My son is trying to figure out how to write his activities list. People say you should try to fill in all 20 spaces, but it seems better to group activities? For instance, 4 years of varsity baseball, made it to CIF semi finals each year, yada yada… should that all be one activity? Any guidance on this section of that app would be helpful.
Check out this UCSB admissions video on the Activities section:
Thank you!
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I would put varsity baseball into one category, including championships. If he did something significant (ex. was captain), and he needs more space to describe what he did, he can list that as a separate activity. I would not list a team going to CIF as an award or honor. If he played travel ball, that could be a separate activity.
The activities list includes anything he did other than going to school. Over the four years, are there 5 things/year that he did outside of school?
- Volunteering/Community Service
- Work Experience
- Extracurricular activities
- Awards & Honors
- Other course work (courses that are not A-G, MOOC, etc.)
- Educational Prep Programs
He had a lot of the same things each year, 4 years varsity baseball, volunteering with the same charities year after year, honor societies, research assistant job for multiple years…. But, I don’t see him filling 20 spaces. He hasn’t flitted about, he’s stuck with things that were meaningful to him. He might have tried other clubs and such, but most went away with COVID. I’m hoping he’ll have college board national recognition program Hispanic scholar.
What did he do over summers? Start the list with the larger, more significant activities then go through your calendar and look for other things he did. You might be surprised.
He’s been a research assistant to a professor multiple years, he volunteers at a food pantry, does tutoring, etc… in the summers.
If I may, I’d like to get opinions on a similar question for my DD (don’t mean to hijack thread but last reply was 4 Aug). I understand order should be based on significance and assuming the order matters for what/how they get read by the AOs.
Can I please get an opinion on rank ordering below activities?
- Community Annual Award for Volunteering
- Editor-in-Chief Yearbook - on staff 3 years, made EIC for senior year
- Supermarket Grocery Bagger - 2 Years, 5 hrs/wk, 45 weeks
Thanks in advance!
I do not work in admissions but, in my eyes, I think Editor-in-Chief is the most significant followed by the job and then the award for volunteering. How does your daughter feel they should be ranked?
Thanks! Confirmed my DD’s ranking, as well as opinions from other family members. Thanks again!
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When filling out the activities list, is a college math course considered as “other coursework?”
The description mentions that “other coursework” is for courses that do not fit into UC A-G subject areas. Does that include college courses, even if my high school courses already meet the A-G requirements? Thanks!
College courses are reported in the College section even if you are not sure they are UC transferable, list the course there. What Math course? Did you check assist.org for transferability?
For 1 or 2 unit course unmark College coursework during HS and list them in the non A-G course work section and make a note that it is College course in the Academic Additional Information section.
Yes, list all college coursework in the college section. UC will decide if it’s transferable. UC is generally very generous in accepting dual credit if it’s from a California community college or not. List it all under the college section.
Ok thank you! It is a community college course, so it is transferable.
The UC app guides say the order doesn’t matter. Their software does its own sorting of whatever you enter.
My kid has maybe 8-10 because their activities were sustained all 4 years and very time intensive. My kid was much more depth over breath.
I don’t think it’s necessary to keep grasping at straws to fill it all just to get to 20. Going to an art club meeting a couple times freshman year really isn’t going to impress anyone anyways.
JUST A REMINDER, please make sure to submit those applications sooner rather than later. Your schools will have lines of students at the HS guidance offices on Monday. They can’t read those thousands of emails in one day. Please make sure everything has been cleared by your counselor. They are overworked at this time of year.
The UC website gets crushed by the hundreds of thousands of applications if you wait until November 30th.
I know that the UC “powers that be” try to anticipate volume for their servers, and they do have additional IT and CS staff, but it does crash. I don’t know if @Gumbymom has heard anything different from prior years, but please don’t wait until November 30th.
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I have not heard anything regarding the website crashing, but I would not chance it and submit well before the November 30th deadline. Even on the UC decisions days, the websites have been glitchy.
Would being a candidate for CSF Seal Bearer be considered an award/honor? It is very likely I will be, but since my senior year isn’t completed yet, I haven’t received the award yet
Instead of looking for something that will impress someone, look at how he spent his time over the past four years. Make sure his application portrays a complete story of who he is.
Do what you have to do, but my bet is that competitive students will list more than 8-10.