Activities
Overview
The Spring of junior year is a great time to start pulling together your activities. Your college applications will ask that you recount the things that you’ve done during your high school years - and it’s easy to forget things! The act of pulling things together will help you to get all of the required information into one place, and will also help you to remember all the things you’ve done, in the event that you need to speak about them at an interview.
A few places to start pulling this together:
Your SCOIR profile ( to be used by counselors and teachers for your letters of rec), and can be used for producing a one-click quick, basic resume that will work just fine for many students
A Google Doc, so you can work with specific character counts and cut/paste easily (you'll thank me in the Fall)
What Counts?
As a high school student, you’ll want to think about all of the things that you have done, in and out of school, since the start of ninth grade. Think about what you do when you are not in class. Things have changed in the past year, so think about how you've pivoted. Some possibilities might include (but aren’t limited to):
School or community/club sports teams
School or community-based clubs
Visual or Perfoming Arts: Plays/Musicals, Art Shows, Dance
Part-time or full-time work, internships, or volunteering
Community Service
Involvement at house of worship
Summer Experiences
Hobbies (e.g. gardening, teaching yourself to cook, teaching yourself how to program an app, creating a YouTube business/following)
Responsibilities at home (maybe you watch your siblings every day and make them dinner until parents get home, or are a caregiver for a parent or grandparent)
What You Need
Ultimately, you're looking for two lists: one of Honors/Awards (top 5 will go on the Common App), one of Activities (room for 10 on the Common App)
Organization name (max 100 characters)
Position/leadership description (max 50 characters)
Grade levels /dates of participation
Description of activity, including what you accomplished and any recognition you received, etc. (max 150 characters)
Approximate hours per week/number of weeks per year
You’ll want to highlight any awards or honors that you’ve received, along with any leadership positions that you’ve held. If you did it - put it down! We can always take it out later if it’s not adding much value. It’s especially important to highlight those activities where you have longevity and demonstrate dedication - those are probably the activities that highlight your interests and passions. Make sure that your most significant activities are listed first. Look for consistency across the parts of your application, including your essay and major choice. Everything should make sense together.