4 Important Factors for Selecting Your Top 10 Activities
4 Important Factors for Selecting Your Top 10 Activities
The Common App activities section is somewhat of a strange animal in the world of customizable resumes and CVs. Instead of the freedom to adjust margins and font size as you wish, students are given just 10 slots—and about 150-characters per slot—to describe their academic, research, sports, community service, and club commitments.For those of you who have dedicated your high school career to diverse internships, summer programs, club activities, and independent research projects, figuring out which activities to feature and which to cut may feel impossible.How do you decide between a beloved club and an internship at a law firm downtown? Are the weekly piano lessons even worth mentioning? And how do you rank the top 10?If you wrestle with such questions, read on to learn four important factors to choose your most impressive activities and order them in a way that captures admissions officers’ attention.
1. Group Like Items Together
The Common App prompts students to categorize their top 10 activities according to pre-set options like sports, community service, research, and social justice. But you may find stronger connections outside of these categories, like activities done with the same nonprofit or along the same intellectual interests.Listing like items together can show how you have pursued a particular community issue or academic topic through multiple angles. But ones that are too similar are prime for combining together or omitting the redundant one.
2. Area of Study
Activities related to your anticipated major should be prioritized. If your application states that you plan to study environmental engineering, but your top 10 features only extracurriculars related to political advocacy and debate, admissions may raise an eyebrow, questioning whether you are truly passionate about the environmental science program.How you have spent your time throughout high school should be congruent with the narrative you tell about your intellectual passions. Include at least one to two major activities relevant to your area of study to draw that connection out.
3. Time Commitment
You will be asked the hours you spend per week, weeks you spend per year, and grades of participation for each top 10 activity. These numbers say much about your dedication to an extracurricular and its significance in your life. Readers may conclude that you love teaching if you have tutored elementary students in English throughout all of high school, and they could trust you have in-depth knowledge of neuroscience if you have worked with a cognitive science professor for three consecutive summers.Some students make the mistake of prioritizing three-week summer programs or one-month internships at prestigious colleges and companies. While such activities could make the top 10 if they relate to your area of study or can be grouped with time-heavy activities, it is best not to saturate your list with short-term commitments.
4. Leadership Positions
Highlight activities for which you hold leadership positions. Titles such as president, treasurer, representative, and coordinator show that you not only participate in extracurriculars, but that you play an active role in shaping their programming and initiatives. Of course, the substance of what you do as a leader matters most of all, but a title can go a long way, especially when you have limited character space to describe your duties.Remember, many students across the nation will rise to the rank of vice-president or president of their beloved club. Use the description to show how you put your own stamp on that club with tangible evidence.In the end, ranking your activities is more of an art than a science. The ultimate goal is to tell a cohesive story about what you value and how you’ve spent your time pursuing those values to the fullest extent possible. You want to make it easy for an admissions officer to understand your commitment level and perspective.What do your activities say about you? Do they illustrate a leader who is passionate, directed, and innovative? An adventurous artist who is compassionate and inspiring? Or a curious scientist who loves social experiments?Spend time tweaking the list. Gain a sense of which traits are emphasized and which are muted with each edit. Then continue to tweak some more until you arrive at a list that optimizes the strength of your final application. The expert admissions consultants at Wise World Prep have helped hundreds of students maximize their potential of being admitted to their top choice colleges and universities. Over 20 years, we have successfully guided students through each stage of the application process – from choosing competitive high school courses to building an appropriate college list to drafting winning essays to writing persuasive update and appeals letters. We would be happy to answer your questions and partner with you to create a successful admissions roadmap.Ready to get started? Schedule a complimentary 20-minute conversation today!Want to stay informed? Subscribe to our newsletter.See what others are saying about us