Common App provides 10 slots for extracurricular activities. While it is not necessary to fill all 10, competitive applicants typically list 8-10. If you have more than 10, prioritize your most significant experiences and consider including others in the Additional Information section.
Space is limited—each activity description is restricted to 150 characters, and the organization name to 100. Clear and concise writing is essential. Later in this chapter, we will review examples to help you structure your responses effectively.
Below is an example of how the activity entry appears in the Common App.
A great extracurricular activity description needs to:
Every student is responsible for calculating their own hours spent on each activity. While it doesn't have to be precise to the minute, it needs to be accurate and realistic to reflect true involvement. This is a sample calculation.
🕐 Hours spent per week |
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+ Team practices: 3 times a week for 1.5 hours |
+ Games: once in 2 weeks for 3 hours |
(3 x 1.5) + (0.5 x 3) = 6 HOURS/WEEK |
📆 Weeks spent per year |
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+ Fall season: 12 weeks, 1 week break |
+ Spring season: 10 weeks, 1 week break |
(12 - 1) + (10 - 1) = 20 WEEKS/YEAR |
🗣️ veronica says...
Please do not inflate your hours! I've seen applications where, when I added up the hours for all activities, the person claimed to spend 10 hours every single day on activities. It's unreasonable, considering you need to go to school, sleep, eat, do homework, and work on college apps.
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