The Common Application provides space for you to list up to 10 extracurricular activities. This section is prime real estate in your application, offering a snapshot of how you spend your time outside of class. It's crucial to be strategic and concise.
This guide will help you describe your activities in a way that highlights your impact and commitment.
What Counts as an Activity?
Almost anything you do outside of your coursework can be an activity. Think broadly!
- Obvious Choices: School clubs, sports teams, musical groups, student government.
- Less Obvious Choices:
- Jobs and Internships: Paid work shows responsibility.
- Family Responsibilities: Caring for a younger sibling or an elderly relative is a significant commitment.
- Hobbies: Independent interests like coding, writing a blog, learning an instrument, or creating art all count.
- Independent Research: Any research or projects you've done outside of school.
How to Describe Your Activities
You have very limited space: 50 characters for the position/leadership description and 150 characters for the main description.
- Use Strong Action Verbs: Start your descriptions with verbs. Instead of "I was a member of the team," write "Competed in regional tournaments and led team warmups."
- Quantify Your Impact: Numbers are powerful. They turn a vague statement into a concrete accomplishment.
- Instead of: "Raised money for charity."
- Try: "Organized a bake sale that raised over $500 for the local food bank."
- Be Specific and Avoid Jargon: Don't assume the reader knows the acronyms for your local clubs. Spell things out and be clear about your role.
- Focus on Accomplishments, Not Just Duties: What did you achieve? Did you solve a problem, lead a project, or create something new? As our guide to extracurriculars notes, impact matters more than just participation.
Ordering Your Activities
You can list up to 10 activities. How you order them sends a signal about what's most important to you.
- Lead with Your Strengths: Put your most impressive and long-term activities first. This is usually where you've had a leadership role or a significant, measurable impact.
- Group Similar Activities: If you have several related activities (e.g., three different community service projects), you can sometimes group them into a single entry to save space, but be careful not to dilute the impact of each.
- Use All 10 Spots (If You Can): It's better to show a range of interests than to leave spots blank, but don't add "filler" activities just to hit the limit. Quality over quantity.
Your activities list should complement the rest of your application. For more ideas on how to frame your experiences, you can reference the application resume guide to build a master list of your accomplishments.