The extracurricular activities section of the application is where you want to brag about everything you've done during high school outside of academics, and make colleges want to accept you before someone else does. It's a tight space to navigate with strict character limits so take the time to complete it well. You want to show them you can lead, be a team player, add to their campus with your special talents, but yet you also don't want to be obnoxious about it. Here's what I share with my students.
What to include:
This section provides readers with a quick, holistic view of your achievements, and the breadth and depth of your activities outside the classroom. Schools want to learn what you do when you aren’t in school, what matters to you, what takes up your time outside of academics, this section allows you to tell them this.
Only activities from high school, including summers.
Jobs? YES!! Schools love jobs, they show commitment, ability to do things that might not be so "glamorous," working with others, responding to the needs of various constituents, and other real life skills.
Acting in plays, Model UN, Mock Trial, Honors clubs, teaching roles (including assistant teaching during school), learning an instrument, and other similar activities.
You can include babysitting (but describe what you did and if possible how you benefited the child and/or the parents). For example: taught the child to swim, picked up child from preschool allowing parents to cook dinner or work late, or zoomed with student to help them with math.
If you help care for a family member, in a meaningful manner include this as an activity.
What is asked:
The section has these required fields, including fields indicating the timeframe in which you participated (ONLY list activities you participated in during high school), be truthful here, embellishing is never a good idea.
Activity or Experience Type: Select the best match from the drop down list or 30 options. At the end is an "Other" if your activity doesn't fit into one of the given categories.
Description: This field has a 150 character limit, be concise and descriptive, but just listing your activities and achievements isn’t enough. How you describe them and the order in which you present them is important, a few pointers:
Quantify when possible. If you won first prize at a city-wide art fair for students grades 9 – 12 where there were 100 artists, say so. If your film was selected to show at a film festival open to professionals and students, say so.
Use impactful language and tell the whole story.
Not so good: “I ran the production of Hamlet for my High School.”
Much better: “Selected by my peers to produce Hamlet. Motivated and organized 25 students in back and front of house and on stage.”
Explain what you accomplished.
Not so good: “I organized an art show at my local children’s hospital”
Much better: “Organized an art show at Children’s Hospital exhibiting works of 50 student artists raising $1,500 to buy presents for patients.”
Yes, you can list activities that are personal. If you cared for a relative, learned a new language, started a pet sitting business, or learned to play an instrument, tell admissions!
For example: "Cared for my elderly grandmother, learning through her stories about my uncle who was a Brazilian drummer leading to my interest in native music."
For example: "Taught myself Korean language and culture using YouTube and Duolingo to prepare for my exchange student from Seoul’s three month stay with my family."
A few tips: Because the description field is only 150 characters, write in “resume” format.
Use short phrases and start description sentences with active words and leave off "I" as it is understood it is you.
Only use very well recognized abbreviations such as MVP (Most Valuable Player). Reality check... if your friend has to google the abbreviation don't use it.
If you know you will participate in 12th grade, and you know your role (ie Team Captain, Stage Manager) you can use this as the greatest leadership position and indicate you will participate in 12th grade.
Put your proudest, most meaningful achievements first, and combine activities for the same organization if it makes sense.
You can list up to 10 activities but don't feel as though you have to stretch to get to 10. If you have eight great activities write them well and don't feel you need to add "fluff" to get to 10. Some great applicants have had "only" six stellar activities.
Always quantify your achievements even if they don't seem major to you.
Not so good: Collected money for the local food bank.
Much Better: Led my Girl Scout troop to collect $1,000 and 50 bags of food donations for the local food bank for homeless veterans.
Not so good: Brass Section Lead senior year.
Much Better: Selected by band leader from 6 senior brass instrumentalists to lead brass section, comprised of 10 students playing three different instruments.
Organization or Group: Be specific, and indicate the acronym if space allows, so you can use it if needed in the description of the activity below. If the group is local and you have the characters indicate the city and state, you can abbreviate. (100 characters)
Did you have a specific position or leadership role?: This is a check box, many (many) students check “no”, that is totally ok, some activities don’t have a role.
Role: Be as specific as possible. If you participated in an activity for multiple years list the most recent/most accomplished position you held. (50 characters)
When did you participate: If you participated the summer between 9th and 10th grades, check 10th grade.
During High School, time of year: You must select one option.
Hours spent per week and Weeks spent per year: This can be tricky, you have to give your best guess as the field only allows for numbers, the help text says to indicate how many hours during the busiest time of the activity.
Does order matter?
List your most impressive achievements first. In general we advise listing your activities from most selective to least selective/distinctive. Some admissions teams don’t have time to read all your activities, make sure they read the most important ones first.
Key leadership positions: Lead roles in student government, plays, awards from art exhibits, presentations, performances, teams, or any activities where you had a leadership role.
Distinctions: Roles of distinction such as Treasurer of the Film Club.
Involvement: Volunteer and participatory activities which tell readers who you are outside your academic coursework especially if they are in areas relating to your intended major.
Note: The University of California application's activity section allows for 20 activities/awards and 350 characters to describe each activity.
Honors and Awards are listed in the Education section. If you won an award, such as scholastic, you do not need to use an activity slot for that participation, you can indicate your award in this section instead.
You do not need to indicate that you will participate in college, this is for their information, it will not effect your acceptance.
Always write your activities in a google doc so you can spell check and carefully edit your writing, then copy the final text into your application. Ask someone who is familiar with resumes to edit your descriptions, due to strict character limits, this section is most successful if written in resume format.
Time in this section is well spent, don’t leave it to the last minute!
Note: If you're not a senior, start keeping track of your activities now, it will make completing this section so much easier.
If you need help with your college applications schedule a meeting today, we’re here to help you.