On our blog, we talk a lot about essays, but they aren’t the only section on the common app. If you are looking through the common app, you will see another big section: the activities section. This section is made for you to show off your extracurriculars and more. Everyone (hopefully!) does something outside of school and this is your time to show it off.
Colleges want to know what you do when you aren’t studying or at school (within reason—don’t mention hours of TikTok scrolling). Activities can mean a lot of things to different students and the common app knows it. You might be the captain of the mathletes. Maybe you work in your father’s restaurant. Maybe you bind your own books. We don’t know your life. Whatever you devote your precious non-class time to, there is a space for you to list it in this section.
If you open the section up you will see the following text:
Reporting activities can help colleges better understand your life outside of the classroom. Examples of activities might include:
Arts or music
Clubs
Community engagement
Family responsibilities (learn more)
Hobbies
Sports
Work or volunteering
Other experiences that have been meaningful to you
Under that text they then say, “Please list your activities in the order of their importance to you.”
The common app defines activities pretty broadly and then gives you ten spaces to list out your activities. It sounds simple and it should be, but a surprising amount of students get tripped up in this section. So we wanted to give you all our tips and tricks for filling out a great activities section.
Let’s look at how the section is broken down.
For each activity you add you have to answer 9 mini questions. The first 3 just ask the type of activity, your position, and the name of the organization. Think: Dance, Assistant Choreographer, Berkeley High School Dance Team. The final 5 questions are just how often you do it, how long you have been doing it, and finally, would you want to continue to do it in college (don’t stress too much about that last one, no one will hold you to it if you have a change of heart once on campus).
The only tricky one is box number 4. This mini question asks, “Please describe this activity, including what you accomplished and any recognition you received, etc..” and only gives you 150 characters to do it. This can be challenging and it usually boils down to two issues: either you have no idea what to write or you want to write a whole grandiose essay.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Let’s say you play soccer. Some students are tempted to write “soccer.” That’s not quite enough. Other students might want to write, “Facilitated teamwork and on the ground learning in a competitive sports sphere,” which is too complicated and might confuse the reader and also what does that even mean.
We suggest being truthful but also showing pride in your work. Focus on the things you did. “Played forward on the varsity team. Went to state two years in a row. Won most improved junior year.” It’s a great place to mention any awards or accomplishments without adding a bunch of fluff.
150 characters is short. You don’t have infinite space, which can be a challenge for some students. We always suggest writing out this section in a Google Doc or a Word file and then pasting it into the common app site. In your doc, you can write as much as you want about each activity and then cut it down and test it with the word count function. Also, being able to move around and edit your activities before you start in the app, makes it easier to see the full list of what you have and how you will add it in.
Fill it out early:
Many of the students that we work with fill out sections 1-5 before they even come to us. We always advise students to fill these sections out first and fill them out early if they can. We do this because not only does it give you a sense of accomplishment, but it can set you up in a good spot to think about your essays.
Even if students come to us not having done these sections, we usually ask them to do these first and then give themselves a huge pat on the back (knocking out 5 out of 6 is pretty big stuff after all).
What about the order?
They print it right on the section: “Please list your activities in the order of their importance to you.” We like to think of this in terms of time. If you spend 25 hours a week playing volleyball and 4 hours a week volunteering, volleyball really should be your top listed activity.
Sometimes we hear from students, “well shouldn’t I put volunteering first? Isn’t that the kind of activity that colleges want to see first?” To that we have to say, no, it’s most important that they see what you do the most. Whatever that activity is, it should really be first. College application readers aren’t dummies. If the first thing you list is something you did only twice, they will notice that. Don’t worry about what you think they want to see and just start with what you devote the most time to.
Is there a right number of activities to list?
The short answer is no. Quality over quantity. We have gotten kids into Ivy League schools who only have 3-4 activities listed, but they were devoted to those activities. However, other students will use all ten spots and also get into top schools.
You might be asking yourself, “well I did more than ten things! What do I do!?” There are two options here. The first is leaving some things off. If you haven’t been on the dodge ball team since freshman year, it really isn’t that important for colleges to know about. You don’t have to list everything you did, especially if you aren’t still doing it now.
The second option is grouping some experiences. For example, if you have done a bunch of volunteering at a lot of different places, you can lump those experiences under the same activity spot. Just use the umbrella of “volunteering” to talk about multiple instances. We wouldn’t advise listing this one first, but it can be on your list and show an interest without each experience taking over your whole section. We love using a Google doc here as well, because you have a blank space to list out all your activities and if the list starts getting too long you can start grouping experiences before you fill out the common app.
If you don’t have a ton of activities, that is fine as well. Just make sure that you show how important your activities are to you and that you devote time to them.
Can I list activities that I don’t do anymore?
The short answer here is yes. Sometimes an activity you did freshman and sophomore year doesn’t make it onto your junior and senior year calendar. You still did it and you can still list it. However, we don’t think you should ever list it first. If you stopped doing it, it just doesn’t seem like the most important thing to you.
One case where this is not true is if the reason you no longer do the activity is that it was stopped or paused due to COVID. If you were the president of the Cooking Club but it's on hiatus because the school district said it had to be, you get a bit of a pass. However, if you quit before the pandemic then you can list it, but it shouldn’t be in your top important activities.
The activities section isn’t the most creative, but it is direct. It doesn’t really give you enough space to write about what activities mean to you, only what they are and that you did them. This can make the section feel hard to sell yourself in. Don’t worry too much about selling your activities. This section is more about showing what you do in your free time. Knowing that you do badminton and work in a cafe and you have been teaching kids how to do pottery, gives colleges a better idea of who you are. It rounds you out as a person and not just a set of test scores. Just remember colleges know that the one time you volunteered at the soup kitchen for two hours isn’t the most important activity, don’t put it first.
Is the activities section still getting you down? We are always happy to help!