There are hundreds of thousands of fancy sounding high school leadership positions in any given year; slapping those titles onto a college application isn’t going to move the needle much unless you actually achieved something in your activities.
Making the most of the honors and activities sections
Like with GPA, we usually put academic honors and extracurricular activities in the list of things that are largely set in stone* by the fall of your senior year. But you still need to actually tell colleges about everything you’ve done over the past four years, and what exactly you put in those little boxes on the Common Application is more important than you might think. It might seem obvious, but admissions officers can only work with what you give them. Let’s talk about how to use the Common App to give them the most compelling picture possible.
*This isn’t entirely true since you can reach out to schools and inform them of new accomplishments you would like added to your admissions file.
About these sections
Note: different applications (Coalition Application, University of California system, etc.) have slightly different setups. I’m going to focus on the Common Application in this article, although most of my advice is transferable to other platforms as well. Also, I can only promise that the specific details below are accurate as of the 2020-21 cycle.
Honors
- Five available slots
- 100 characters for title/description of honor
- Boxes to check for grade level(s) and type of recognition (school, state/regional, national or international)
- Typically factored into an applicant’s academic rating (See: “The ratings system and what goes on behind closed doors“)
Activities
- 10 available slots
- 50 characters for position/leadership description
- 100 characters for organization name
- 150 characters for activity description and accomplishments
- Boxes to check for grade level(s) and timing of participation (during school year, during school break or all year)
- Question about amount of participation (hours per week and weeks per year)
- Yes/no question if you “intend to participate in a similar activity in college.” (I’ll handle this one now: you might as well choose yes if it’s an activity that still interests you. Nobody in college is going to hold you to what you say here.)
- Typically factored into an applicant’s extracurricular rating (see below)
How colleges evaluate extracurricular activities
If you read this prior section — I strongly recommend that you do — you’ll recall that admissions officers usually score applicants using a ratings system. To give you an example, Harvard’s reading procedures instruct their admissions officers to rate students’ involvement outside of school on the following scale:
Extracurricular, Community Employment, Family Commitments
1. Unusual strength in one or more areas. Possible national-level achievement or professional experience. A potential major contributor at Harvard. Truly unusual achievement.
2. Strong secondary school contribution in one or more areas such as class president, newspaper editor, concertmaster etc. and/or significant involvement in organizations outside of school. Possible local or regional recognition; major accomplishment(s) that have had an impact outside of the classroom. Can include significant term-time work or family responsibilities coupled with extracurricular engagement.
3. Solid participation but without special distinction. (Upgrade 3+ to 2- in some cases if the e/c is particularly extensive and substantive.)
4. Little or no participation.
5. Substantial commitment outside of conventional EC participation such as family obligations, term-time work or a significant commute (Important: should be included with other e/c to boost the rating or left as a “5” if that is more representative of the student’s commitment).
6. Special circumstances limit or prevent participation (e.g. a physical condition, gap year(s), compulsory service of some kind).
Here is what the distribution of those ratings looks like at Harvard:
1: 0.3% of applicants; 2.0% of admits
2: 23.8% of applicants; 58.2% of admits
3: 72.0% of applicants; 37.5% of admits
4: 3.2% of applicants; 1.8% of admits
5: 0.7% of applicants; 0.5% of admits
1’s are for the kids whose extracurricular accomplishments include curing cancer by the time they were in preschool. A 2 is realistically the best rating us mortals could hope for, but the data shows that this can definitely be enough to get you into a top school. It’s important to note, however, that phrases like “strong secondary school contribution” or “major accomplishment(s) that have had an impact outside of the classroom” are what really drive the description of a 2. There are hundreds of thousands of fancy sounding high school leadership positions in any given year; slapping those titles onto a college application isn’t going to move the needle much unless you actually achieved something in your activities.
For example, one of the recent trends in college admissions is high schoolers founding “non-profit organizations” during their junior year. In a stunning turn of events, these non-profits never accomplish much and mysteriously vanish midway through senior year. People unironically try to slide this past employees of Ivy League universities. You might get in, but it’s not going to happen due to such overtly contrived “achievements.” Like I’ve alluded to in previous sections, the “best” activities are the ones that A) align with your interests, B) foster genuine personal and intellectual growth and C) motivate you to work hard simply because you’re passionate about what you’re doing.
What to include in these sections
The honors section of the Common App is fairly straightforward: list “honors related to your academic achievements beginning with the ninth grade or international equivalent.” I’ve seen a former UChicago and UC Berkeley admissions officer suggest stretching this beyond National Merit, AP Scholar, etc. to include any “honor/award earned by using your brain.”
The activities section gives you even more leeway to get creative. Common App lists 30 types of activities, the last one being a catch-all “other.”
- Academic
- Art
- Athletics: Club
- Athletics: JV/Varsity
- Career Oriented
- Community Service (Volunteer)
- Computer/Technology
- Cultural
- Dance
- Debate/Speech
- Environmental
- Family Responsibilities
- Foreign Exchange
- Foreign Language
- Internship
- Journalism/Publication
- Junior R.O.T.C.
- LGBT
- Music: Instrumental
- Music: Vocal
- Religious
- Research
- Robotics
- School Spirit
- Science/Math
- Social Justice
- Student Govt./Politics
- Theater/Drama
- Work (Paid)
- Other Club/Activity
From part-time jobs and family responsibilities to well-developed hobbies, this list makes it clear that activities don’t have to be school-related to be worthy of a spot on your application. These types of activities can be a good way to shore up this section, especially if extenuating circumstances have limited your ability to get involved outside of school. If this is the case (e.g. you had to quit a sport because a situation at home demanded your time), I would also recommend utilizing the additional information section and asking your counselor to corroborate these details in their recommendation.
How to fill out these sections
The first thing you’ll have to do is order your honors and activities. In a perfect world, this would be irrelevant, but consider how quickly admissions officers have to read given the thousands of applications that schools receive. The closer something is to the top of your list, the more attention it will get. The advice post from the aforementioned UChicago/Berkeley admissions officer says:
“Put your most time-intensive and prestigious activities, and/or activities that most closely align with your intended major, at the top of your activities list. Societies and things you quit can go later in your list. Speaking of things you quit, try not to put an activity that you quit at the top of your application. If you quit something freshman year, you likely shouldn’t include it at all, unless it’s the most prestigious thing on your application, you didn’t do many other extracurricular activities or there are extenuating circumstances (like you used to be varsity captain of the football team until you broke your collarbone).”
When describing your honors and activities, the same post emphasizes that you should “be as descriptive as possible about your responsibilities. If you have recruited new members, how many? If you’ve helped fundraise, how much did you individually and/or collectively fundraise?” Similarly, another college admissions consultant stresses the importance of “quantifiable, evidence-based outcomes of your activities.” This isn’t as important if it’s something like a Nationallike National Merit Semifinalist that schools have seen plenty of times before, but you shouldn’t rely on your admissions officer to do much guesswork for you.
For example, the Pathfinder won a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown award my sophomore and junior years. If you’re not familiar with the high school journalism world, that might not mean much to you. But if I told you roughly 1,200 publications from around the world enter the CSPA competition each year and only about 5-10 win a Gold Crown for High School Digital News, now you’re sitting up more. I think this example from an admissions consultant does a great job of illustrating this point about how the way you describe an activity can make all the difference:
- “Member of string quartet (24 characters)
- Performed at weddings, school functions, and other events (57 characters)
- Volunteer violinist (19 characters)
- Played for nursing home residents (33 characters)
These titles and descriptions don’t really say anything about you. The AO has no idea how committed you were, how impactful you were, for how many people you performed, if you had any additional responsibilities, if you were truly passionate or just ho-hum. Plus, you left SO MANY CHARACTERS just hanging there. Ouch.
Let’s use the same activities and make the most of the space. Instead, it might read:
- 1st violinist – charter member of string quartet (48 characters)
- Played at 30 weddings, 21 school events (incl graduation) & 17 community events. Arranged pop music & alma mater. Booked clients & led logistics. (147 characters)
- Volunteer musician at nursing home & hospital (45 characters)
- Monthly programs at nursing home for ~50 residents. Organized seasonal recitals & learned ‘old favorites.’ Strolling musician @ children’s hospital. (150 characters)
Now, the AO has learned SO much more about you, with the same activities. You are an effective leader, initiating the formation of the quartet and booking clients for a sizable number of gigs. You are also obviously skilled. You are inventive and creative, to arrange popular music to further your business. Additionally, you are very caring and consistent with your community service at nursing homes and hospitals. You are a leader here, too, to organize programming. You are thoughtful and compassionate, seeking out and learning the nursing home residents’ favorite songs. By making the most of the character count, you have effectively showcased core values, impact and passion.”
You should also note how that example doesn’t use complete sentences. @ and & are great ways to cut down on your character count, as are abbreviated versions of words like “incl” for “including.” Simply typing “~50” is a much more efficient way of saying “approximately 50.” Of course, you should still make sure you’re being clear, but shorthand lingo like this is quite common in college admissions offices. The same goes for well-known acronyms like FBLA for Future Business Leaders of America or NSDA for National Speech and Debate Association.
I should also mention that you don’t need to fill all five honors or all 10 activities slots. In fact, grouping “fluff” activities like honors societies and packaging them into one entry can make them look more substantial than they would on their own.
Finally, the Common App asks you to quantify your time commitment for each activity in terms of hours/week and weeks/year. Don’t lie here, but know that it’s fair game to include time spent traveling to out-of-town tournaments, preparing/organizing meetings, etc. I think a lot of people in true leadership positions underestimate the amount of work they do.
I’ll finish off this section with some helpful links, some of which I referenced in this article.
- How to write the Common App, University of California App, and Coalition App activities lists: a guide by Novembrr (former UChicago and UC Berkeley admissions officer)
- Activities and Awards: Making the Most of Your Character Count
- FAQ: What counts as an EC, anyway?
- What you should do if you have no extracurricular activities