has options for your permanent home address, as well as an alternate address if you have multiple addresses. for details, accomplishments, honors won, and accomplishments within each activity, so you will need to be concise and offer only the most pertinent details. Below, youll find more examples about how to make the most of each field to highlight your potential! The school spirit of TCU is unlike any other school. Make sure to look at each of your colleges test requirement policies. Read on for tips on completing the honors section. Hover over each hot spot to learn more about each field. As you think about your response, remember that it is valuable to talk about how youve moved forward. You can find out more about them, Position/leadership description + name of organization, Participation grade levels: 9, 10, 11, 12. Mention specific faculty members you might want to do research with. <p>One of the things we were told to look for during . Since there are exactly five slots, if you have more than five awards, prioritize your achievements, and list the most unique and impressive ones. Well let you know what your chances are at your dream schools and how to improve your chances! The club should just serve to complement the hook you have been working to develop throughout your high school career. -. These are little more common than Tier 1, but these activities still showcase high levels of achievement and leadership. While your grades and standardized test scores make up the foundation of your college application, your activities will allow you to stand out amongst the sea of applicants and could tip an application in your favor. Make sure these do not overlap with the answers in your Activities section! Since the list is fairly broad, you will probably find that your activity fits into at least one of the sections available. Tier 4: These are the most common activities and are seen most often by admissions committees. 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. Thus, taking the SAT 5 times and getting a strong score does not help your application stand out! 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 . Plans made in high school often change, and that is okay. Since there are many applicants with similar academic backgrounds, colleges use extracurriculars to help them differentiate and choose between applicants. If you intend to continue a particular pursuit in college, it shows them that you are truly interested and dedicated to it. Today, Common App is a non-profit membership organization representing more than 1,000 diverse institutions of higher education. The world is ready for you. The Common App dashboard also helps you track necessary application documents (like your . The purpose of the robot reflects the applicants Application Persona as a student who is interested in engineering and passionate about social justice. This section is limited to 50 characters. Therefore, do not write anything thats specific to any one of the schools. Be as specific as you can be in the space available. He specializes in college admissions and strives to answer important questions about higher education. This means that art awards, publications, and athletic awards are all fair game. For each activity, the form will ask you in which grade levels you participated in the extracurricular activity, the timing of your participation (school year vs. school break), and how many hours you spent on it per week and weeks per year. The honors section is an excellent way for college admissions officers to gain an understanding of your strengths. His work has been published in Our State Magazine, Ladygunn Magazine, The Nocturnal Times, and The Lexington Dispatch. Most importantly, the activities list is one of the best places to showcase the various ways in which you have developed your hook! This section matters because admissions officers at most colleges read applications geographically. For example, if you played tennis all four years of high school and became captain of your school team senior year, that is an activity to include in this section. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. Apply to our $10,000 No Essay Scholarship! Privacy Policy. Admissions officers can count and will notice if your participation hours exceed the number of hours in a week! You might have fallen ill yourselfor had to take on added responsibilities in your family because your parents were sick. The Common Application Honors List is separate from the Activities Listit can be found under the Education Section of the Common Application. Be sure to include weeks for preseason or tryouts and auditions in your final number! Remember that this section is not there for you to prove your eloquence as a writer; you have the essay to do that. Students are incredibly proud to be horned frogs and hold lots of school pride. Commonly listed activities include participating in school clubs, playing an instrument, playing a sport, attending pre-college summer programs, volunteering, and many others. list your roles in order of importance rather than chronologically. Note that the Common Application asks you how many times you took the standardized test of your choice. Take advantage of this component by highlighting the best of your extracurricular activities for college applications . Talk to your guidance counselor if you have any questions about whether or not you qualify. Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any . Be as specific as possible here. In reality, any academic accomplishment no matter how big or small can be included in the honors section. Most importantly, it makes your students feel like they are part of a community that is bigger than themselves. Though you devote much more time to your own practice, you may find the clinics to be much more rewarding and place this higher up on your activities list than your practices. Greet and direct visitors at information desk and coat check. There is no specific answer that colleges are looking forit will just help them understand your background better. There may be some activities that are naturally limited to a set time period or commitment, such as a summer academic program or sports camp. Colleges do want to see that you are specialized, but you probably dont want to choose the same category for every activity. They include minor leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations and smaller athletic/musical distinctions. Honors and awards students commonly list include: Deans List, Language Honors Society, National Merit, Congressional Award, Valedictorian, etc. As a result, this section only becomes available if you select one of the schools on the list. Legacy does not guarantee admission to a college, but it can give students an extra edge. . Be as specific as you can be in the space available. 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. For example, youll want to write down 12th as opposed to 2020-2021, if thats the year you were in the 12th grade. Common App Activities List vs. UC Activities List. Your child can add up to 10 school activities on the Common App. Your teacher or counselor cannot write a stellar recommendation on the spot if you only give them a days notice. Within a little over a page you have to show admissions officers what makes you a unique applicant, a good fit for their school, and tie it all to your Application Persona while displaying strong writing skills. 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! Apply to our $10,000 No Essay Scholarship! Provide the reader with a theme or a takeaway message. Each admissions officer is assigned a particular geographical region, either according to each US state, or according to country. ! 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). Accordingly, you should only list that activity if you actually participate in that specific organization. For example, if you are the secretary in student government and participated in a leadership program over the summer, select Student Government/Politics for the secretary position, and Career-Oriented for the leadership program. You may not be sure about exactly how candid you should be in your response. Be as specific as possible here. Cookie Notice If you spend a lot of time with your family, perhaps you take care of an ailing member, that absolutely counts as well and shows a great deal of responsibility. You can find a complete list of our partners here. 9, 10, 11, 12Year1 hr/wk, 52 wk/yrContinue. 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. 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. For your current school, you have to indicate whether your school is a boarding school, when you started the school, and whether you plan to graduate from your current school. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. Let's examine each of the questions and options so you can confidently guide your child in filling out the Common App Activities section. For example, if you go to boarding school, you can check the send mail to temporary or alternate address box. Here are two examples of what an activity can look like once you have filled out each of the 9 fields! For each award, youll want to indicate the name of the honor, its meaning and purpose, and the years you received it. If it has a name, say it, and define what it is if that is unclear. The Testing section asks you to self-report any tests you have taken, whether standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT (choose the one that is best for you), or tests based on what youve studied in high school, such as the AP or IB, or tests which show your English language proficiency, such as IELTS or TOEFL. Team placed 1st in division and advanced to state semifinals. Abbreviating first and the title of the Engineering Fair helped reduce characters. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. Junior R.O.T.C., for example, refers to Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, a Federal Program sponsored by the U.S. Armed Forces. However, you should only do so if these activities are truly essential to the admissions committees, understanding of your extracurricular life. 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. . For example, you might spend 20 weeks during the school year attending your robotics club. The question thus sets a context for your entire application process. Available on iOS, Android, and Web. Do not rush through these details. The Common App allows you to apply to multiple schools at once. Worked in the gallerys archive and supervised visits. I intend to participate in a similar activity in college. , admissions officers want to know whether you have taken classes at any college. If the activity is typically referred to by an acronym, be sure to list the full name, as you never want to assume that admissions committees will be familiar with the activity to which you are referring. Or, if your parents might have faced difficulties with their jobs, use this section to expand on that. listing awards issued by national organizations above her school-level recognitions). This enables you to have a certain degree of agency as to which scores colleges see. You do this through the drop down list of 30 classifications for your activities. Share info about plant sales, swaps, and propagation. 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 The application asks this because colleges want to know what kind of student you will be when you arrive. Tier 2: These are little more common than Tier 1, but these activities still showcase high levels of achievement and leadership. When you estimate the amount of time you spent on a particular activity, it doesnt need to be exact. Pick people who know you best, understand your background and interests, and can provide perspective on you as a student and a person. Keep the following tips in mind: Check out the following examples and take note of how the second iteration communicates the same information with less characters: Being concise with your wording doesnt mean that you should leave out information that is necessary to describe your award. If you visited campus, write about what you enjoyed. Community-based organizations do not include guidance counselors or private counselors (such as InGenius Prep) who might have helped look over your materials. Not all of the members of the Common App require your courses and grades. Promoting access, equity, and integrity, in the college admissions process for all students. Also, remember that you dont have to list ten activities just because the space is available; some require much more of a commitment than others, so its okay if you only have 5 activities that are time intensive and mean a lot to you. Create art (paintings, portrait photography, nature photography) and exhibit on personal Instagram. It is helpful to be aware that consistency across every part of the application, from coursework and letters of recommendation to the Activities List, intended majors, and essays, is necessary for building a cohesive narrative. Also see:Coalition vs Common App: Whats the difference? If youre wondering where your extracurriculars fall within the tier system, check out our free Chancing Engine. By reading her Activities List, admissions officers would be able to envision her continuing to explore these intersections as an undergraduate, as well as contributing to sustainability initiatives and artistic projects and clubs on campus. This could include anything from a science award to an article in an economic journal. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. They include top leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations, winning regional competitions, or state-level sports/music distinctions. If youre applying to an engineering school, talk about the equipment and facilities available. Build these relationships as early as possible. The college application is a big deal. After you choose the activity type, the application will ask you to describe the position you held (or hold) and the organization name. If you hold a dual or non-US citizenship, you are asked to list your citizenships. An example of a weaker response would be: Description: Helped patients and doctors. The prompts for the personal statement are as follows: When brainstorming your Common Application personal statement, remember your Application Persona. The Common App began as a way to simplify the college application process for both domestic and international students. 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. Common App is a non-profit college access organization that helps students apply to college every year. Thus, demonstrating a strong hook through your Activities List is very important. is the Profile section. If relevant, your parents alma mater counts when colleges consider legacy students if you are applying to the same school. best to take full advantage of this section. They include general club/sports/musical membership and general volunteering. 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. They use the. They include top leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations, winning regional competitions, or state-level sports/music distinctions. 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). It also lets you elaborate more on your gender identity if you dont identify as male or female. To fill out the Common Application, make sure you have all of the information with you. You will be able to expand in the description if needed. If you graduated from high school and continued to participate in that activity, mark post-graduate.. This student is creatively-minded, self-driven, capable of leading groups and teams, and interested in community-building. Zach Skillings is the Scholarships360 Newsletter Editor. I noticed the "school spirit" category, and I feel like this is a stupid question, but what activity could someone put in that falls in that category other than being a mascot or something? Having two to three meaningful extracurricular involvements is always better than ten activities that have no meaning to you at all. Activities like working a part-time job, or caring for a family member also count. Number one priority your school spirit must be an attention getter. 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). Hosted planting workshops at 8 schools. Blue checkmark. The Common Application is a single online college application form used by over 900 colleges and universities. Your achievements should be tangible or quantifiable. Copyright 2015-2023 Command Group Inc. All rights reserved. Additionally, if you have participated in related activities, colleges will see the pattern of your interest and commitment. Award winner for writing, art, photography, music, etc. Colleges want to see that youre committed to your activities because that indicates a passion for something outside of academics that you will bring to college and hopefully beyond. How to fill out the Common App Activities section. A hook is typically thought of as a well-developed record of distinctive achievements, activities, and service in one or two specific areas of interest. Your activities list is the key place you can demonstrate your hook to admissions officers. Not only does doing so allow you to include more extracurricular activities, but also provides more space for you to expand on the descriptions of your activities since you are not limited to a certain number of characters. Instead of dabbling in a little bit of everything, we encourage our students to delve deep into activities they are particularly passionate about. He then repeated it and continued: "Our nation's children are all our children.". These questions can include what major you want from their list of majors, and what activities you would partake in at the college. To delete an activity, move it to the bottom of the list and click on the delete icon. Talk about alums who have inspired you, about extracurricular opportunities that resonate with you, and how the location might be of importance. If you are having trouble estimating your time commitment, try keeping a time log for a couple weeks and provide an average. These are rare activities that show exceptional achievement or leadership. You can list up to five honors, and for each one you'll be asked to provide a brief . 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! - This section is self-explanatory. They can also include supplemental essays, usually asking why you want to attend their school. Show them how youve grown stronger or how your topic has changed your perspective. There are countless ways in which you can answer how and why a college appeals to you. Some colleges, including MIT for example, sort and read applications by citizenship. Additionally, college admissions officers will view your extracurricular involvement as a good indicator of how well you might function as a member of your future college community, and afterwards, how you might perform in the real world, since commitment to your activities will allow you to demonstrate time management skills, drive and commitment, and a genuine interest in the world around you. Youll have a chance to include five formal awards you received in the honors section of the Common App, but the activity descriptions are the perfect place to include achievements for which you did not receive awards. As an applicant, there are some important choices you have to make here. 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. 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. 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. How Spirit can keep your community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic . Featured Review: Freshman says Notre Dame has a great school spirit and campus life. Do not write about middle school achievements, about others achievements, or try to accomplish too much. Having a well-written personal statement can be tough, especially when you are a high school student used to writing five-paragraph-essays. 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. Final review of 20 articles published and distributed bi-weekly. Here's a guide for the perfect activities section. What prompted your thinking? . All of your . How does your personality tie into your Application Persona. Be sure to list any honors you receive on your applications to maximize your chances. However, it does need to be realistic. The larger and more diverse, the more prestigious the award; international recognition is the most prestigious type of recognition. Command Group Inc. is not associated with the College Board, Common Application, or any college/university or any of its affiliates. 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. Good luck! personal statement, remember your Application Persona. Below, youll find an Example Common Application Activities List! This shows us that theyre almost as important as academics! Time to start tackling your college applications. Member of most advanced ensemble, led sectionals to teach difficult passages, performed five concerts per year. Financial Aid Award Letter Comparison Tool. For activities that are less structured, estimate the average time you devote per week. In addition to its positive impact on morale and performance, school spirit is generally fun. Check off the grades during which you were involved with the activity. At Common App, we know that the admissions process is one based on trust among students, counselors, teachers and our members. Students need to have comfort that the rules for applying to college remain consistent and have their best interests in mind. To support these values, through careful considerations of the comments and needs of our key constituents students, teachers, college admissions counselors, parents, and the colleges themselves as well as professional organizations and both federal and state guidance, Common App has developed the following principles, the focus of which is in the best interest of the student, to continue to forge a direct, unambiguous path to higher education for all. Therefore, as a member of Common App, you agree to abide by and uphold our principles within the application: Additionally, in the interest of students and their families, to assist in ease of use, and in the spirit of fairness, consistency, and widely accepted definitions and practices currently used in college applications, Common App will not support an application deadline for first-year fall admission that is earlier than October 15, Common App will not support questions that ask applicants to list or rank schools to which they are applying, Common App will support only the following decision plans: Regular Decision, Rolling Decision, Early Decision (I and II), Early Action (I and II), and Restrictive/Single Choice Early Action. The widely accepted definitions of these plans may be found here, Common App will not support multiple Early Decision (ED) applications from applicants, with the exception of an ED II application. Extracurricular activities encompass a broad range of activities. This is the place to indicate whether any community-based organizations such as Questbridge or Upward Bound have helped you with your application. If you had to relocate, admissions officers want to know this to see how the move might have affected your performance. This example does not elaborate on what the student did, nor does it show what they learned from their time at the hospital. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The better your recommender understands what you are aiming for in your application, the stronger their letter will be. Many colleges value the perspective of first-generation students and look to see if you are coming from that background. An exciting sports season is something every student can embrace, even if they are not football fans, or basketball fans, etc. They include minor leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations and smaller athletic/musical distinctions. Commonly listed activities include participating in school clubs, playing an instrument, playing a sport, attending pre-college summer programs, volunteering, and many others. The Common Application, or Common App, is a college application portal that is accepted by more than 900 schools.. 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. School spirit activity is one of the best ways to bring students and teachers together in a positive learning environment. School spirit looks like teamwork. Many high school students dont know exactly what they want to do. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Admissions officers go through a lot of applications. 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). It could be used to provide context on whether there is a particular trend in your GPA, or whether any unforeseen circumstances, such as illness or a death in the family, impacted your school performance. Rather, this serves to inform the admissions committee about your life outside school as succinctly as possible. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographics, and other holistic details. When it comes to filling out this section, the last thing you want to be is humble! Yes! Use verbs that show action and ownership over an activity, Worked with a professor on a research project, Include numbers and percentages to quantify your impact. However, if you choose to do so, it helps colleges get a better idea of the race distribution in a class year, what ethnic or religious group might be underrepresented, and can be used for affirmative action purposes. They should be aware not only of the theme you hope to achieve, but how they can help elevate it in their letter. While the honors section certainly wont make or break your application, it can really help you stand out if properly utilized. 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. Below, weve included an example activities list, paired with an explanation of how it demonstrates a hook! While this portion might seem very straight-forward, these fundamentals matter. However, you should only do so if these activities are truly essential to the admissions committees understanding of your extracurricular life. In fact, its meant to serve the opposite. Rather, describe your impact as an editor. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Your rank helps the admissions officers understand the value of your GPA, and how you would fare in the academic climate of their institution. as early as possible. Admissions officers see thousands of applications every season, and they can easily identify resume fillers. For more information, please see our Many schools allow you to submit a resume in addition to your application.