<p>One of the things we were told to look for during . The Common App COVID-19 question speaks for itself. 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. Of course, this isnt necessary for well-known awards like National Merit that are self-explanatory. Colleges want to know this kind of information so that they can understand the factors affecting your performance and opportunities this past semester. 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. Try not to be redundant, especially considering the limited space. Privacy Policy. Colleges want to know this kind of information so that they can understand the factors affecting your performance and opportunities this past semester. The honors section of the Common App is one of the few times in life when its perfectly acceptable to brag about yourself. Sports seasons can be divided into fall (September-November), Winter (November/December-February), and Spring (March-June). Your rank helps the admissions officers understand the value of your GPA, and how you would fare in the academic climate of their institution. Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Instead, they could say something like: entertained children in the waiting room by sharing riddles and performing mathemagics; fully digitized the patient filing system. However, If you experienced bigger problems as a result of the pandemic, provide context for your circumstances, whether its unemployment or lack of learning resources at home. Not all of the members of the Common App require your courses and grades. 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. A Users Guide to the Common App for Transfer Students, 10 Maine Scholarships to Save You Thousands on College, How to Master the Honors Section of the Common App, Back to School: College Prep Tips Youll Need Starting This Year, How to Respond to the Looking Forward to Stanford Prompt. Then, there are colleges that do not require standardized test scores. Increased readership by 20. Individually nominated for AVCA All-American Awards and won Average HSs Spirit Award. Activities like working a part-time job, or caring for a family member also count. When you estimate the amount of time you spent on a particular activity, it doesnt need to be exact. introduced a question for students to outline any changes in circumstances due to COVID-19. Zach graduated from Elon University with a degree in Cinema and Television Arts. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Do not write about middle school achievements, about others achievements, or try to accomplish too much. School Spirit. . Each year, more than one million students a third of . If you have more than 5 awards, try to think of ways to combine them. How Spirit can keep your community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic . The Common App uses a drop-down menu to help students divide their activities into preset categories. A Letter Continued interest is a way to remind the school that you still exist, you take initiative, and above all, youre someone they will want to accept in the next round of admissions or take off the waitlist. As a result, this section only becomes available if you select one of the schools on the list. You can list up to five honors, and for each one youll be asked to provide a brief description (100 characters or less). You can then start adding your school list, and going through the sections to understand the requirements for each. When it comes to filling out this section, the last thing you want to be is humble! This section is also for admissions officers to find out if your parents went to college, what your parents do, and their current position. A lot of schools that accept score choice recommend that you send all scores. Publication in research papers, journals, newspapers, Any state, national or international award that you have won in high school. They include minor leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations and smaller athletic/musical distinctions. Instead of filling out the same general informationlike your address, GPA, and extracurriculars a dozen times, you only have to do it once. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographics, and other holistic details. As usual, be careful when transcribing information onto the Common App. The prompt states: Do you wish to share anything on this topic? The US Armed forces status allows you to list whether you are currently in the armed forces, have been previously enrolled, or are the dependent of someone serving in the armed forces. Build community with over 1,000 cactus-lovers in NYC. If that is the case, refer to your practice or game schedule or estimate based on the semester schedule. 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. Accordingly, you should only list that activity if you actually participate in that specific organization. To recap, lets go over the basic dos and donts for the Common App honors section: This easy scholarship is open to all US-based high school, college, and graduate students! While using the Common App is free, submitting to the schools you want costs money, and can range from $30 to $75 per application. Below, weve included an example activities list, paired with an explanation of how it demonstrates a hook! where you are able to choose which SAT and ACT scores to report. It can seem like the Activities section of the Common App gives rise to the most questions, and for good reason. Colleges want to know what courses youve selected and how they might have affected your grades as well. Remember, they are looking for a diverse student body filled with future leaders in their respective fields. Her hook is conveyed through an impressive mix of in-school extracurriculars, out-of-school activities, summer activities, and hobbies. Be honest in your answer, and if youve done well despite the circumstances, admissions officers will certainly make note of it. Zach Skillings is the Scholarships360 Newsletter Editor. 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. Select the grade level in which you won the award. Below, youll find an Example Common Application Activities List! 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. If you spend a lot of time with your family, perhaps you take care of an ailing member, that absolutely counts as well and shows a great deal of responsibility. You can find a complete list of our partners here. As you can tell, it is pretty straightforward and gives you a bigger picture of where youre from and where you grew up. to find out how we can help you get accepted. 9, 10, 11, 12Year1 hr/wk, 26 wk/yrContinue. 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. The application asks for your proficiency so you can denote whether you can only read and write or speak the language. For more information, please see our This will allow you to demonstrate your values to the admission officers who review your application. How can the Activities List be used to demonstrate a hook? Admissions officers always look to see whether a students selections for their intended majors align with their hook and Activities List, and in this case, this Activities List would best complement an intended double-major in Environmental Science and Studio Art. It will not make or break your application. For example, if you completed a summer course the summer between freshman and sophomore years of high school, you would select 9th. Chapter of club at high school; participated in toy and food drives, raised $1000 for refugees, made 200 cards and blankets for children in hospitals. Hosted planting workshops at 8 schools. 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. Today, Common App is a non-profit membership organization representing more than 1,000 diverse institutions of higher education. All of the colleges you apply to within this platform will see the same information that youve filled out in the Family section or Activities section of the Common App. 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. 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. Team placed 1st in division and advanced to state semifinals. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. In reality, any academic accomplishment no matter how big or small can be included in the honors section. In the description itself, use strong verbs and be as specific as possible. Sometimes students make the mistake of listing accomplishments without actually describing what they are. Promoting access, equity, and integrity, in the college admissions process for all students. You do not want to list a C instead of an A! They include general club/sports/musical membership and general volunteering. You should strategically choose the ten activities you want to include in a way that highlights your hook! New Feature. Filling out the Common App can be a very involved process. The Profile section asks for: If you qualify for the fee waiver, dont hesitate to check the box. can be daunting. You could be going up against people from your school and from your area. Always be as specific as possible in these essays. 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. Filling out the Demographics section is optional. You should also be specific in defining the organization. Your siblings attending the same college also counts as legacy. Many schools allow you to submit a resume in addition to your application. Common App will not support questions that are prohibited by federal or state law (e.g., marital status, disability) unless the member can provide a legal exemption to do so. Avoid redundancy. 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. You do not want to list a C instead of an A! Youll have a chance to include five formal awards you received in the honors section of the Common App, but the activity descriptions are the perfect place to include achievements for which you did not receive awards. Selective colleges use grades and test scores to filter out applicants, but once you get past that initial stage, extracurriculars make up about 30% of your admissions decision. How does your personality tie into your Application Persona. 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. </p>. You also have to order your scores to be sent from the Collegeboard or the ACT websites to each individual school. 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. The Common App allows you to apply to multiple schools at once. 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. section is straight-forward. If you participated during the school year and during school breaks, check off both During school year and During school break. If you participated in the activity during the school year, during the school breaks, and during the summer, check off All year.. If you hold a dual or non-US citizenship, you are asked to list your citizenships. Here are two examples of what an activity can look like once you have filled out each of the 9 fields! The term academic can be interpreted pretty loosely: arts awards, publications, and even character/sportsmanship awards for athletics are fair game. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the. as early as possible. The Honors section allows you to show a snapshot of how you excelled on a local, national, or international level. These courses are also a good way to balance out your grades if you are not happy with them. Admissions officers see thousands of applications every season, and they can easily identify resume fillers. While many of these extracurricular activities are fairly general, such as Academic and School Spirit, a few of them refer to specific positions or organizations. You will be able to expand in the description if needed. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Run dog-walking service with my siblings for neighbors in apartment complex. Keep the following tips in mind: Check out the following examples and take note of how the second iteration communicates the same information with less characters: Being concise with your wording doesnt mean that you should leave out information that is necessary to describe your award. What was the outcome? You should order your activities in order of personal importance to you! For example, youll want to write down 12th as opposed to 2020-2021, if thats the year you were in the 12th grade. 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? has options for your permanent home address, as well as an alternate address if you have multiple addresses. Most importantly, it makes your students feel like they are part of a community that is bigger than themselves. Just make sure to practice good judgement when it comes to the Additional Information section. His work has been published in Our State Magazine, Ladygunn Magazine, The Nocturnal Times, and The Lexington Dispatch. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. School spirit is key to creating a positive school culture. If you need to add more activities, use the additional information section or your essays. Therefore, it will be necessary to abbreviate when possible and include only the most illuminating information. To start, you have to go to the Common Application website, and first create an account. awards or achievements that you have earned starting from the ninth grade. In 100 characters or less, you will need to describe the honors you received. Instead, they could say something like: entertained children in the waiting room by sharing riddles and performing mathemagics; fully digitized the patient filing system. To make the most out of your honors section, keep the following strategies in mind: Make sure to lead with your most impressive achievements. But if it is something you dont really care about, you may want to reevaluate whether or not it is a good idea to include it in your application. Its accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. . In addition to its positive impact on morale and performance, school spirit is generally fun. Spearheaded creating a digital paper. Be as specific as possible here. This usually includes holiday breaks, study and finals weeks, and sometimes, the first few weeks of the semester when clubs do not yet meet. Why does it captivate you? You might have fallen ill yourselfor had to take on added responsibilities in your family because your parents were sick. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. Having a well-written personal statement can be tough, especially when you are a high school student used to writing five-paragraph-essays. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 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. 1 of 3 student representatives selected in our class of 200 to interview and select the next head of upper school. Pick people who know you best, understand your background and interests, and can provide perspective on you as a student and a person. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 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. 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. If you completed an internship the summer between sophomore and junior years of high school, you would check off 10th, and so on and so forth. College admissions officers dont have the time to read large blocks of text, and its generally better to try and write less in areas where they are not asking for an essay. A lot of schools have specific questions that they want to ask about your interest in their campus and course offerings specifically. In the Colleges and Universities section of the. However, If you experienced bigger problems as a result of the pandemic, provide context for your circumstances, whether its unemployment or lack of learning resources at home. 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. Taking honors courses is a great way to demonstrate your academic potential to colleges, but you should not include these courses in your Common App honors section. for details, accomplishments, honors won, and accomplishments within each activity, so you will need to be concise and offer only the most pertinent details. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. The better your recommender understands what you are aiming for in your application, the stronger their letter will be. Follow the same guidelines as suggested for the activities list for awards you received during the summer, selecting the year that preceded the summer! One reason could be that you wanted to take advanced courses not offered at your high school. If you claim to spend ten hours per week on all ten activities, colleges will know youre exaggerating, to say the least. 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. For example, you may spend 14 hours of your week attending tennis practice and taking tennis lessons, and two hours hosting a tennis clinic for elementary school students through the organization you founded. Being on a pep squad, being the organizer of rallies/spirit weeks, being homecoming committee chair, etc. 10, 11, 12School8 hr/wk, 25 wk/yrContinue. 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. Through the following questions, admissions officers get a substantial idea of who you are and where you are from. You should always be very careful when filling out this section. Well give you more tips and tricks about crafting your activities list below, but lets start by discussing. 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. This section allows you to put in a nickname if applicable, your name in another language if you have one, and if youve used any other names previously. This shows us that theyre almost as important as academics! #17 Best Colleges that Accept the Common App in America.University of Notre Dame. Disciplinary information: disciplinary violation at any educational institution, misdemeanor, felony. Therefore, do not write anything thats specific to any one of the schools. The Profile section asks for: Make sure to fill out this section very carefully, as its easy to mix up information such as your first name and last name. Common App Activities List vs. UC Activities List. Selective colleges use grades and test scores to filter out applicants, but once you get past that initial stage, extracurriculars make up about 30% of your admissions decision. Here are your choices: Academic Art Junior R.O.T.C., for example, refers to Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, a Federal Program sponsored by the U.S. Armed Forces. Our marketing partners dont review, approve or endorse our editorial content. This is your chance to list all the great things youve accomplished during your high school years. While the honors section certainly wont make or break your application, it can really help you stand out if properly utilized. Be sure to list your Honors and Awards in descending order of recognition, listing your international awards first, followed by national, state/regional and school. This means that art awards, publications, and athletic awards are all fair game. Show them how youve grown stronger or how your topic has changed your perspective. In fact, its meant to serve the opposite. Use active verbs and limit the use of adjectives and adverbs. Each admissions officer is assigned a particular geographical region, either according to each US state, or according to country. Students, teachers, and community members download the Spirit app and are instantly connected to your extra-curricular world. It was started by 15 colleges who decided to "pool" their applications into one easily navigated application site. You could also be really interested in a subject and use the opportunity to learn more about the subject. The Common Application offers a drop-down menu with the following activities from which to select: For each activity you include on your application, choose the appropriate category. There may be some activities that are naturally limited to a set time period or commitment, such as a summer academic program or sports camp. It is helpful to be aware that consistency across every part of the application, from coursework and letters of recommendation to the Activities List, intended majors, and essays, is necessary for building a cohesive narrative. They include top leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations, winning regional competitions, or state-level sports/music distinctions. Try to focus on quantitative descriptions over qualitative ones. For each award, youll want to indicate the name of the honor, its meaning and purpose, and the years you received it. Be sure to specify whether or not your position changed over time by notating the grade levels next to the position name in parenthesis, like so: Member (9th, 10th), Vice President (11th, 12th), Gallery Assistant (9th, 10th), Curatorial Intern (11th), It is possible that your organizations name takes up all of the allotted characters, but if it doesnt, take advantage of the extra space to include relevant information. Think about topics to avoid. Admission officers want to see your academic track record, and what classes you have taken at different levels. you left your previous school in the 250-word limit given. Designed rooftop herb garden installation for restaurant. The Honors section is for you to put in any academic. 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! For example, if you go to boarding school, you can check the send mail to temporary or alternate address box. A very important factor to remember is that these upcoming sections apply for all of the schools on the Common Application! 2023 Scholarships360, Inc. All rights reserved. Having two to three meaningful extracurricular involvements is always better than ten activities that have no meaning to you at all. Students are incredibly proud to be horned frogs and hold lots of school pride. Some colleges have a superscore policy, which allows you to pick each of your top sub scores and combine into one superscore if you have taken a standardized test multiple times. 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. Intrinsic to these principles is the promotion of fair, transparent, straightforward, and consistent practices in . An exciting sports season is something every student can embrace, even if they are not football fans, or basketball fans, etc. The question thus sets a context for your entire application process. Greet and direct visitors at information desk and coat check. You do this through the drop down list of 30 classifications for your activities. Copyright 2015-2023 Command Group Inc. All rights reserved. You dont need to use complete sentences.

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