Every admission cycle, students ask us how exactly they should fill out the activities list section of the Common App. And honestly, it's a really great question. And that's why today, I will be sharing our top 8 tips to help you knock this activities list section out of the park.
Before we begin, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Kevin Zen. Yale grad and co-founder of The Elevated School, where we focus on critical thinking and storytelling.
Here at Elevate Ed, we teach middle schoolers creative writing, analytical writing for high schoolers, college essays, you name it. We also help with transfer applications, interview workshops, resumes, applying to prestigious boarding schools, or summer programs. If you need help in any of those categories at all, visit our website, shoot us a message.
I personally respond to every single request. Returning to the activity section, let's begin by reviewing everything that the Common App asks for here. So first off, we have activity type, and then position slash leadership description, max 50 characters, organization name, max 100 characters, accomplishments, recognition, and a description of the activity, 150 characters, participation grade levels, timing of participation, hours spent per week, weeks spent per year, and finally, last but not least, a yes no button that says I intend to participate in a similar activity in college. This brings me directly to our first tip which is in relation to that yes no checkbox. Tip number one, be consistent.
If in your essays you mention that you want to study biology and go to med school after graduating then it's going to be a good idea to check yes for all the activities related to medicine. Even the slightly tangential ones related to research or volunteering should have that Yes, I intend to do something similar in college, check. Sounds a little bit obvious, but it could be a red flag if you skip this. Now, returning to all those different entries from the activity section. The three most important ones that we are going to focus on are the three longest ones.
Position slash leadership description, organization name, and accomplishments, recognition, description of the activity. The next tip that I'm going to mention is probably the most important one. Tip number two, make every.
single character count. What does this actually look like? Well, here's an example.
Most students leave way too much empty space for that first 50 character response in that position slash leadership description. Sometimes students just write one word for their current position, like president or head. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't forget to stay all the other leadership positions, both informal and formal, that you held as part of this organization. So rather than just jotting down that one word, president, you could write senior class president 12, which means grade 12, and elections committee head 11 for grade 11. This helps showcase more of your trajectory within the organization, which is pretty much always a good thing.
It also highlights the fact that you've worn multiple hats and made different contributions all while being part of the same organization. Now, if you didn't hold any other leadership positions, don't worry, that's totally fine. Another approach that you can take is to get really hyper specific.
Detail what exactly your contributions and responsibilities were. So instead of just writing intern, you could write social media marketing intern SEO optimization. Or instead of simply saying researcher, you could say genetic basis identification researcher. Why is this so important?
Because this will give you more space to write about your accomplishments and recognitions in the next section, which again, you're going to want to use all 150 characters for. Moving on to organization name. Same principle here, my friends.
Don't just state the title or name of your organization. Try to include a brief description if you can. Compare these two organization names. One, student council. Two, student council, oldest withstanding club and currently largest school organization with 300 plus active members.
Here's another example. One, UVACC lab. And two, University of Virginia clinical core lab, hematology.
and immunochemistry analysis. This leads us to tip number three, a small but important one that's been cited by many ivy league admissions officers. When in doubt, spell out your acronyms. Don't assume that the admissions reader knows what they are. This is especially relevant for international applicants.
The fact is that American admissions officers just aren't as familiar with your honors, awards, and school system as they are with American honors, awards, and the American. education system. So trust me when I say you're really going to want to spell it out for them.
Literally. Okay, next we're going to move on to the most important part of the activity section. But first, let's enjoy a quick break. Nice.
I hope you guys enjoyed that clip when I'm not helping kids get into their dream school or making YouTube videos. You could usually find me spitting on my head. Okay, so before we continue, a lot of students often ask, how should I order my activities? Phenomenal question. Simply consider the total number of hours that you've put into this extracurricular.
That's hours per week times weeks per year times total years participated. Also, don't forget to consider the impact you've had on others. How many people in total have you helped? And how exactly did you help them?
Yes, yeah, sure. There are other factors to consider like whether you'll continue doing this activity in college as well as the honors and awards associated with this particular extracurricular activity. However, doing a raw hour count and just quantifying the impact tends to be the easiest, most straightforward, most objective way to figure out a ranking. Now, onto the most important part, that 150 character description.
This is where you're going to detail your accomplishments, achievements, and more. I do have quite a few thoughts and pieces of advice here, but I figured... I would start with verbs.
Use strong verbs and when you can try using fewer verbs. Instead of writing something like I am responsible for running swim practices, planning fundraising events, and assisting in the recruiting process for new swimmers, which was a little bit repetitive, let's try something like this. Led 5am practices three times a week.
Organized 12 fundraisers total over 2k. Recruited 18 new swimmers in six weeks through word of mouth referral campaign. Oh my goodness, what a difference, right?
Now, I'll keep this example up because another thing I want you guys to notice are the numbers. Numbers are your friend. Numbers communicate big impact in very few characters, which is why we should try to utilize them whenever we can. Naturally, this does pose another question, which is, you know, what if I don't have much to say about a one-time event or activity? Let's pretend that you are writing about a tutoring initiative project that you were a part of back in the day.
Let's say, when you were a freshman in grade nine. You can still get really really specific and improve your chances of getting into whichever school you want to get into by adding color, personality, flavor, and humor instead of writing tutored fourth graders in math. You can actually go for something more like I taught fourth graders how to multiply fractions. They taught me how to play roblox on an iPad. Now don't get me wrong, this is definitely more of a high risk high reward play.
But when done properly, it can make a huge difference. It's an especially helpful tactic for those lower ranked activities like 7 through 10. So tip number six, in other words, is don't be afraid to add color and personality to your activity descriptions. Just make sure that you, you know, run it by an adult or friend or counselor before you actually hit that submit button. Moving on to tip number seven, which is something I really haven't heard other counselors talk about. It's more of a hack than a tip really.
But most of the seniors that I work with aren't aware that you can actually put all of the honors and awards that are related to a certain activity in the additional information section of the Common App. In fact, most kids leave this additional information section blank, which is kind of a mistake in my professional opinion. Here's the thing. Sometimes I find myself really lucky and privileged, and I'm working with these amazing high schoolers who just have a bunch of awards and accolades that are related to one specific activity. If you find yourself in a similar boat, I actually wouldn't just flood the activity description section with all of your awards.
No, I'd put maybe your most impressive award and then just put the rest in the additional information section. Admission officers want to see more tangible impact and leadership in the activity description, not just a bunch of fancy sounding awards. Although, you know, to be honest, fancy sounding awards are never really a bad thing. Finally, tip number eight. the most important one.
Do not do this. Never, ever exaggerate in your activities list, especially in the hours per week, weeks per year part. Trust me, your admissions reader will do the math.
And if the numbers are sus, if they don't add up, if you have too many hours for too many activities, that is a sound of an alarm going off. In some extreme cases, this could be the difference between admission and rejection. Ending on a serious note, do not give them a reason to doubt your authenticity or character. Alrighty folks, that is it for today. I hope you found today's video helpful, you enjoyed it.
We make this content for you. And yeah, don't forget to like and subscribe. Again, I'm Kevin Zen, co-founder of The Elevated School. I will catch you at the next one. Alright, stay out of trouble.
Take it easy. Pa-pa-pa-pa-peace.