Extracurriculars

Hey there!

Are you working on your common app? If so, there is 10 slots for activities (jobs, ECs, volunteering, internships, etc.) and some students add more brief descriptions of additional activities in the Additional Info section.

As far as choosing what to put on the application, you want to put down the "wow" activities. Here is a video I found really helpful: youtube.com/watch?v=mfrxARf5hXo&t=632s and youtube.com/watch?v=oOWm-6ZvQKQ

Look at your activities through the admission officers' pov. You would probably rather see the activities that involved the most commitment and interaction. Depending on the thing, it may not be a good idea to put on the application if it's a every-few-months thing. If you want help deciding what to leave out, feel free to comment to my answer with your ECs and approximate commitment level.

Hey,

Well, you already got the answer to your question from the other community members.

Just a quick summary though is that the admission officers are looking for quality, not quantity.

Also, it would be great if you take your time to kinda craft your application theme: What is it that you want every part of your application to have a touch of? Like Intellectual curiosity, service....This will help you to decide which activities matter.

Hope this helps. Nice time.

Make sure to include the activities that work well together, and show your interest in the majors and minors you’re planning to explore. Your extracurriculars say a lot about you, so make sure the ones you chose to add show how you spend your time and what you’re passionate about. Make sure to include any ECs in which you hold a leadership position, as well as the ones with the biggest time commitment. Hope this helps!

Extracurricular activities are okay with you. As for me, you can choose a few topics you are passionate about and try to implement each for a short time. And gradually weed out the ones that are boring and exhausting for you.

You can definitely combine some activities. Make sure your list, or a portion of it shows cohesion and a niche/interest specific to you (it acts as a reasoning as to why you dedicate yourself to it). Also, I would recommend creating descriptions for each activity (like the ones you would put on common app) and use CollegeEssayGuy's resources to compose them. The one's that have stronger, more passionate descriptions should definitely be included. And be authentic: no one can connect with a robot.

You can merge similar activities. don't include many activities unrelated to your core values or theme in PS and essays.

Definitely add the extra circulars that mean the most to you and align with your passion the best. It's probably best if its an activity you have done regularly, even otherwise if you think it is good and is a strong representation of who you are, it might still be worth adding. Say for example you are very passionate about comp sci, robotics might be a good activity that shows your passion, a computer science club through which you tutored students in computer science classes may be one that shows that you are interested in helping out and giving back to the community. Try to make sure that the activities that reflect your spike/passion are listed above the ones that may be more generic (a sport that may not be directly connected to your passion of comp sci) as it to helps build a better narrative about your passion. As per the how many is too many, I'm not sure there is a hard set number as it completely depends on the strength of the activities; if it's an activity that you've rarely done and doesn't help much with your overall application, consider omitting this if you feel you have too many.

I would advise you to prioritize things and then gradually give up the unimportant.

Hey there! This might have already been said, but something to consider is that colleges like it when you stick with something. If you take a different set of extracurriculars each year. If you've already taken one that you like, it's a good idea to keep taking it each year.

Also, if you already have some colleges in mind of where you'd like to attend, google their name followed by "common data set". Scroll down to the Factors of Importance for Consideration section (wording will vary) and see how much they consider extracurriculars in their admission decision.

Best of luck!!

I would say don’t overcommit and don’t think you need leadership in every club. For example, if you like engineering join 2 or 3 clubs that align your interests and focus all your efforts into those clubs instead of join 5 others and being unable to give anything much effort.