It's crunch time, and I'm polishing my app - anybody got tips for how to write a strong activity description for the Common App? What are colleges looking for in this part of the application? Please share your wisdom, any advice is good advice right now!
Totally understand the pressure of crunch time! When writing your activity descriptions, think action and impact. Start with a strong action verb to describe your contribution, and make sure to quantify your impact where you can. For instance, if you worked at a food bank, instead of saying 'Helped at a food bank,' go for something with more detail, like 'Organized a community food drive that collected over 500 pounds of donations.'
Colleges want to see the level of commitment and the effect of your work. Moreover, if you’ve had any leadership role or you’ve initiated something, highlight that as well. Every word counts as you have a very limited space, so focus on brevity and clarity. If an activity is particularly important to you, you might consider discussing it in greater depth in your essays or additional information section, but in the activity section itself, be as direct and concise as possible while still showing the full scope of your contributions. Good luck!
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