Common App Activity Page: Writing a Description

You are limited to 150 characters for details, accomplishments, honors won, and accomplishments within each activity, so you will need to be concise and offer only the most pertinent details. 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.

Remember that this section is not there for you to prove your eloquence as a writer; you have the essay to do that. Rather, this serves to inform the admissions committee about your life outside school as succinctly as possible. Use active verbs and limit the use of adjectives and adverbs. You don’t need to use complete sentences. Be as specific as you can be in the space available. If you hold a leadership position, emphasize that role in your description.

Try to focus on quantitative descriptions over qualitative ones. Adding numerical values offers concrete proof of your success, and can show colleges how you were involved specifically. 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.

Try not to be redundant, especially considering the limited space. For instance, if you are the president of the tutoring club at your school, you don’t need to list “tutoring” in the description, since colleges are likely to consider that a given; instead, emphasize your duties as president, how you manage and distribute tasks and how you work with club members. If you want to talk about the actual tutoring in more detail, discuss your approach — e.g., “Meet with students one-on-one, develop study aids, and create practice examples.”

Example:

Position/Leadership description and organization name, if applicable: Editor, The Daily (school newspaper)

Please describe this activity, including what you accomplished and any recognition you received, etc.: Run weekly meetings, brainstorm ideas, assign and revise 10 articles/week, collaborate with printer to distribute 500 copies to students and faculty.

How to Choose Extracurriculars for the Common App

When you’re finally finished with a long and stressful school day, it can be great to go to one of your extracurricular activities and spend time with students whose interests are similar to yours. Whether you’re on the MUN Exec board, on a sports team, or even editor of the school magazine, extracurriculars (ECs) are a meaningful way to spend your time — not to mention, demonstrating a commitment to your ECs and taking on leadership roles within them can help you differentiate yourself to colleges.

As you go through the college application process, you may find that you’ll need to select one or two activities you’re involved in that stand out as especially meaningful to you. For active, engaged students, narrowing down their involvement in this way can be tricky. Here are some of our insights for such students! HOWEVER, if you haven't already, go check out post on the activity page of the Common App first! If have read that already, then go right ahead!

Why do I need to determine my most meaningful EC?

You might be wondering why you would need to determine which of your extracurriculars is the most important. After all, aren’t all extracurricular activities relevant in different ways? While it is true that every activity is meaningful in its own way, there are many reasons why you might be asked to rank extracurriculars or select one as the most important. First of all, if you end up applying to any schools that take the Common Application, you will be required to rank your different extracurricular activities in order. Some schools might even ask you which of your activities is the most important to you as a supplemental question. You might find yourself needing to rank your activities on scholarship applications as well.

Aside from the various applications that might require you to determine a “most important” activity, on both a personal and a professional level, it is a good idea to understand one’s own priorities and interests in a larger sense. After all, the better that you understand yourself, the more you can try to pursue opportunities within the fields that are most important to you.

How do I determine which extracurricular is most important?

1. Something That Relates To Your Interests/Career Path

In thinking about which of your extracurriculars is the most important to you, one of the first things you might want to consider is what you want your career to look like when you are older. That being said, it is totally okay if you don’t know what field you want to go into as an adult. It might help you to think about what you might want to major in once you get to college. If you’re unsure about what that might be, you could also think about the academic subjects you have been interested in throughout your high school career.

If your lifelong goal is to become a doctor, and you’re president of the medical volunteerism student society at your high school, chances are that this is your most meaningful activity. If you plan on majoring in comparative literature and your ultimate goal is to become a writer, talking about your experience as editor of your school’s yearly magazine is probably a good idea.

Colleges want to see students who are dedicated to the things that they are passionate about, and if you’ve taken concrete steps towards activities that relate to your interests and future goals, then you should definitely be sure to highlight this on your applications. That being said, it’s totally okay if you don’t know or if you are undecided — plenty of high school students are, and even more of them change their minds once they get to college!

2. Showcase Things You’re Passionate About

Just as activities that relate to your career goals are important, so too are activities that are personally meaningful to you. These activities may not necessarily be something that you’ll end up doing for a living, but perhaps they’ve been important to you for the majority of your life or perhaps you find yourself dedicating a particularly large amount of time to them. 

If community service is important to you and you’ve been volunteering at a local soup kitchen for all four years of high school, then this is probably worth mentioning. If you play on the school team for a sport or if you have been horse riding since you were seven years old, then this also is probably something you should consider talking about. Again, colleges want students who are passionate and motivated, so backing up your passions with concrete actions is an effective way to convince admissions counsellors that you’d be a great addition to their school.

3. Something That Has Required A Major Time Commitment

If you choose to list something as your most important extracurricular, then it is important for you to have demonstrated a long-term commitment to this activity.  There needs to be heart in the work you do. While passion can show in a week long volunteering trip, if you convert that into a term doing commitment, it shows how you wanted to work for a sustained amount of time. Additionally, having a leadership position or taking on a lot of responsibility within this role will look even better, since colleges are looking for students who are responsible and have strong leadership skills.  

Overall, the EC that you choose to list as most important should be something that is meaningful to you, something that you are passionate about, and something that has taken up a significant amount of your time throughout your high school years. If a particular activity came to mind when reading this post, then chances are this is probably the activity that you should list! We hope this blog entry is of use to you. The activities page is one tricky beast to work with. Good thing that we 17 years of experience in this field! Come have a chat with us! Stay tuned for a new entry on how to write a description for your activity entries. 

Common App Week: Prompt 7 Breakdown and Brainstorming Tips

Welcome to the last addition to the common app week with a brand new essay and here it is: “Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.”

Feared by some, coveted by others, and legendary in its existence, regardless of where you stand on the issue, this is a newsworthy addition to the 2017-18 Common App prompt choices. For years, students have been treating Prompt #1 (which asks about your background, etc.) as Topic of Your Choice Light—it wasn’t exactly the delicious, full-freedom version students were looking for, but they were able to make it work in a pinch. Perhaps it was the Coalition Application’s inclusion of a topic of your choice in their first-ever round of essay topic options (which will remain the same this year) that pressured the Common App to bring back the any-flavor-you-wish option to their application. Regardless of the reason, applicants around the world likely let out a big exhale when they saw they could serve up a big scoop of Prompt #7 to admissions this year.

We recommend having a question of your own making at the ready if you choose to take advantage of Prompt #7. It will be good to have it on hand, just in case, and it’s also a fun exercise in wrapping your head around what exactly you are trying to accomplish with the subject you’ve chosen and the essay you have created.

Some questions to consider as you brainstorm, in addition to all of the ones we’ve posed thus far:

• What do you want admissions to know about you that they wouldn’t be able to glean from your transcript, test scores, or teacher recommendations?
• What are the stories that come up over and over again, at the dinner table or in the cafeteria with your friends, that might give admissions some insight into who you are and what is important to you?
• If you had ten minutes alone in a room with an admissions officer, what would you want to talk about or tell him or her about yourself?
• What would you bring to a college campus that no one else would or could?

And a few examples of potential subjects and their related (custom!) prompts:

• Were you born with a congenital eye defect that literally (and metaphorically) affects how you see the world? (Q: How is your perspective on the world unique?)
• Do you spend 40 minutes each Friday night tutoring a class of elementary school students in a government school ? How has that impacted the way you mete out your time and assess your commitments? (Q: What is the value of 40 minutes?)
• Did your parents let your older brother choose your name? What was his inspiration? What does your name represent for you? How has it impacted your interactions in the world? (Q: What’s in a name?)

While being able to write about whatever you wish sounds great in theory, some students find—especially at the beginning of the brainstorming process—that they are debilitated by the “topic of your choice” option because it offers too much choice. If that is the case, fear not! Use some of the other prompts as starting points for your brainstorming and freewriting journeys. Begin keeping a diary and jot down subjects, events, and memories as they float to the surface. Now that you have read our handy-dandy prompt guide and understand what admissions is looking for from these prompts, you could very well have a notebook filled with ideas that are ripe for expansion by the time you sit down to write.

So don’t worry about having too many ideas, or not having enough ideas, especially at the beginning of the topic selection process. Once you figure out what you’d like to say (and maybe even after you draft the crux of the essay itself), see if your concept fits one of the first six prompts. Trying to back into a more specific prompt option may inspire an interesting spin on the story you are trying to tell—one you may not have thought of otherwise. If, after careful consideration, your magic essay topic does not work within the confines of Prompts 1-6, you are in luck. The glorious, all-encompassing Prompt #7 will be here to catch you.

I hope you have all enjoyed our common app week! If you still have questions, come on over and meet with us!

Common App Week: Prompt 6 Breakdown and Brainstorming Tips

Common app promised new essay and it didn't disappoint with prompt 6! Today on our common app week, we talk about brand new essay option! The prompt is as follows: “Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?” 

Personally, this new addition is great because of its focussed approach; great for showing off our passions and inner nerd. College, one could argue, is largely about the pursuit of knowledge, so you can imagine it would be quite appealing for an admissions officer to have a meter for your level of self-motivated learning, along with a better understanding of how and why you choose to pay attention to the things that intrigue you. This is a full-on peek into your brain: how you process information, how you seek out new sources of content and inspiration. How resourceful are you when your curiosity is piqued to the fullest? The answer to this prompt should also reveal something to admissions about the breadth or depth of your interests. For example, if you’re interested in studying astrophysics, you might choose to discuss a concept that shows how far your exploration of the sciences truly reaches. How consumed are you by this passion you are choosing to pursue academically?

Some key questions to consider:

• What floats your boat? Do you have an appetite for knowledge about something specific? Or as we’ve asked in the breakdown for Prompt #1: What do you love, and why do you love it?
• What lengths have you gone to in order to acquire new information about or experiences related to a topic of interest?
• How do you typically seek to enrich your knowledge when something appeals to you? Do you have a favorite corner or the library (or internet)? A mentor who is open to answering your burning questions?
• What about the process of learning, especially about subjects that call out to you, is satisfying?

And a few examples to get those wheels turning:

• Did the idea of open source code inspire you to create a tech startup with a few of your friends? What projects do you work on, and why is the idea of sharing information still so revolutionary?
• Did an interest in recycling led you to create a paper recycling company focused on educating high school students about sustainability?
• Have you taught yourself to master the compositions of Mozart and Beethoven and break down the songs of Bruno Mars by ear in your spare time?
• Do you have an obsession with pizza so intense it led you to study bread-making and keep a pizza journal that documents the 700+ slices you’ve consumed thus far? How is pizza-making more scientific and/or artistic than the average person realizes?

Whatever you’re into, embrace it. Show your feathers. Let your freak flag fly (within reason, obviously). This prompt is about the pursuit of knowledge and your desire to proactively challenge yourself. Whether you are devouring the classics on your Kindle or nerding out over the perfect cheese for calzone-making, your attachment to a subject may inspire admissions to want to learn more about it…and you! Come have a chat with us so we can learn about you and help you turn your nerdy obsessions into an opportunity at some of the best colleges in the world. 

Common App Week: Prompt 5 Breakdown and Brainstorming Tips

Prompt 5 promises to be an oldie but goodie. It’s seen some changes but nothing that has radically transformed the way in which we need to think about it. Welcome to Edbrand’s Common App Week! Every blog post looks at a new prompt and helps you think about how to ideate about the essays that, for the most of you are going to be due real soon! Lets dive in to prompt which opens as: “Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.”

This is the most heavily revised of last year’s prompts, which used to ask students to describe a transition from childhood to adulthood. The purview of the inquiry has been expanded to ask about personal growth in general, leaving the lessons and timing of an applicant’s transformation more open-ended. You are also now free to reflect on a “realization” in addition to an “event” or “occurrence.” While a realization that changes your understanding of the world will likely be sparked by a concrete marker (i.e., an event or accomplishment). 

There are a few things to note when unpacking this prompt. Keep in mind that the words “accomplishment” and “event” leave themselves open to interpretation; thus, an essay inspired by this question can tackle anything from a formal event to a very small occurrence. A formal event or accomplishment might include anything from obvious landmarks like birthdays or weddings, to achievements like earning an award or receiving a promotion. More informal examples might include something as simple as meeting a special person in your life, taking a car ride, or eating a particularly meaningful meal. We have often found that smaller, less formal events make for more surprising and memorable essays, but as with any of the other prompts, as long as you can answer with originality and put a unique twist on your subject matter, all ideas, formal or informal, big or small, are fair game.

Its important to note here that this prompt seems like you need to have a life-changing experience to qualify. You don’t. You just have to share something formative and memorable (to you, not necessarily to anybody else). Think of this as a before-and-after story. Explain who you were before, describe the accomplishment or event, and the reveal who you became after

Collegewise had some interesting anecdotes about students who wrote an essay with this prompt: 

‘We worked with a student who gave up his starting spot on the football team so he could become a youth group leader at his church. For him at that time, it was a big deal to acknowledge that faith was a lot more important to him than football. That’s a before-and-after story. Another student wrote that after her parents’ divorce, she started doing all the cooking for her and her father. (As she described it, “My dad can only make grilled cheese.”) She titled that essay, “Table for Two.”’

Some other things to consider:

• How do you react to periods of transition? What inspires a change in your perspective?
• When have you had a “eureka” moment, and how has it impacted the way you lived your life thereafter?
• What were the moments in life that fundamentally changed you as a person?
• When did you learn something that made you feel more adult, more capable, more grown up

For example:

• Did your expansion of a handmade stationery hobby into a full-fledged business give you the motivation and wherewithal to combat the effects of a debilitating illness?
•  Have you learned to love the football team playback sessions that force you to routinely examine your mistakes but also to welcome constructive criticism and point yourself toward self-improvement?
• Did the role as the Indian delegate in a recent Model UN bring out leadership skills you never knew you had?

The most important thing to keep in mind when searching for these moments is the element of growth, understanding, and transformation. The event, accomplishment, or realization you discuss should be something that helped you understand the world around you through a different, more mature lens. And, as with prompt 4, be sure to answer all parts of the question.

We hope these have been helpful. As always like, share, and comment. We are also hosting an event this week 

Common App Week: Prompt 4 Breakdown and Brainstorming Tips

Welcome back to another edition of common app brainstorming. Today we look at a classic favorite, prompt 4. Here’s what the prompt is: “Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.”

We love prompt 4, which asks students to talk about a problem and how they solved or are planning to solve it. This question is similar to prompt 2 in that it is meant to tease out your problem-solving skills and provide a glimpse into an applicant’s frame of mind when dealing with challenges. It also provides a few bonus opportunities for creative expression, leaving both the scale and the time frame for setting up a problem/solution wide open.

You should think about everything from more traditional obstacles you’ve had to overcome to the small predicaments that have inspired them to think about what they really value. Applicants should also keep in mind that this asks why this problem has significance to you. Good responses here will reveal something about yourself that helps the reader get to know you and your life better. And note that the prompt also states, “...no matter the scale.” It doesn’t have to be world hunger you’re trying to solve. It may actually be something quite personal. The key here is to pick something that you can (1) clearly identify as a problem, and (2) break down into identifiable steps you took or would take to solve it. That’s why choosing a global topic like human trafficking because you think it will sound impressive might prove to be more difficult, and less effective, to write about than something you’ve dealt with in your own life.

Some other questions to ponder:

• When have you been proactive in attempting to effect change? What inspires you to action
• How do you think you can positively contribute to a cause that is important to you?
• If you had the power to make a lasting impact in any area at all, what would it be?

And examples to use as food for thought:

• Has your love of nature inspired you to start a charity to help save local endangered species
• Did your desire to help your grandparents help you create home automation technologies?
• Has your commitment to pursuing medical research inspired you to contact your favorite professors and researchers looking for summer lab positions, and to read every scientific paper you can get your hands on?

It's important that the problem you choose is linked to your life and world in a meaningful way. The whole purpose of this essay-writing exercise is to reveal something valuable about yourself to admissions, so be sure to link the problem you highlight to your passions, actions, or aspirations. And don’t forget to detail at least a few steps you would/could take to solve your chosen quandary. While the prompts don’t really matter in the initial conception phases of an essay (as you now know), once you’ve backed into your prompt of choice, following instructions to the fullest and answering all parts of each question are critical.

We hope these blog posts are helping! Comment with any questions you might have or come over and we can have a chat! 

Common App Week: Prompt 3 Breakdown and Brainstorming Tips

Hello! And welcome to another edition of Common App Week! Today we will tackle on of the most difficult prompts of the common app, the famous “belief” prompt. I am not going to leave you in suspicion anymore, here’s the prompt: “Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?”

This remains one of the most challenging prompts of the Common App’s selection, even though it has become slightly friendlier with the addition of the option to discuss a time you questioned an idea instead of challenging it. This prompt requires you to speak passionately about your beliefs and ideologies, which are often onerous subjects that can be difficult to mold into compact stories. It can be one of the hardest questions to steer in a positive, productive direction without traveling into preachy, overly didactic territory. This is also a more precarious prompt than most in that you need to carefully assess the risks of espousing beliefs that might be polarizing for the readers of their applications.

That said, a response to this prompt can be incisive and as deeply personal as it would be for you. Applicants who can articulate their thoughts and feelings while showcasing malleability and willingness to thoughtfully consider the ideas of others will likely stand out as valuable additions to any campus. If this prompt jumps out at you because you have a very specific story to tell or opinion to voice, run with it!

Keep these things in mind as you brainstorm:

1.  Tackle this prompt only if you really did speak or act out against a popular belief or idea, thereby causing you to take a stand and go against the grain. “Everyone else cheated, but I decided to play it straight” is just following the rules, not challenging a belief or idea.
2. Stories have more heft to them when the challenge lasted more than one moment. Saying “Hi” once to the awkward outcast at school is a nice thing to do. Eating lunch with him every day is challenging a belief or idea. Arguing with your friends about a woman’s right to choose is likely easier than arguing the same point in an AP Government class filled with conservative students. Telling your counselor that your school should offer AP German doesn’t have as much oomph as convincing a teacher to do an independent study after school for 12 interested students.

Your essay does not have to be focused around a fundamentally serious or groundbreaking issue, what matters most when responding to this prompt is that you have strong convictions about the belief or idea you are trying to convey, and that you examine the personal effects of this ethos on your life and world. For this reason, this prompt can be a great vehicle for showcasing your consideration, persuasive skills, and passions to admissions. 

As always, comment if you have questions or come over and meet us!

Common App Week: Prompt 2 Breakdown and Brainstorming Tips

Welcome to another episode of the common app week! Today we go through prompt number 2 on the common app: the famous, “I had a problem and here’s how I solved it.” Well that’s not how they word it all but that’s the gist of it. The common verbiage of it is as follows: “The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?” 

We have always believed that essays about overcoming obstacles are most effective when they focus more on solutions than problems. Accordingly, students’ responses to Prompt #2 should be directed at a student’s response, outlook, and demeanor when presented with one of life’s many hurdles, and applicants should aim to showcase qualities like resilience, determination, and humility. The obstacles you choose to explore can vary widely in nature, they can be as serious as being tormented by bullies, as ingrained as the financial issues that have plagued your family for years, or as seemingly pedestrian as a mistake that results in a lost opportunity. While the possibilities are almost endless, students should be careful not to choose challenges that may seem cliche (the inability to achieve a 100 on an exam and/or secure tickets to a concert) or that illustrate a lapse in good judgment (that time you played video games for 15 hours or when you ate 3 large pizzas in one sitting). Still, if you can isolate an incident of trial in your life and how you learned from it, this can be a rewarding prompt to explore.

Some key questions to consider:

• How do you deal with hardship?
• What qualifies as a challenge or setback in your life and world?
• Are you the kind of person who can rebound—who turns every experience, good or bad, into one from which you can learn something? What experiences might illustrate this quality?
• What have been some of the major challenges you’ve encountered in your life, and was there a silver lining?

And a few examples to think about:

• Has a lifelong battle with stuttering ultimately increased your overall confidence and allowed you to participate in social activities and public forums without self-judgment?
• Did a parent’s fragile health situation challenge you to take on more responsibilities than the average teenager?
• Did a series of setbacks on your road to becoming a child actor introduce you to screenwriting, your professional goal and biggest passion?
• Did social pressure of pursuing engineering led to you have a difficult conversation with your parents?
• Overall, try to keep these stories as positive as possible. Remember, these essays are not just contemplative musings on your toughest times or reflections on the hiccups that populate everyday life (though these things can certainly be touched upon); they are also about overcoming obstacles and refusing to submit to life’s greatest challenges.

We hope this was helpful. Common App can challenging but these tiny brainstorming posts might help ignite something. If you have any questions comment below or come meet one of our writing mentors! 

Common App Week: Prompt 1 breakdown and brainstorming tips

Welcome to EdBrand’s common app week! Everyday we will discuss one essay prompt and help you get started with brainstorming! The first prompt in the common app is: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.” 

This Common App prompt is an Old Faithful of essay questions that has survived most revisions. It’s been around for years and offers all the flexibility an applicant could ask for from a prompt, with just enough direction to get those creative fountains flowing. Focus on the key words “background,” “identity,” “interest,” and “talent” and use them as launch points for your brainstorming. What about your history, personality, hobbies, or accomplishments might be worth highlighting for an admissions officer? It can be something as small as seeing an episode of a television show or as large as the struggle of moving to a foreign country. The most important thing to consider for this prompt is that your subject and/or perspective is dynamic and specific to you and who you are and no one else.

Some questions as you brainstorm:

• What about my history or background sets me apart from my peers?
• How do I define myself? How do the people who are closest to me define me?
• What have I achieved that has been integral in molding my character and ambitions?
• What, in my seventeen years on this earth, has helped shape the person I am today?
• What do I do differently than my peers and why is that special to me?

Some examples to consider:

• Has your family’s love of food and your resultant adventurous tastes and culinary curiosity allowed you to connect with cultures from around the world?
•  Does your religion define you?
• Did going to a Subodh Gupta exhibit inspire you to start an art collection that has since expanded beyond the borders of your bedroom?
• What are the challenges and rewards of being raised by your siblings? Or of being part of a family made up of stepsisters and stepbrothers?

Overall, this prompt is what we call a “choose-your-own-adventure” prompt. It has historically served as a fabulous catch-all for subjects that don’t fit within the confines of the other prompt options. A recent addition to the Common App’s prompt selection now offers even more freedom to applicants (more on that later), but students should still think of Prompt #1 as a topic of immense choice, reeled in by a few helpful guidelines. We hope this helped. For any questions comment or come meet us for a coffee!

Common App Week: 2017-18 Topic Overview

Class of 2022! Your Common App essays are out and we cannot wait to talk about them. The Common App for the year 2017-18 are pretty much the same as last year’s, with a few small but notable changes. Of the five prompts we have come to know and love so well, two remain exactly the same, and three have undergone minor makeovers to expand the reach of each question and the breadth of a student’s potential responses. 

The Common App has also added two new prompts to the pot, one of which is a return to the much-coveted “topic of your choice.” So college applicants will now have seven essay prompts to choose from. All of these changes are good news for applicants, who are freer than ever to explore essay topics of all tones, styles, and subjects, and who now have a few extra cues at their fingertips to help ignite their creativity. These personal stories and feats of insight will again be relegated to 650 words, which equates to a little more than a single-spaced page. We happen to believe this is the perfect amount of space in which to make a quick and powerful impression with admissions counsellors. 

As you begin looking at the prompts remember: It does not matter what topic you choose (read more about this here). Begin thinking about essays like an inverted funnel. Start with the story and then choose the topic that it fits. This is where you get to talk about what makes you, you. Don’t look at it as an opportunity to sell yourself or your resume. Use this as a way to showcase your uniqueness, identity, and passion. 

These next weeks we will try to deconstruct each common app prompt in depth. Come chat with us and learn how to ace the common app!