So, it’s time for you to fill out the dreaded activities section, huh? Hello there, hi, hey, and welcome to our virtual Common App support group. You’re in good company. Even though the Common App activities section is straightforward and short, it tends to cause applicants a decent amount of stress.
It’s time to talk about everyone’s least favorite and most annoying part of the Common App: the activities section. Why is it annoying? Well, first of all, they give you extremely limited space to talk about your extracurriculars. We’re talking less than half a tweet’s worth. Well, only if you’re a regular Twitter user and you don’t give Elon $8 a month, because then it’s like 1/100th of a tweet.
The Activities section of the Common App is deceivingly straightforward. It asks you to report 10 activities (arts, athletics, clubs, employment, personal commitments, and other pursuits) that are of importance to you. Of course you’re going to report everything that you’ve been up to for the last 3 and change years. This is not optional. Students and parents alike struggle with the activities supplement because you have to condense your activities into a few short sentences and rank them in terms of importance. Fear not. We’re here to help.
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.
We get a fair amount of questions about the activities section of the common app. Our first piece of advice is to start a running log (on a google document and a saved word file) of all of your extracurricular activities starting freshman year. If you’re reading this as a junior and missed the boat, it’s not too late. Think back and type out everything that you’ve done in order. This will be especially helpful when you start writing a resume.
Let’s talk about Charles. He does a lot of extracurricular activities. His commitments include: