Timing of participation: all year, summer, school break, etc. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the Common Application! Ask yourself questions. Note that even if a school does not require Courses & Grades on the Common App, all of your high school transcripts go to each school. Your siblings attending the same college also counts as legacy. Juniors and seniors can often fall into the trap of signing up for many clubs at their schoolbut this strategy could end up backfiring by making an application seem disingenuous. Below, youll find more examples about how to make the most of each field to highlight your potential! The average school year is 36 weeks, give or take a few weeks depending on your schools break schedule. Be sure to list the most impressive/selective honors first, followed by less selective ones. You might not have been expecting to talk about your religious preferences or feel comfortable doing so. Colleges use class size and class rank to compare your academic standing with your peers. This example does not elaborate on what the student did, nor does it show what they learned from their time at the hospital. They include minor leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations and smaller athletic/musical distinctions. Think about topics to avoid. 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. Through this highly descriptive and well-crafted Activities List, admissions officers can glean this prospective students important priorities and some of her salient characteristics. Colleges may give your name to members of a club, organization, or activity in which you participate so they can follow up with you, but you are by no means bound to joining when you begin college (unless, of course, you are accepted on an athletic or other scholarship that requires your participation in a certain activity). Most importantly, it makes your students feel like they are part of a community that is bigger than themselves. Idk about other high schools but a high school in . The options available are: The activities list gives admissions officers a concrete idea of how you spend your time. You do not want to list a C instead of an A! Instead, they could say something like: entertained children in the waiting room by sharing riddles and performing mathemagics; fully digitized the patient filing system. It can seem like the Activities section of the Common App gives rise to the most questions, and for good reason. Collected data on health and resilience of trees in NYC saltwater marshes after flooding events. Rather, describe your impact as an editor. Note that even if a school does not require Courses & Grades on the Common App, all of your high school transcripts go to each school. Begin by selecting the category the activity falls under. The, In this blog, we will take a closer look at the sections and provide tips for filling out each one. In tenth grade, I received an award from the Presidents Foundation for my work volunteering at an animal shelter. 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. The Honors section allows you to show a snapshot of how you excelled on a local, national, or international level. because they provide a large amount of information in a few words. Run dog-walking service with my siblings for neighbors in apartment complex. The prompt states: Do you wish to share anything on this topic? At Command Education, we often emphasize the importance of establishing your hook otherwise known as a passion and skill set that sets you apart. Both categories indicate that you are a driven leader, but they present different facets of your personality. This section is also for admissions officers to find out if your parents went to college, what your parents do, and their current position. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. Proofread and fact-checked over 30 pieces about environmental issues annually. Then, there are colleges that do not require standardized test scores. Dont include honors and awards just for the sake of including them. Pick people who know you best, understand your background and interests, and can provide perspective on you as a student and a person. You might have fallen ill yourselfor had to take on added responsibilities in your family because your parents were sick. If you are unsure which level of recognition to select, you can often determine information about the scope of the award on the award organizations affiliate website! Check off the grades during which you were involved with the activity. This is your chance to list all the great things youve accomplished during your high school years. If you find that a particular extracurricular activity fits into multiple categories, choose the more specific one (e.g. If relevant, your parents alma mater counts when colleges consider legacy students if you are applying to the same school. Gold Medal from the Presidents Foundation for volunteering 200+ hrs at animal shelters. Worked in the gallerys archive and supervised visits. In addition to a top-tier, rigorous education you can also enjoy your time at college. Make it clear what your responsibilities were and highlight your key accomplishments. Create public art installations including murals and sculptures in community gardens. If you have less than 5 awards you can stretch the definition of academic to include more honors, for example, if youve won first prize in a regional or national art competition. They want to know if you were raised by a single parent, whether you grew up in a divorced home, whether one of your parents has passed away. 2018 conference champions; led weekly trainings for the JV goalkeepers; organized team bonding events. Also see:Coalition vs Common App: Whats the difference? By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Students are incredibly proud to be horned frogs and hold lots of school pride. The additional information of the Common Application section asks the question: Do you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application? It is clear that as a student in NYC, she has taken advantage of the extensive resources at her disposaluniversities, museums, nonprofits, and even her own apartment complexin order to contribute to her community and explore her passions from multiple angles. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 10, 11, 12School8 hr/wk, 25 wk/yrContinue. The important step is to make sure you do not select Undecided. Think about what you are passionate about, what courses you are excited to study, what activities you enjoy. 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. The Common App uses a drop-down menu to help students divide their activities into preset categories. You do not have to be fluent in a language to add it to your. Think strategically about how you can differentiate yourself. 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. The question thus sets a context for your entire application process. But how do you increase school spirit? Instead, they could say something like: entertained children in the waiting room by sharing riddles and performing mathemagics; fully digitized the patient filing system. They want to know that you have researched the school and that you are genuinely interested. , but you probably dont want to choose the same category for every activity. This is the place to indicate whether any community-based organizations such as Questbridge or Upward Bound have helped you with your application. For each award, youll want to indicate the name of the honor, its meaning and purpose, and the years you received it. What prompted your thinking? Hover over each hot spot to learn more about each field. Each piece of content on the site is original, based on extensive research, and reviewed by multiple editors, including a subject matter expert. You could relate your experience as a tour guide and representative at your high school to marketing, or your experience working as a sales associate at a clothing store to client relationship skills! If you have more than 5 awards, try to think of ways to combine them. 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. Although students can often overlook or rush the Activities List, taking time to write an accurate, thoughtful, and well-ordered Activities List is essential for strategically framing your application and communicating your personal story. As for the actual writing, pay attention to your narrative structure. The last question for each activity asks you whether or not you plan to continue a similar extracurricular activity in college. 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. Studied intersections of art and environmental activism. You can list up to five honors, and for each one youll be asked to provide a brief description (100 characters or less). Our goal is to help you navigate the very big decisions related to higher ed with objective information and expert advice. 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. 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. 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. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. . 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. School Specific Essays - A lot of schools have specific questions that they want to ask about your interest in their campus and course offerings specifically. is the Profile section. Disciplinary information: disciplinary violation at any educational institution, misdemeanor, felony. They include national awards or other prestigious achievements. Be as specific as you can be in the space available. A lot of schools that accept score choice recommend that you send all scores. Some schools still maintain proprietary applications or use other application systems. Make sure these do not overlap with the answers in your Activities section! Provide the reader with a theme or a takeaway message. Final review of 20 articles published and distributed bi-weekly. An outstanding Activities List should invariably help admissions officers grasp who you are, what is important to you, and how you have spent your time learning and serving others in your community during high school. 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. Be as specific as possible here. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. Colleges are of course free to support other practices outside the Common App, but the Common App works to support practices that have been found to be easy to administer and understand for hundreds of colleges and millions of applicants over the years. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. School spirit activity is one of the best ways to bring students and teachers together in a positive learning environment. Since the list is fairly broad, you will probably find that your activity fits into at least one of the sections available. These questions can help you narrow down which activities to include, since you should only be adding the ones to which you are truly dedicated. These lack the distinction of Tier 1 and 2, but still highlight students interests. 1 of 3 student representatives selected in our class of 200 to interview and select the next head of upper school. Roughly estimate the number of weeks you devoted to an activity. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? Try not to be redundant, especially considering the limited space. Note that the Common Application asks you how many times you took the standardized test of your choice. Zach Skillings is the Scholarships360 Newsletter Editor. They include top leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations, winning regional competitions, or state-level sports/music distinctions. You may not be sure about exactly how candid you should be in your response. They should be aware not only of the theme you hope to achieve, but how they can help elevate it in their letter. Spirit boosts school spirit, event attendance, and makes communication easy. Extracurricular activities encompass a broad range of activities. The Common Application offers a drop-down menu with the following activities from which to select: 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 Junior R.O.T.C. For example, you might spend 20 weeks during the school year attending your robotics club. It also lets you elaborate more on your gender identity if you dont identify as male or female. You could be going up against people from your school and from your area. The Common Application Honors List is separate from the Activities Listit can be found under the Education Section of the Common Application. 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. Our complete and essential guide to the College Application covers each step from junior spring through senior fall to help you optimize your time and earn admission to your dream school! Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. Try listing regional awards like this instead: Try to squeeze in as many details as you can when describing your honors. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographics, and other holistic details. 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. This usually includes holiday breaks, study and finals weeks, and sometimes, the first few weeks of the semester when clubs do not yet meet. Not all of the members of the Common App. You could also use it to address any disciplinary action that might exist on your record. Copyright 2015-2023 Command Group Inc. All rights reserved. Featured Review: Freshman says Notre Dame has a great school spirit and campus life. Roughly estimate the number of hours you devoted to an activity. What Does it Really Cost to Attend Colby College. The prompts for the personal statement are as follows: When brainstorming your Common Application personal statement, remember your Application Persona. Apply to our $10,000 No Essay Scholarship! The school spirit of TCU is unlike any other school. To fill out the Common Application, make sure you have all of the information with you. The writing section requires the following: The personal essay plays a crucial part in showing colleges who you are, and it has a strict word limit of 650 words. 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. Created multimedia portfolio of 5 works under guidance of professional artist First Last. Remember, they are looking for a diverse student body filled with future leaders in their respective fields. Admission officers want to see your academic track record, and what classes you have taken at different levels. Intrinsic to these principles is the promotion of fair, transparent, straightforward, and consistent practices in . This section allows students to enter a maximum of 5 Honors and Awards and 100 characters to describe the honor. This section features many different moving parts; not only must you describe ten of the most significant extracurricular activities that have filled your free time in high school, but it also asks you to estimate your time commitment to these activities and forces you to describe . Sports seasons can be divided into fall (September-November), Winter (November/December-February), and Spring (March-June). 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. You can find out more about them here. 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. How do you complete it. The drop-down menu under schedule allows you to select the system your school usesbetween semester, quarterly, and trimester. Be careful of any spelling errors or any courses you might have missed. -. When choosing your topic, it is very important to remember that the admissions officer will be reading thousands of applications. If you are having trouble estimating your time commitment, try keeping a time log for a couple weeks and provide an average. The purpose of the robot reflects the applicants Application Persona as a student who is interested in engineering and passionate about social justice. Contact information for your recommenders and guidance counselor, Your schools College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) code, Remember, each section is very important, not only individually, but how they work together to paint a more holistic picture of you as an applicant. This means that art awards, publications, and athletic awards are all fair game. Think about all of these logistics carefully, and you will set yourself up for success as you fill out the, The first piece that you have to fill out on the. Tags :applying to college,common application,Personal Statement,common app guide,how to fill the common app. All of these efforts show admissions officers that you took an extra step to explore a topic of your interest further than obligated at your school. 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 club should just serve to complement the hook you have been working to develop throughout your high school career. While using the Common App is free, submitting to the schools you want costs money, and can range from $30 to $75 per application. Choose the ten activities you plan to include: Determine the order in which you plan to list your activities: Fill Out the Common Application Activities List Fields: Position/Leadership Description (Max characters: 50), Activity Description (Max characters: 150). Activities that you can include on this list are: sports, community service, employment, religious activities (such as teaching Sunday school), internships (paid or unpaid), arts, hobbies (for example, biking or stacking competitions), school clubs, academic competitions, and basically anything else that you spend time doing outside of school. , admissions officers want to know whether you have taken classes at any college. This is a simple opportunity to show more about your interests and/or cultural background. Within the Common App is your main essay, a primary writing sample that all your prospective schools will read to evaluate your critical thinking skills and value as a student. For example, youll want to write down 12th as opposed to 2020-2021, if thats the year you were in the 12th grade. Convinced school admin to implement meatless Mondays. The Profile section helps the admission officers get an overview of your background. Whereas the Common App Essay will show college admissions committees who your child is, the Common App Activities section will allow colleges to understand what your child has done and is doing outside of the classroom, offering one of the best opportunities to stand out among other applicants. Colleges wont see the brevity of your involvement as a negative factor; they understand that some activities simply have an imposed beginning and ending that are not within your control. List your activities in order of importance. 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. Below, youll find an Example Common Application Activities List! Instead of superscoring across test dates, some schools will just look at your highest score from a single sitting. The section asks for the following information: For Activity type, the Common App provides you with a list to choose from. Remember that this section is not there for you to prove your eloquence as a writer; you have the essay to do that. 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. 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. 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. 2023 Scholarships360, Inc. All rights reserved. Steverino is right that those activities often involve sports. Moreover, make sure your recommender is someone who takes the time to sit down with you, has time to dedicate to a careful letter, and is enthusiastic and excited about your application.
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