written out as words. Example: “Planned & executed weekly 1-hr lessons”.
Order Activities Strategically
Common App instructs applicants to list activities “in the order of their importance to you,” with the most important at the top of the list. You don’t need to overthink this. But given the speed at which admission officers read (or skim) Activities, consider the possibility that the order of your activities may convey your interests and priorities as much as your activity descriptions.
If you’re not sure which order to use, consider the following:
How much time you spent, or the length of your commitment to the activity (for example, 10 hours per week vs. 2 hours per week, or 40 weeks each year vs. 10 weeks each year, or 4 years vs. 1 year).
Relation to your intended major or future career plans
Positive impact on others: both how much impact and level of impact (for example, impact within school vs. impact within community vs. state- or nation-wide impact)
How much the activity “can help colleges better understand your life outside of the classroom”
Because the order of activities has the effect of emphasizing or highlighting certain activities, other considerations may include the uniqueness of an activity and/or its impressiveness compared to activities of other applicants. (Clearly, these are subjective measures and may be difficult to gauge! Most important here is putting them “in the order of their significance to you”.)
Draft, Revise, Edit, and Proofread
Your Activities list may not be as long as an essay, but it will require quite a bit of writing. Moreover, it’s a useful opportunity to set yourself apart from other applicants through your clear, concise, and thoughtful descriptions. Put your best self forward by using the writing process, just like you would for an essay.
In a separate document (and not in the application itself), draft, revise, edit, and proofread your activities descriptions before you copy and paste them into Common App. Better yet, share them with a trusted friend, a teacher, or a parent, or with an Independent Educational Consultant, like me! Then, consider and implement suggestions for strengthening your Activities before you submit your applications.
If you have questions about the Common App Activities, feel free to ask by commenting below. Want more help with your Activities, in particular? Shoot me an email or schedule a time to talk about college planning and application services.
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