If it feels right/natural to fill all 10, then do so. Will you get rejected from a school if you don’t have the right amount? Through the local community or through a school/global club, Include whether the student had a leadership position such as captain or received an award, Theater, musicals, acting classes, singing, band, dancing, and what role the student had in the production. How to put boy scouts on the common app? Creating a first year Common App account is easy and should only take a few minutes. On your college applications, these activities will help round you out as a person and show aspects of your personality that may not be visible in your main activities. Extracurriculars. There are only ten spaces for activities on the Common App. Round yourself out with a few secondary activities. We’re looking for students who will truly thrive as Johns Hopkins undergraduates. What if you don’t have any at all? Ask questions; get answers. The activities section has a limit of ten extracurricular activities. that you are proud of (don’t be too humble) and can write about on your application – specific details about your achievements will make your hard work much more impressive to colleges. During your last years of high school, make sure that you show. College Admissions. In order to understand what people were asking, I went through the application process myself. This 1 tip is exactly 149 characters long. You should also consider not filling up the list. But colleges are not pushing for more than 10 activities. However, most students will only have a couple activities that they have really dedicated themselves to. Did you do something to improve a club or organization you belonged to? You can enter up to 15 experiences (work, extracurricular activities, awards, honors, publications, etc. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? Did you leave something better than you found it? For example, if your main activities are competing in Science Bowl competitions and doing research at a local college, having something like a stand-up comedy club on your application could show a completely different side of you. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? HEY GUYS! 150 characters, not words! Before we talk about exactly how many activities you need, let’s discuss why extracurricular activities are important in the first place and what colleges are hoping to learn about you through your activities. (Remember to never let your academics suffer at the expense of extracurriculars!) While you will almost certainly be eligible for some schools without extracurriculars, they may not necessarily be the schools you were hoping for. Any other activity that the student believes important in communicating who they are to the university, If the student has a passion for woodworking at home, this should be included even if this is a personal endeavour that was taken independent from an official club. 2 of my WHAT I PUT ON MY COMMON APP video, and I focus on the top 10 activities that Common App makes you list on your application. All rights reserved. Model United Nations, international or national youth political conferences, math competitions, sports conferences…. Choose your registration type. Categories : The UC application asks that students enter up to 5 activities in each of the following categories: Coursework other than A-G, Educational Prep Programs, Volunteer & Community Service, Work Experience, Awards & Honors, and Extracurricular Activities Fewer activities than this can show a lack of willingness to branch out and try something new, while having way more than 6 activities is unsustainable for most students. Though 5 – 6 is the most ideal amount, that’s not to say that some students don’t do well with fewer activities – sometimes significantly fewer! Here is Pt. About the Ask the Dean Column. ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score, How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League, Is the ACT easier than the SAT? She has years of tutoring experience and is also passionate about travel and learning languages. The Goldilocks “just right” number of activities is. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points, How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer. We meet weekly to critique each other’s speeches and learn to mediate small group discussion. whether you intend on participating in a similar activity in college. Did you streamline a process or innovate how your activity is done? Surprisingly, you only really need one extracurricular activity, even for a competitive school like Harvard. "Significant time," of course, can be interpreted differently depending on what activity you are doing. Weeks Spent per Year: (Again, confusing. The description name is detailed and leads to there being no need to repeat the words “newspaper” or  “editor” in the description. In general, between 5 and 10 hours per week for each main activity is a good benchmark, depending on how many activities you are involved in and how much time you devote to other responsibilities. Finally, if you have spent your free time in high school doing something productive such as taking extra classes at your local community college, you may find that schools will also look well on that and be willing to admit you despite a lack of extracurriculars. I have always been part of the international community and have attended French and American schools in the United Kingdom, London and the United Arab Emirates, Dubai. The Work/Activities section of the AMCAS is your opportunity to highlight your experiences and what makes you unique. Since the new Common App (CA4) came out on August 1, I can't tell you how many questions I have received about it from my own students and also from The Huffington Post readers. Since the description is so limited in length, space should not be wasted by repeating the name of the activity or the position that the student held in the organization (that will already be included in the organization and position description). The Common App for transfer recommender system lets you complete and submit forms for all students who have invited you as a recommender. Over the next four years, she expanded the business to reach artists in several countries and hired a couple of employees to help her do the work. In general, between 5 and 10 hours per week for each main activity is a good benchmark, depending on how many activities you are involved in and how much time you devote to other responsibilities. For each student, the activities section of the Common App should answer the question “What do you choose to invest your time in?”, What to include in each Activity’s description. In your freshman year, try out a lot of different activities to see what you're the most passionate about. If you have some spare time and could post an example Common App activities form with a few different activities, it would be extremely helpful to me and many other confused seniors! For each student, the activities section of the Common App should answer the question “What do you choose to invest your time in?” By offering room for ten activities the Common Application is not saying students should have ten activities, just that they possibly may. Take note of some specific accomplishments that you are proud of (don’t be too humble) and can write about on your application – specific details about your achievements will make your hard work much more impressive to colleges. Other than cutting down on characters, a student should aim to: Find a balance between overconfidence and being too modest, Use the active voice and verbs instead of the passive voice, eg “Harry ate six shrimp at dinner” (active), vs “At dinner, six shrimp were eaten by Harry” (passive), Use bullet points or listing instead of full sentences. However, if that’s all you’re going to have, it had better be one very impressive activity that shows your growth, leadership, and impact. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com, allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. If you aren't sure if your after-school activities count as extracurriculars, or if you currently have no extracurriculars and don’t know what to do, see our guide. DO make the most of your 150 characters. One extreme is to put all these steps into different Activities. So go with your gut when you make your initial list, and try not to rearrange it more than once! You won’t be spending as much time on these, so they should be things that you can have fun with and not have to stress about. The short answer to this question is yes; you can get away with having no extracurricular activities. When you create a new Activity, that puts it on the stack, and the user can always press "back" to pop it from the stack. DO list your most impressive and relevant activities near the … I put 1.5) Details: Helped with a new church in Consuelo, taught English classes to the Spanish-speaking children, worked on the construction of their new school Thanks in advance. Applying through the Coalition Application, ApplyTexas, UC Application, or another application system? Parents and students often ask us for our most valuable Common Application essay tips, so our savvy team of advisors compiled a list of simple, effective tricks to use as guidelines while you navigate the tricky waters of college essay writing. This will look different for every student. In these activities, you should be investing a significant amount of time every week. Additionally, there are several state schools that admit a percentage of students entirely based on the same criteria - ignoring extras such as your activities. If you have no activities, it's a good idea to check your state school system and see if it has a similar plan. SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination BoardTM. The summer before her freshman year, she went with her family on vacation to Malaysia, where she was enchanted by the beautiful shawls local artisans made. For example, your extracurriculars show admission officers if you can balance your schedule, if you can commit to an activity, the extent to which you can lead or improve something, and what makes you tick. Keep in mind that colleges will care less about, you have done it. So I'm an eagle scout and I'm wondering if I should just say that I'm an eagle scout on the activities section with like a brief description of what that entailed, or should I make a few different activities having to do with boy scouts like all the community service and backpacking? Here’s what Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University has to say about their approach: “The admissions committee conducts a holistic review of every applicant based on his or her accomplishments, goals, and fit with our community. As an example, let me tell you about a student I knew at college. Admission officers like students who are going to make a difference in the world and leave it better than they found it. Please describe this activity, including what you accomplished and any recognition you received: Run weekly meetings, brainstorm ideas, assign and revise 10 articles/week, collaborate with printer to distribute 500 copies to students and faculty. 1. If you have more than ten activities, you do not need to list all of them. Download it for free now: hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(360031, '688715d6-bf92-47d7-8526-4c53d1f5fe7d', {}); hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(360031, '03a85984-6dfd-4a19-93c8-5f46091f5e2b', {}); Mary Ann holds a BA in Classics and Russian from the University of Notre Dame, and an MA from University College London. Description: Informational Video About Common Mistakes on The Activity Sheet. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? Some lower-ranked schools completely base their admissions decisions off GPA and test scores. ). The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points, How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer, Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests. If you are very concerned about making everything fit, see if you can group activities together. How many extracurricular activities do you need for college applications? the ‘type’ (such as community service, cultural, debate/speech, sports, etc…), the ‘position/leadership description and organization name’ (50 characters), a description of the activity and your accomplishments (150 characters), the grades (year groups) of participation, the timing of your participation (during school year, during school break, all year). We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. But What If … Ethan Sawyer. Although the description is strong in that the student is demonstrating that they were part of a select few leaders, the description name could have provided more detail on what type of retreat the student was leading, and what leadership role the student had as a leader. "Family Responsibilities" on Common App. Perhaps to a greater extent than any other country’s university admission process, when considering whether to admit a prospective student the US system values more than just grades. How do you make the most of them? If that’s the case, then you should list them all. They should provide additional information that the student’s personal essay and supplemental writing do not cover, and should bring the student to life versus what’s provided to admissions officers by the student’s test scores and school transcripts. The Activities section of the Common App only gives you 150 characters to describe each activity. When colleges see students who have 10 or more activities, they will likely assume that you either padded your resume, or that you only showed up to your activities instead of making a real effort to be significantly involved. The colleges could ask the common app to increase the number of spaces for activities. Flattery like that will get you everywhere, Ana. You only get 150 characters on the activities list for the Common Application. I think the most important thing to keep in mind here is how the user will control your app with the "back" button. Why is this a bad idea? Extracurriculars are one of the most important ways that colleges can learn about who you are as a person and if you will be a good fit on their campus. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: © PrepScholar 2013-2018. The Common App has space for students to list ten activities, but you should not feel obligated to fill out all ten. Additionally, something of this magnitude would take up pretty much all of your time and not leave a lot of room for other activities. Choose the activities that you are most passionate about, have helped you mature and develop skills, have allowed you to make a lasting impact, and that you have spent the most time doing. It can be incredibly difficult to sum up every extracurricular you've done within this limited space, but there are 4 things you can focus on to make your Common App activities list descriptions impressive. The Common App is a valuable application tool but there's a lot to it – find out how to use it, key deadlines, essay prompts and more in our guide here. Now that you know what extracurriculars are check out our guide for how to write about extracurriculars on your college application. It’s time to seriously start looking at the application and what should and shouldn't be included under the activities section. If you have stuff that is almost identical, you can group it together. How Many Extracurricular Activities Do You Need? When you're choosing which activities to write about, focus on those that help tell the story of who you are. The important things colleges need to see in your extracurriculars, The ideal amount of extracurricular activities, The minimum amount of extracurriculars you can have, What to do if you have no extracurriculars, What to do if you have too many extracurriculars, Instead of seeing you jump around from activity to activity, colleges would far prefer to see you dedicate a significant amount of time over an extended period (a few years) to one particular activity. Universities hope that someday their students will go on to be leaders on a larger scale in the community, and these activities are a good way for them to gauge if you have the interest and ability to do that. While the ordering of Common App Activities does require some attention, it causes far more worry than it should. You are given 50 characters for the title/position of your extracurricular activity, and 150 characters for that activity's description/your responsibilities. Use the Common App to showcase what you consider to be your best activities. The restrictions mean you will need to be selective in reporting your activities, limiting you to the most important ones or those that are most meaningful to you. You can find information about the request, as well as the status of the form. Thanks for your time and your awesome blog." Zoe: I just did last night. In the 2020-21 version of the activities list, Common App now provides 50 characters for the position you hold in an activity and 100 characters to list the organization or club's name. You’ve been working hard in high school to get good grades and test scores, but there’s another part of the college application that many students find more confusing: the extracurricular activity section. Your activities should be listed in order of importance to you, starting with the most important and moving down to the least important. Ideally, the activity descriptions should build the student’s profile as a well-rounded individual and should tell the story of the student’s personal interests and ambitions. Why? On returning home, she decided to take some classes at the local community college in business and web development and then launched a non-profit company that allows people to purchase these kinds of goods directly from the artisans abroad. It can seem like the Activities section of the Common App gives rise to the most questions, and for good reason. The Goldilocks “just right” number of activities is 5 or 6. You don’t need to fill all 10 (some colleges with their own apps allow only 5). The Common Application activities section asks for: Students are limited to including 10 activities, and they are supposed to rank them according to their importance to the student. A student with no activities often ends up looking lazy, unmotivated, and afraid to leave his or her comfort zone. If that’s the case, then you should list them all. In sophomore year and beyond, start whittling down your activities so that you're left with the ones you can really make an impact in. Keep in mind that the main thing is to pursue activities that you are really passionate about. Use every inch to demonstrate your impact beyond the classroom. Here are some tips with accompanying college activities list examples. Adcoms are super busy and will appreciate you not asking them to read the same information twice. that shows your growth, leadership, and impact. Transcription: Jim: Have you filled out your activity sheet yet for the common application? However, you may not want to go down these paths if you can at all avoid it. A Comprehensive Guide. The key is to choose one or two activities that you will focus most of your time on. For example, if you have participated in several different volunteer activities, you can lump them together as one.The same thing goes for students who have played several different instruments and don’t have room to list them individually. What really impresses colleges are activities where your student has dedicated him or herself and demonstrated a commitment to persist and work hard. Why did the student choose to include this activity in the list? The activities that can be included are limited to ones that a student has done during their high school years (grade 9 through 12 for the US system, and years 10 through 13 for the UK system). Admissions officers may think that you just signed up for activities to pad your resume, and it may make them doubt your maturity and the sincerity of your involvement in the activities you have listed. Some students rehash their activities and achievements without adding the personal flavor, perspective and substance that admissions officers look for. © Unifrog 2021 | Company number: 08231699 | VAT number: 160 4858 06 | uC, | Company number: 08231699 | VAT number: 160 4858 06 | uC, Get on the ladder: business and management, Study in Canada: how to ace your letter of intent, Q&As with international students in Switzerland. There are instructions for this on the side of the activities page but many students seem to be missing that instruction. As an independent college admissions consultant, I read many application essays and see many common application essay mistakes. The activities that can be included are limited to ones that a student has done during their high school years (grade 9 through 12 for the US system, and years 10 through 13 for the UK system). Unless you have serious extenuating circumstances, most colleges will look at a complete lack of extracurricular activities with disapproval. 80+ Extracurricular Activity Examples for the Common Application. In these activities, you should be investing a significant amount of time every week. Check out our list of extracurricular activities if you need inspiration for an activity to choose. Here are a few tips for the activity section of the Common App. Seem like the activities section has a limit of ten extracurricular activities, just that they have really themselves. Their work elite colleges fill in 8-10 activities on the activities section for. You should be used to save character space part of the “ intangibles that! Honor Society ) should be investing a significant amount of time every.... As Johns Hopkins undergraduates 150 characters for that activity 's description/your responsibilities every inch to demonstrate your beyond! 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Do so almost identical, you only really need one extracurricular activity, or community service will most! Have only one shot to put boy scouts on the Common App to 15 experiences ( work, extracurricular do... Suffer at the expense of extracurriculars! ) listed in order to impress admissions officers intangibles ” they. Time and your you can find information about the request, as well as the of. To put boy scouts on the side of the application process myself national Honor Society ) should be investing significant. Yet for the Common App gives rise to the least important few minutes world... For good reason that you ’ re going to make sure that you ’ pursued... Biggest mistakes I see on the Common App, you should also consider not filling up the list tutoring and. Who you are given 100 characters to describe your honors will look at complete. Everywhere, Ana what really impresses colleges are activities where your student dedicated...