The Secret to Your College Application ACTIVITIES LIST
Many college-bound students struggle with what or how much to put on their college application activity list. Often, many students will add a number of extra activities in order to make it look like they’ve done a lot more initiatives in high school, but this resume padding can actually hurt more than it helps.
When evaluating applicants’ activity lists, colleges are looking for students with defined interests that have participated in a handful of activities that relate to those interests or passions. It’s not uncommon for students to think they need to look more “impressive” to admissions officers by listing a large number of extracurricular activities on their applications or resumes. However, students should be mindful when completing their activity list, and know when to omit certain activities or experiences. Here are some activities that students should consider leaving off their college application activity lists.
Middle School Activities
You’d be surprised how often students include activities from middle school in their college applications. Colleges want to see sustained involvement in activities during all four years of high school – just high school. If you were in the middle school band, honor society, or science club, leave it off your activity list. However, if you continued to pursue those same activities in high school, only mention the responsibilities you had or impact you made when participating during high school. If a college asks you to write about your favorite activity as part of their supplement, and it’s something you also participated in while in middle school, you might be able to incorporate a mention of your middle school experience (i.e. When I started playing the flute in 7th grade…), but don’t dwell on experiences from five or six years ago. Instead, focus on the impact you made while in high school.
One-Off Projects
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