If you usually spend 2 hours a week with this club, but have 3 weeks during the height of tournament season during which you spend 15 hours with the club, you can list your hours per week as 4 since your weekly average comes out to 3.95 hours. As usual, be careful when transcribing information onto the Common App. Of course, this isnt necessary for well-known awards like National Merit that are self-explanatory. You can then start adding your school list, and going through the sections to understand the requirements for each. As for the actual writing, pay attention to your narrative structure. Be as specific as you can be in the space available. #17 Best Colleges that Accept the Common App in America.University of Notre Dame. Why is it important? Be ready for the world. You absolutely do not have to fill out this section if you dont have anything else to add. The easiest way to calculate this is to first look at your schools calendar and count the number of weeks between the first week of school and the last week of school. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Admission officers want to see your academic track record, and what classes you have taken at different levels. Try to focus on quantitative descriptions over qualitative ones. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. Once you have an initial list of schools to research, you can begin researching each school on your list in more depth, with the aim of both narrowing down your initial list and potentially discovering additional factors that can help you identify more schools for your list. Common App Essay Example #1: Seeds of Immigration. But how do you increase school spirit? The contact details section lets you add your preferred phone number, as well as any alternate numbers where you can be reached. Since there are many applicants with similar academic backgrounds, colleges use extracurriculars to help them differentiate and choose between applicants. If you have more than 5 awards, try to think of ways to combine them. 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. Lets take it one step further. This is the place to indicate whether any community-based organizations such as Questbridge or Upward Bound have helped you with your application. Testing cancellations occurred for everyone, students across the world coped with online learning, and more. Most importantly, the activities list is one of the best places to showcase the various ways in which you have developed your hook! Admissions officers can count and will notice if your participation hours exceed the number of hours in a week! 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. Beyond the number of slots for activities and awards, there are also differences in the corresponding information students must provide for each activity and award. Create art (paintings, portrait photography, nature photography) and exhibit on personal Instagram. In addition to its positive impact on morale and performance, school spirit is generally fun. Colleges want to know this kind of information so that they can understand the factors affecting your performance and opportunities this past semester. 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 Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. Reviewed and edited submissions for my schools newspaper, 10, 11, 12School5 hr/wk, 35 wk/yrContinue. has options for your permanent home address, as well as an alternate address if you have multiple addresses. When choosing your topic, it is very important to remember that the admissions officer will be reading thousands of applications. As for the actual writing, pay attention to your narrative structure. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. 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. Even listing one or two awards is better than leaving the section blank. Your activities list is the key place you can demonstrate your hook to admissions officers. Thus, taking the SAT 5 times and getting a strong score does not help your application stand out! Copyright 2015-2023 Command Group Inc. All rights reserved. Not only has she pursued multiple activities in both environmental science and art, but she has also found and studied creative intersections between these fields, through painting murals at local gardens, featuring and selling her nature photography on her personal social media, and studying environmental art at a summer program. Write in present tense only if you are still involved, and past tense if your involvement in the activity has come to an end. 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. Try listing regional awards like this instead: Try to squeeze in as many details as you can when describing your honors. 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. The Common Application is a single online college application form used by over 900 colleges and universities. A lot of schools have specific questions that they want to ask about your interest in their campus and course offerings specifically. Write the title of the award and add details when possible! You do not have much space to do so, so read this guide to learn how to make the most of the characters you are allotted. list your roles in order of importance rather than chronologically. The prompts for the personal statement are as follows: When brainstorming your Common Application personal statement, remember your Application Persona. Remember that first and foremost, the prompt has been introduced for your benefit to provide colleges with a better understanding of how your life was influenced by the crisis. You want to stand out, you want to tell your story, and share some of your biggest passions and important parts of your life. The activities list is an excellent opportunity to brag about your accomplishments, as well as the talents and skills that you have developed outside of the classroom along the way. Remember, they are looking for a diverse student body filled with future leaders in their respective fields. Get valuable advice from students who have been in your shoes. On the other hand, if you dabbled in the clarinet briefly in ninth grade before quitting, its probably a good idea to skip that one, unless you dont have a lot of activities to list. Award winner for writing, art, photography, music, etc. Therefore, it will be necessary to abbreviate when possible and include only the most illuminating information. 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. . Steverino is right that those activities often involve sports. They use the 4 Tiers of Extracurriculars: Tier 1: These are rare activities that show exceptional achievement or leadership. Her hook is conveyed through an impressive mix of in-school extracurriculars, out-of-school activities, summer activities, and hobbies. Since the list is fairly broad, you will probably find that your activity fits into at least one of the sections available. Also read:How to complete the Common App Activities Section. Alternatively, some activities like sports or school plays are seasonal. Leaving the answer as Undecided will show admissions officers that you have not put much thought into your interests or future career choices. Also keep in mind that just because you intend to continue the activity in college at this point does not mean you are obligated to do so when you actually matriculate. How does your personality tie into your Application Persona. They want to know that you have researched the school and that you are genuinely interested. The Activities section allows you to write about up to ten activities that youve participated in throughout high school. Provide the reader with a theme or a takeaway message. Explain what the circumstance was so that admissions officers know whether it was for preference for something different than your previous school lacked, such as in the example below, or if it was something you had no control over, such as family obligations. The Common Application is divided into different sections: In this blog, we will take a closer look at the sections and provide tips for filling out each one. This year, students have been calling TCU an "everything school" because of our success in academics and across all sports. Pick people who know you best, understand your background and interests, and can provide perspective on you as a student and a person. Your teacher or counselor cannot write a stellar recommendation on the spot if you only give them a days notice. To some degree, they also want to see that you are doing the activity because you are truly passionate about it, not just because you want to impress colleges. 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). The first piece that you have to fill out on the Common Application is the Profile section. Featured Review: Freshman says Notre Dame has a great school spirit and campus life. Well let you know if your profile is competitive for your dream schools and give you tips on improving your profile! If not, select Other Club/Activity and identify it in the Position/Leadership description and organization name section. 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. The honors section is an excellent way for, Membership in your schools chapter of National Honor Society, Outstanding achievement in a particular subject, Write each number instead of spelling it out, Abbreviate (but only for well-known organizations), In eleventh grade, I won first place in the North Carolina Youth and Government competition for writing and defending a bill on raising the minimum wage. What prompted your thinking? The Common App allows you to apply to multiple schools at once. Each piece of content on the site is original, based on extensive research, and reviewed by multiple editors, including a subject matter expert. Accordingly, you should only list that activity if you actually participate in that specific organization. Honors, whether they are academic, community-oriented, or relate to an extracurricular, show that a student has made an impact and shown potential that goes beyond the numbers. This could include anything from a science award to an article in an economic journal. Within just 99 characters, the student highlighted not only what the prize was but what the prize was for. The section asks for the following information: For Activity type, the Common App provides you with a list to choose from. They can also include supplemental essays, usually asking why you want to attend their school. Math Club would go into Science/Math as opposed to Academic). If you feel like five spaces isnt enough to describe all of your accomplishments, use the Additional Information section at the end of the application to talk about the rest of your honors. Being on a pep squad, being the organizer of rallies/spirit weeks, being homecoming committee chair, etc. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College. , but you probably dont want to choose the same category for every activity. How can you take advantage of the prompt to provide your reader with a sense of your personal growth? Both categories indicate that you are a driven leader, but they present different facets of your personality. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the. 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. As the application evolved over time from a paper application to online, the core of Common App's principles has never changed - promoting access, equity, and integrity, in the college admissions process for all students. Because this student also has an entrepreneurial streak, she could optionally indicate a secondary interest in business if a school offers dual degrees, majors, or minors in business administration for undergraduates. Sports seasons can be divided into fall (September-November), Winter (November/December-February), and Spring (March-June). Use active verbs and limit the use of adjectives and adverbs. This means that art awards, publications, and athletic awards are all fair game. This enables you to have a certain degree of agency as to which scores colleges see. The club should just serve to complement the hook you have been working to develop throughout your high school career. 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. List your activities in order of importance. This example does not elaborate on what the student did, nor does it show what they learned from their time at the hospital. If you participate in a club, define your role, rather than just listing member. If you participated in an activity for multiple years and have had multiple roles within it. If youre have trouble figuring out how to word your activity descriptions, here is a table of action words that you can use: The application will ask you in which grade levels you participated in a particular activity. A student who is interested in business and starting her own company one day can select Business owner as part of the Future Plans section. The prompt states: Do you wish to share anything on this topic? This is not to say that you cant join a new club as a junior or senior, you definitely can! Available on iOS, Android, and Web. Studied intersections of art and environmental activism. Y/N. For example, if you are interested in the biomolecular sciences and cancer research and decide this will be your hook, you should be able to demonstrate that interest through activities like working as a professors research assistant at a medical school, taking related classes at a college or university, or writing about cancer research-related topics in your school newspaper. Activities like working a part-time job, or caring for a family member also count. 4 Year,NOTRE DAME, IN,1394 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars. (99 characters), Winner, R.J. Simmons Award for Community Service, performed 100+ hours of service work, Grade: 10. as early as possible. 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. Below, youll find more examples about how to make the most of each field to highlight your potential! You can list up to five honors, and for each one youll be asked to provide a brief description (100 characters or less). If you claim to spend ten hours per week on all ten activities, colleges will know youre exaggerating, to say the least. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the Common Application! More and more, colleges are looking for indicators other than GPA and test scores to indicate strong students. Follow the same guidelines as suggested for the activities list for awards you received during the summer, selecting the year that preceded the summer! Currently, due to COVID-19, standardized tests have become optional in many schools. Heres an example: You may know that the R.J. Simmons Award is given to students in your high school who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to community service, but college admissions officers have no clue. Tags :applying to college,common application,Personal Statement,common app guide,how to fill the common app. Yes, universities and colleges do care about honors when they review applications! A volunteering club at Average High School simply called Hilltop is better referred to as Average High School Hilltop Volunteers or Hilltop Volunteering Club of Average High School. If youre including an independent activity such as painting for local arts competitions, your title and position could read: Artist, Self-Directed Oil Painting. Therefore, do not write anything thats specific to any one of the schools. Community-based organizations do not include guidance counselors or private counselors (such as InGenius Prep) who might have helped look over your materials. Disciplinary information: disciplinary violation at any educational institution, misdemeanor, felony. Contact us if you are interested in partnering. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The application asks this because colleges want to know what kind of student you will be when you arrive. Letters of Recommendation - 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. For instance, if you are the president of the tutoring club at your school, you dont 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. Always be as specific as possible in these essays. Maybe you run the camp for 35 weeks of the year, but you ran a tennis racket drive for five days in the late spring of your junior year that ended up being particularly rewarding. 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. Let's examine each of the questions and options so you can confidently guide your child in filling out the Common App Activities section. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. How can you take advantage of the prompt to provide your reader with a sense of your personal growth? You also have to order your scores to be sent from the Collegeboard or the ACT websites to each individual school. The Grades section asks for your class size and class rank (if you have one) for more context on your student body. Show them how youve grown stronger or how your topic has changed your perspective. The activities section has a limit of ten extracurricular activities. Applications typically open on August 1 and close on January 1. While extracurriculars might seem subjective, colleges are methodical in their evaluation of them. You can find out more about them, Position/leadership description + name of organization, Participation grade levels: 9, 10, 11, 12. You can also simply edit the activity to reflect a different one. Below, weve included an example activities list, paired with an explanation of how it demonstrates a hook! A general rule of thumb is that national awards should be listed first, followed by state, local, and school awards. As you can tell, it is pretty straightforward and gives you a bigger picture of where youre from and where you grew up. How do you complete it. This ensures that all of our content is up-to-date, useful, accurate, and thorough. Hover over each hot spot to learn more about each field. 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. When choosing your topic, it is very important to remember that the admissions officer will be reading thousands of applications. Well let you know what your chances are at your dream schools and how to improve your chances! What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? Explore the list of common app schools to build your list of colleges to apply to . Your child can add up to 10 school activities on the Common App. For more information about how colleges filter applicants, check out our post on the, While extracurriculars might seem subjective, colleges are methodical in their evaluation of them. New Feature. This article provides you with step by step instructions, as well as dos and donts for each section, that will help you break down the activities section of the Common App. The options available are: The activities list gives admissions officers a concrete idea of how you spend your time. Created multimedia portfolio of 5 works under guidance of professional artist First Last.
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