. Dont include honors and awards just for the sake of including them. Describe your title to the best of your ability here - this can be as simple as Volunteer or Club Member. However, try to get specific when you can! For example, if you were Student Council Vice President freshman year and a class representative the other three years, list these out as: Vice President (1 yr), Class Representative (3 yrs). Activities like working a part-time job, or caring for a family member also count. Each year, more than one million students a third of . A lot of schools have specific questions that they want to ask about your interest in their campus and course offerings specifically. hbspt.forms.create({ portalId: "5109206",formId: "86b53e9c-69d7-4dd9-9e2e-c23476e9a906"}); Youre an excited high school senior ready to embark on the scary but thrilling journey of college applications, and then you encounter something known as the, . Promoting access, equity, and integrity, in the college admissions process for all students. Keep in mind that this was. The activities section has a limit of ten extracurricular activities. If you are a leader in the activity, mention how many members the group has, how many people you serve (if applicable), how many people your work affected, and so on. The Common App COVID-19 question speaks for itself. Member of most advanced ensemble, led sectionals to teach difficult passages, performed five concerts per year. The key is as follows: If you participated in an activity over the summer between grade levels, choose the rising or later grade level (e.g., the summer between 10th and 11th grades should be listed as 11th grade). What prompted your thinking? This section asks for your country of birth, city of birth, and how many years youve lived in and outside the United States. Within 250 words, you have the opportunity to inform colleges whether the Coronavirus outbreak and social distancing protocols affected your health, family life, and learning abilities. Common App Activities List vs. UC Activities List. Good luck! Its important to craft your activities list descriptions in such a way that they relate to your hook, as well as to your academic and career goals. For example, if you are interested in the biomolecular sciences and cancer research and decide this will be your hook, you should be able to demonstrate that interest through activities like working as a professors research assistant at a medical school, taking related classes at a college or university, or writing about cancer research-related topics in your school newspaper. You can always come back to this guide for tips and tricks, as well as visit any of the blogs linked on this blog to get more detailed information on how to approach each section. Colleges may give your name to members of a club, organization, or activity in which you participate so they can follow up with you, but you are by no means bound to joining when you begin college (unless, of course, you are accepted on an athletic or other scholarship that requires your participation in a certain activity). Is the Activities List important for college admissions? However, If you experienced bigger problems as a result of the pandemic, provide context for your circumstances, whether its unemployment or lack of learning resources at home. Greet and direct visitors at information desk and coat check. Hover over each hot spot to learn more about each field. These questions can help you narrow down which activities to include, since you should only be adding the ones to which you are truly dedicated. It will not make or break your application. To some degree, they also want to see that you are doing the activity because you are truly passionate about it, not just because you want to impress colleges. Admission officers want to see your academic track record, and what classes you have taken at different levels. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the Common Application! To recap, lets go over the basic dos and donts for the Common App honors section: This easy scholarship is open to all US-based high school, college, and graduate students! The Common Application offers a drop-down menu with the following activities from which to select: For each activity you include on your application, choose the appropriate category. The Activities section allows you to write about up to ten activities that youve participated in throughout high school. You will have a chance to indicate the timing of the activity during school year, school break, or all year and colleges will take that into consideration when evaluating the activity. Be sure to specify whether or not your position changed over time by notating the grade levels next to the position name in parenthesis, like so: Member (9th, 10th), Vice President (11th, 12th), Gallery Assistant (9th, 10th), Curatorial Intern (11th), It is possible that your organizations name takes up all of the allotted characters, but if it doesnt, take advantage of the extra space to include relevant information. The Profile section asks for: If you qualify for the fee waiver, dont hesitate to check the box. How to fill out the Common App Activities section. The Common Application is a streamlined application service. The religious preferences drop-down menu includes many different practices along with none. Listing your religion will not hurt your chances of getting into college. How Spirit can keep your community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic . Since the list is fairly broad, you will probably find that your activity fits into at least one of the sections available. With the hours, make sure you are being reasonable, even if it might be difficult to put down the exact hours if there is not a consistent number. Colleges want to know this kind of information so that they can understand the factors affecting your performance and opportunities this past semester. Each piece of content on the site is original, based on extensive research, and reviewed by multiple editors, including a subject matter expert. , make sure you have all of the information with you. They want to know that you have researched the school and that you are genuinely interested. For more information about how colleges filter applicants, check out our post on the, While extracurriculars might seem subjective, colleges are methodical in their evaluation of them. We know that it can be tough to describe your accomplishments in such a tiny amount of space, so well provide some advice for that later on. Keep in mind that this was a global crisis. Always be as specific as possible in these essays. You should also be specific in defining the organization. If you absolutely need more room to thoroughly explain truly important details about the activity, use the additional information section to expand, or describe it in more detail in your essay if it relates to the topic you choose. Instead of dabbling in a little bit of everything, we encourage our students to delve deep into activities they are particularly passionate about. , but you probably dont want to choose the same category for every activity. You only get 150 characters to sum up each activity, so make sure you are optimizing the space by summarizing your role and impact in each activity. While many of these extracurricular activities are fairly general, such as Academic and School Spirit, a few of them refer to specific positions or organizations. Today, students can use the Common App to apply to over 1,000 colleges and universities. As the application evolved over time from a paper application to online, the core of Common Apps principles has never changed promoting access, equity, and integrity, in the college admissions process for all students. Intrinsic to these principles is the promotion of fair, transparent, straightforward, and consistent practices in admissions. The majority of national universities and liberal arts colleges that are ranked in the top 100 by U.S. News (i.e., the schools listed below) accept the . Always be as specific as possible in these essays. The CommonSpirit Events app is you The satire in the fourth Voyage has been considered most distinctively Swiftian, The standard length of a residency personal statement is one page in ERAS, which equals anywhere from 500-800 words. . as early as possible. When choosing your topic, it is very important to remember that the admissions officer will be reading thousands of applications. Try not to feel too overwhelmed college applications take a lot of work, but the reward is well worth it. Having a well-written personal statement can be tough, especially when you are a high school student used to writing five-paragraph-essays. The activities list is the part of the college applicationeither on the Common Application, Coalition Application or the UC system applicationwhere you can list and describe your extracurricular activities. Explore the list of common app schools to build your list of colleges to apply to . Be sure to prioritize personal importance over quantity of time. Be sure to include weeks for preseason or tryouts and auditions in your final number! The contact details section lets you add your preferred phone number, as well as any alternate numbers where you can be reached. It also lets you elaborate more on your gender identity if you dont identify as male or female. Note that even if a school does not require Courses & Grades on the Common App, all of your high school transcripts go to each school. They want to know that you have researched the school and that you are genuinely interested. It is very important that your description should make clear what your specific impact or contribution is or was, as opposed to what the organizations members did as a group. Be sure to include the following information: the name of the award, what the award was for (community service, for example), and if applicable, what place you received (1st, Bronze, etc). This section is not a place to extend your personal essay or add to your activities list. Whereas the Common App Essay will show college admissions committees who your child is, the Common App Activities section will allow colleges to understand what your child has done and is doing outside of the classroom, offering one of the best opportunities to stand out among other applicants. Narrate your story by. Instead of filling out the same general informationlike your address, GPA, and extracurriculars a dozen times, you only have to do it once. If not, select Other Club/Activity and identify it in the Position/Leadership description and organization name section. Your activities list is the key place you can demonstrate your hook to admissions officers. You will also want to jot down the years youve been involved in the activity in terms of grade levels. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? asks you how many times you took the standardized test of your choice. Narrate your story by showing the reader your personality and emotions instead of telling. To fill out the Common Application, make sure you have all of the information with you. The application asks this because colleges want to know what kind of student you will be when you arrive. In this case, unless the position and organization names are fairly self-explanatory or very recognizable, you will need to be a bit more specific in your description. Do not write about middle school achievements, about others achievements, or try to accomplish too much. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. Lets take it one step further. As an applicant, there are some important choices you have to make here. How do you complete it. . If you participate in a club, define your role, rather than just listing member. If you participated in an activity for multiple years and have had multiple roles within it,list your roles in order of importance rather than chronologically. Team placed 1st in division and advanced to state semifinals. The honors section is an excellent way for, Membership in your schools chapter of National Honor Society, Outstanding achievement in a particular subject, Write each number instead of spelling it out, Abbreviate (but only for well-known organizations), In eleventh grade, I won first place in the North Carolina Youth and Government competition for writing and defending a bill on raising the minimum wage. Sports seasons can be divided into fall (September-November), Winter (November/December-February), and Spring (March-June). Be sure to list your Honors and Awards in descending order of recognition, listing your international awards first, followed by national, state/regional and school. In the description itself, use strong verbs and be as specific as possible. Some colleges have a, which allows you to pick each of your top sub scores and combine into one superscore if you have taken a standardized test multiple times. You should ask them as early as the end of your junior year, or at the beginning of your senior year. The Common Application Honors List is separate from the Activities Listit can be found under the Education Section of the Common Application. Be as descriptive as possible within the confines of the character limit, and avoid acronyms or abbreviations if possible. If you need to add more activities, use the additional information section or your essays. Within the Common App is your main essay, a primary writing sample that all your prospective schools will read to evaluate your critical thinking skills and value as a student. If you visited campus, write about what you enjoyed. The honors section of the Common App is reserved for you to list your academic honors and awards. If you are having trouble estimating your time commitment, try keeping a time log for a couple weeks and provide an average. Organized inaugural Green Week with themed activities and prizes. . Also see:Coalition vs Common App: Whats the difference? If the activity fits into two equally specific categories, choose the more relevant one. The Common App dashboard also helps you track necessary application documents (like your . While the honors section certainly wont make or break your application, it can really help you stand out if properly utilized. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you. Some colleges have a superscore policy, which allows you to pick each of your top sub scores and combine into one superscore if you have taken a standardized test multiple times. You can use acronyms and abbreviations when referring to well-known organizations like the NAACP, or if you use the same abbreviation throughout, like LA for Las Angeles. However, if its not obvious what the organization does from its name or abbreviation, add a little context. Many schools allow score choice - where you are able to choose which SAT and ACT scores to report. Rather, describe your impact as an editor. Activities that you can include on this list are: sports, community service, employment, religious activities (such as teaching Sunday school), internships (paid or unpaid), arts, hobbies (for example, biking or stacking competitions), school clubs, academic competitions, and basically anything else that you spend time doing outside of school. As you think about your response, remember that it is valuable to talk about how youve moved forward. Admissions officers always look to see whether a students selections for their intended majors align with their hook and Activities List, and in this case, this Activities List would best complement an intended double-major in Environmental Science and Studio Art. is the Profile section. Be ready for the world. Work shifts at gift shop and assist customers with check out and locating merchandise. Do not rush through these details. The question thus sets a context for your entire application process. Even though you spend much more time running the clinics than you spent hosting the equipment drive, you place the drive further up on your activities list because it was more meaningful to you. This section matters because admissions officers at most colleges read applications geographically. Be honest in your answer, and if youve done well despite the circumstances, admissions officers will certainly make note of it. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. You do not have to be fluent in a language to add it to your. You do this through the drop down list of 30 classifications for your activities. List your activities in order of importance. Filling out the Common App can be a very involved process. These are examples of strong activity descriptions because they provide a large amount of information in a few words. You may use the space below to provide any additional information you wish to share. Plans made in high school often change, and that is okay. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. Dont forget to edit and proofread. An example of a weaker response would be: Description: Helped patients and doctors. You can then start adding your school list and going through the sections to understand the requirements for each. They can also include supplemental essays, usually asking why you want to attend their school. Why does it captivate you? Well give you more tips and tricks about crafting your activities list below, but lets start by discussing. You will want to provide context for awards or opportunities that are selective. Zach Skillings is the Scholarships360 Newsletter Editor. It celebrates successes and creates a sense of togetherness. The Common App allows you to apply to multiple schools at once. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. You might have fallen ill yourselfor had to take on added responsibilities in your family because your parents were sick. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. This is not to say that you cant join a new club as a junior or senior, you definitely can! If you participated during the school year and during school breaks, check off both During school year and During school break. If you participated in the activity during the school year, during the school breaks, and during the summer, check off All year.. For more information about how colleges filter applicants, check out our post on the Academic Index. (99 characters), Winner, R.J. Simmons Award for Community Service, performed 100+ hours of service work, Grade: 10. The Honors section allows you to show a snapshot of how you excelled on a local, national, or international level. If you are a leader in the activity, mention how many members the group has, how many people you serve (if applicable), how many people your work affected, and so on. Show them how youve grown stronger or how your topic has changed your perspective. . Y/N. Your teacher or counselor cannot write a stellar recommendation on the spot if you only give them a days notice. Apply to our $10,000 No Essay Scholarship! Courses & Grades - This section is self-explanatory. As a result, this section only becomes available if you select one of the schools on the list. LGBT This enables you to have a certain degree of agency as to which scores colleges see. Well let you know if your profile is competitive for your dream schools and give you tips on improving your profile! Intrinsic to these principles is the promotion of fair, transparent, straightforward, and consistent practices in . Keep in mind that the term "academic" is used pretty loosely in this context. Currently, due to COVID-19, standardized tests have become optional in many schools. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the. The purpose of the robot reflects the applicants Application Persona as a student who is interested in engineering and passionate about social justice. Within 250 words, you have the opportunity to inform colleges whether the Coronavirus outbreak and social distancing protocols affected your health, family life, and learning abilities. So by answering yes to this question, you are merely indicating that you are interested in continuing the activity. The Common App began as a way to simplify the college application process for both domestic and international students. Youll want to begin this process by compiling a list of all the activities that you have been involved in throughout high school. As daunting as all of the sections of the, might seem, if done right, it can help ease the process. Since there are exactly five slots, if you have more than five awards, prioritize your achievements, and list the most unique and impressive ones. You can find a complete list of our partners here. However, If you experienced bigger problems as a result of the pandemic, provide context for your circumstances, whether its unemployment or lack of learning resources at home. The options include: Academic Art Athletics: Club Athletics: JV/Varsity Career-Oriented Community Service (Volunteer) Computer/Technology Cultural Dance Debate/Speech Environmental Family Responsibilities Foreign Exchange Journalism/Publication School spirit looks like teamwork. However, you should only do so if these activities are truly essential to the admissions committees, understanding of your extracurricular life. Show them how youve grown stronger or how your topic has changed your perspective. Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Your teachers, guidance counselors, and other recommenders can submit their letters of recommendation directly on the Common Appyou will invite them to contribute through the application platform. You want to stand out, you want to tell your story, and share some of your biggest passions and important parts of your life. Why is it important? The Honors Section will prompt you to fill out 3 fields. The college application is a big deal. These lack the distinction of Tier 1 and 2, but still highlight students interests. Write the title of the award and add details when possible! How can you take advantage of the prompt to provide your reader with a sense of your personal growth? From there, you can calculate how many weeks you participated in a sport or school-affiliated extracurricular activity. Lastly, the fact that this student is an accomplished student-athlete speaks to her ability to manage her time effectively and develop an impressive and diverse variety of skills. Biden quoted the teacher in saying, "There's no such thing as someone else's child.". 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. In the Colleges and Universities section of the. Today, the Common App has grown to extremely large proportions. We may receive commission from links on our website, but that doesnt affect our editors opinions. Today, Common App is a non-profit membership organization representing more than 1,000 diverse institutions of higher education. Just make sure to practice good judgement when it comes to the Additional Information section. Proofread and fact-checked over 30 pieces about environmental issues annually. Designed rooftop herb garden installation for restaurant. You can list up to five honors, and for each one you'll be asked to provide a brief . To help guide you through them, here is a step-by-step look at each of the sections and the best ways to tackle them. This is not easy! Tier 2: These are little more common than Tier 1, but these activities still showcase high levels of achievement and leadership. The club should just serve to complement the hook you have been working to develop throughout your high school career. Instead, they could say something like: entertained children in the waiting room by sharing riddles and performing mathemagics; fully digitized the patient filing system. Coalition vs Common App: Whats the difference. How can the Activities List be used to demonstrate a hook? Colleges wont see the brevity of your involvement as a negative factor; they understand that some activities simply have an imposed beginning and ending that are not within your control. Colleges do want to see that you are specialized, but you probably dont want to choose the same category for every activity. crisis. Collected data on health and resilience of trees in NYC saltwater marshes after flooding events. You do not have much space to do so, so read this guide to learn how to make the most of the characters you are allotted. , and for each one youll be asked to provide a brief description (100 characters or less). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The Education section asks for the following information: A list of honors that could be included are, A good example of listing an honor within the given space is: 1st Place, Intel ISEF, for inventing Robocop, robotic biomechanical law enforcement wearable unit. Chapter of club at high school; participated in toy and food drives, raised $1000 for refugees, made 200 cards and blankets for children in hospitals. Many students will have experienced disrupted testing dates and summer programs or other plansand thats okay to unpack those obstacles here if they were significant and unique issues. How does your personality tie into your Application Persona. Besides knowing you as a student and person, your recommender should also be familiar with the components of your application and your Application Persona. Time to start tackling your college applications. If you say you were the Editor of your school paper in your title, you wont need to repeat that in the description. They include national awards or other prestigious achievements. Host weekly meetings, trips. We recommend selecting the grade level preceding the summer in question. Through the following questions, admissions officers get a substantial idea of who you are and where you are from. For filling out information about your parents, you need to know your parents marital status, their profession, their educational background information (including their school and graduation year), and their employment status (whether they are employed, retired, homemaker, or deceased). Tags :applying to college,common application,Personal Statement,common app guide,how to fill the common app. Individually nominated for AVCA All-American Awards and won Average HSs Spirit Award. Remember to include non-formalized activities if they have been meaningful to you, such as small projects youve been working on to improve your programming abilities, the hours youve poured into learning a new language on Duolingo, or the works of art you might be painting for your own enjoyment. The Testing section asks you to self-report any tests you have taken, whether standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT (. As with the Activities List, this student is able to use the content in this section, even within limited space, to successfully convey her academic potential, community contributions, and artistic ability. Testing cancellations occurred for everyone, students across the world coped with online learning, and more. The section asks for the following information: For Activity type, the Common App provides you with a list to choose from. College admissions officers dont have the time to read large blocks of text, and its generally better to try and write less in areas where they are not asking for an essay. Commonly listed activities include participating in school clubs, playing an instrument, playing a sport, attending pre-college summer programs, volunteering, and many others.
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