Confused about the common application’s activity and honors sections?
On November 1st, the majority of early action and early decision college applications are due. For the next eight weeks I will share college application tips that will make the whole process run smoothly. (Read week one’s tips about logistics and last week’s foundational advice about the common application form.)
When I reviewed common apps as a member of Dartmouth’s Admissions Committee, I often wished that applicants had a better understanding of how to use the common application’s activity and honors sections. Here are mistakes to avoid, and advice about how to maximize the space:
- The activity section allows you to list up to 10 significant high school activities. The honors section is found under “Education,” and allows you to list up to 5 academic honors and awards. For both, there is very limited space.
- I have my clients keep an ongoing record of everything that they do throughout high school, since it can be hard to remember. Parents are often extremely helpful here, and before trying to fill out the common app it’s a good idea to create a thorough list.
- When drafting your list, be sure to include activities that aren’t formal extracurriculars. Hobbies like painting or kayaking, time spent caring for a family member, even reading or gardening all “count.” The schools want to know what’s important to you, and how you actually spend your time.
- Also, the form will ask you to report how many hours you spend per week on each activity, and how many weeks per year. Be as precise as possible, and average the time. (If you spend 20 hours per week on tennis during the height of the season, and 2 hours during pre-season, average the number of hours spent each week.)
- As long as you can explain your reasoning and are doing your best to report the time accurately, don’t stress over this response.
- You will also be asked to indicate whether or not you intend to participate in a similar activity in college. You definitely don’t need to say yes to everything – and you can interpret this pretty broadly. (Maybe you won’t play varsity golf, but you do intend to join a club team.)
- However, if in doubt about whether you plan to continue, say yes – schools want students who participate, and it looks weird if a student plans to drop all of their activities as soon as they get to campus.
- Don’t feel like you need to list 10 activities, if you don’t have 10 that are substantial. It’s much better to list fewer, meaningful activities – one day cleaning up a park doesn’t add much to your candidacy.
- If you have more than 10 meaningful activities or more than 5 honors, look for opportunities to combine them. (You might combine club swimming with your high school team, or awards in several different languages.)
- For both the activity and honors and awards sections, start with your most impressive accomplishment or activity, or at least the one that’s most important to you, and go down in descending order of importance. (Admissions officers sometimes skim, and they will assume that you are leading with your best stuff.)
- If you attend a school that doesn’t offer many opportunities to receive academic honors, please don’t worry. However, you might have more to report than you think – honor roll, language exam awards, scholar/athlete awards, national merit, national honor societies, science and math competitions and more can work in this section.
- To optimize your content in the activity section, make use of all the space, including the headers, to tell the schools more about what you did and why.
- For instance, in the “Position/Leadership description” and “Organization Name” headers, put logistical details about what the group does, your exact role (“Philanthropy Chair, solicit donations from local companies”), etc., so that you can use the longer descriptive box to tell them more about why are involved in this activity.
- “I played basketball” is much less compelling than an explanation of what you get out of playing, the hardest aspect, when you started, and why you won the sportsmanship award.
- Do follow the instructions – Only list academic honors, not community service or athletic ones, and don’t report activities from middle school.
- Don’t be afraid to show personality and use your voice, even in this seemingly formulaic part of the application!
Next Friday, more college application tips – how (and how NOT) to write your main essay.
