The Common App activities section gives a student ten entries, each with a title, a role, an organization and a 150-character description. Readers spend perhaps a minute on it. That minute is worth preparing for, and summer is the time.
Order by importance, not chronology
The first three entries are the ones that get read with attention. Lead with whatever the student has done longest, deepest, or with the most responsibility. The job comes before the one-season club. The four-year commitment comes before the one-year officer title.
Write what happened, not what it was
The title field already says “Varsity Soccer” or “Robotics Club.” The description should say what the student did and what changed because of it. Compare:
Member of the robotics team. Participated in competitions and meetings.
Lead programmer, 2 yrs. Wrote the autonomous routine that took us from 14th to 3rd at regionals; taught 6 new members Java.
Same activity, same number of characters. The second one has verbs, numbers and a result.
Numbers earn their space
Hours per week and weeks per year go in their own fields; be honest about them, because readers add them up and notice when a student claims 60 hours a week across activities. In the description, specific counts — students tutored, dollars raised, shows performed, shifts worked — turn a claim into a fact.
The two entries that waste a slot
The one-off. A single weekend of service, a one-day conference. If it was meaningful, it belongs in an essay; as a list entry it looks like padding.
The duplicate. “National Honor Society — member” when the student also lists the tutoring they did through NHS. Combine them or pick the stronger one.
Fewer than ten entries is fine. Eight real ones beat ten with two fillers.
Work and family responsibilities count
A part-time job is an activity. So is caring for a younger sibling after school, or helping run a family business. Readers value these, often more than clubs, because they can’t be manufactured. Students from families where everyone pitches in tend to under-report this; encourage them not to.
Don’t editorialize
“This experience taught me the value of teamwork” is 55 characters a reader has seen fifty thousand times. Cut it. The activities list is for what happened. The essays are for what it meant.
An afternoon in July
Draft all ten entries in a document, not in the Common App. Read them aloud. Cut every adjective that isn’t a number. Then paste them in. It’s one of the few parts of the application that can go from mediocre to strong in a single sitting.
By Jeff Thompson, Phortex Campus · June 9, 2026 · ← All posts